Accounting

Accounting is the part of the money nobody else here was keeping: a chart of accounts, double-entry journals, your bank and card accounts reconciled, bills to pay, what customers owe you, equipment written down over its life, budgets, months you can close behind you, and the statements your accountant asks for. Every invoice, expense, commission, pay run and counter sale you already record becomes an entry in the books by itself, so nothing is typed twice and there is no export at month end. Every entry balances or it is refused, a posted entry is never changed — a correction is its own dated entry — and a closed month stays closed unless somebody reopens it and says why. It does not file your tax return, work out tax depreciation or give you tax advice: it produces the books and the month-end bundle your accountant works from, and gives them a login instead of a folder of spreadsheets.

What you get

• A chart of accounts with your own numbering, your own names, and one level of grouping
• Double-entry journals with their own numbering, one per kind of entry
• Every entry balances or it is refused — by the database, not by the form
• A posted entry is never changed and never deleted: a correction is its own dated entry, and both stay visible
• A trial balance as of any date, and a check that proves the books tie rather than claiming it
• Months you can finish, close, and reopen with a reason that stays on the record for good
• A financial year that starts in whichever month yours does, and a year-end entry that closes it
• Bank and card statements imported from the file your bank already gives you, at no extra cost
• Statement lines matched to the books, split across accounts, or marked as a transfer between your own accounts
• Reconciliations you can finish, print, and reopen only with a reason
• Bills with approval thresholds, a payment file your bank accepts, and a check register
• What customers owe you by age, with statements, credits and write-offs
• Equipment written down over its life, month by month, with the entry posted for you
• Budgets by account and month, against what actually happened
• A month-end bundle in one file for your accountant, and a login for them that shows the books and nothing else
• Sales tax you have collected by area, and a worksheet in the order the form asks for it
• More than one set of books, and more than one currency, when you need them

Who tends to switch this on

• Any business paying twice — once for the books and once for whatever holds the customers and the invoices
• Owners who re-enter the same figures somewhere else at the end of every month
• Anybody whose accountant asks for a folder of spreadsheets four times a year