4. How not to Get Lost in the Transactions Jungle
by Ashok Ramachandran
Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting
- Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting
- Copyright
- Credits
- About the Author
- About the Reviewers
- www.PacktPub.com
- Preface
- 1. Getting Started with GnuCash
- Installing GnuCash on Windows
- Time for action - installing GnuCash on Windows
- But first, a tip to make your life easier with auto-save
- Taking the drudgery out of setting up accounts
- Time for action - creating the default business accounts
- Getting your business accounts done just right
- Time for action - fine tuning business accounts
- How to impress your accountant
- Strengths and limitations of GnuCash
- Summary
- 2. Transactions the Lifeblood of a Business
- A quick and easy way to enter simple transactions
- Time for action - entering simple transactions quickly and easily
- Entering a simple transaction in the account register
- Time for action - entering a simple transaction in the account register
- Entering a more complex transaction in the account register
- Time for action - entering a split transaction in the account register
- Anybody can change their mind
- Time for action - editing, cancelling, and deleting transactions
- A feeling of déjà vu
- Time for action - reusing transactions
- Summary
- 3. Fun and Eye-opening Part - Reports and Charts
- Viewing standard reports and charts
- Time for action - viewing standard reports and charts
- Creating a custom report and saving it
- Time for action - creating a custom report and saving it
- Working with stylesheets
- Time for action - working with stylesheets
- Exporting reports
- Time for action - exporting reports
- Summary
- 4. How not to Get Lost in the Transactions Jungle
- How not to get lost while hiking in the wilderness
- Manual reconciliation
- Time for action - reconciling with a printed monthly statement
- Electronic reconciliation
- Time for action - reconciling with a downloaded electronic statement
- Credit card reconciliation
- Vital point to remember when importing an OFX file
- Recovering from wrong selection of account
- Time for action - changing the account to import into
- Summary
- 5. Repetitive Work? Let GnuCash do it
- Let GnuCash worry about recurring transactions
- Time for action - creating a recurring transaction from the register
- A stitch in time saves nine
- Time for action - triggering scheduled transactions
- Tool to create many recurring transactions
- Time for action - creating scheduled transactions in bulk
- Summary
- 6. Business Mantra: Buy Now, Pay Later
- Credit is the lubricant for the wheels of business
- Billing terms and customers
- Time for action - setting up billing terms and adding customers
- Invoices and Accounts Receivable
- Time for action - keeping track of credit sales
- Setting the starting invoice number
- Time for action - setting the starting invoice number
- Processing payment
- Time for action - when the check is on hand
- Bills and accounts payable
- Time for action - keeping track of credit purchases
- Summary
- 7. Budget: Trip Planner for your Business
- Budget
- Time for action - creating a budget for your business
- Employees and payroll
- Time for action - making payroll entries in GnuCash
- Depreciation
- Time for action - making depreciation entries for assets
- Owner's drawing
- Time for action - entering owner's draw in your books
- Summary
- 8. Making Tax Times Less Stressful
- GnuCash currently supports only US business types for income tax
- Setting up income tax related accounts
- Time for action - mapping GnuCash accounts to tax schedules
- Creating income tax schedule report and TXF export
- Time for action - getting the numbers for tax returns
- Setting up sales tax tables
- Time for action - setting up sales tax tables
- Applying sales tax to invoices
- Time for action - charging sales tax on sales
- Summary
- 9. Printing Checks and Finding Transactions
- 10. Adapting GnuCash for Non-profits and Personalizing
- No separate non-profit version of GnuCash
- Bookkeeping for non-profits
- Time for action - using GnuCash features for non-profits
- Keeping funds for projects separately
- Time for action - allocating funds for projects
- Getting overall Income Statement
- Time for action - getting overall Income Statement
- Personalizing GnuCash
- Time for action - getting your work environment just right
- Protecting your data
- Time for action - backing up your data
- Summary
- 11. Data Import/Export: Use your Phone to enter Expenses
- Saving expense data in your smartphone and uploading to your PC
- Time for action - using a smartphone to save expense data
- Sending data through an expense tracking service
- Time for action - using an expense tracking service to get data into GnuCash
- Migrating to GnuCash from other accounting software
- Time for action - migrating to GnuCash from other software
- Exporting data from GnuCash
- Time for action - exporting data from GnuCash for migration and other purposes
- Summary
- 12. Application Integration and Other Advanced Topics
- These tutorials assume a certain level of proficiency
- Using OpenOffice.org Base to query data
- Time for action - using popular office software to query GnuCash data
- Using MS Excel to create reports and charts
- Time for action - connecting from Excel to create reports and charts
- Application integration
- Time for action - exporting contact information from GnuCash
- Foreign currency transactions
- Time for action - invoicing and receiving payment in Canadian dollars
- Other handy tips and tricks
- Time for action - grouping invoices for each contract separately
- Summary
- A. Pop quiz - Answers
- Chapter 1: Getting Started with GnuCash
- Chapter 2: Transactions the Lifeblood of a Business
- Chapter 3: Fun and eye-opening part - Reports and charts
- Chapter 4: How not to get lost in the transactions jungle
- Chapter 5: Repetitive work? Let GnuCash do it
- Chapter 6: Business Mantra: Buy Now, Pay Later
- Chapter 7: Budget: Trip Planner for your Business
- Pop quiz - calculating payroll
- Chapter 8: Making Tax Times Less Stressful
- Chapter 9: Printing Checks and Finding Transactions
- Chapter 10: Adapting GnuCash for Non-profits and Personalizing
- Chapter 11: Data Import/Export: Use your Phone to Enter Expenses
- Chapter 12: Application Integration and Other Advanced Topics
"Bank account reconciliation need not be a chore. With a little preparation, some forethought, and a meticulous mind set, balancing a check book can be quick and easy. The result? Financial peace of mind." from a web article about how to start a home-based business.
Let us first look at what experienced outdoors people do to avoid getting lost while hiking in the wilderness. From this let us see what tips we can glean that can help us avoid getting lost in the transactions jungle.
If you are a hiker, you may have encountered a situation like the following: You're hiking north to south. Your map shows a campsite further down south and to the west of your destination. According to the map, two trails will be turning off to the west. You want to take the second of these two trails.
On the other hand, some trails shown on a map have been known to vanish without a trace. In order to protect against such a contingency, you can use your compass to draw a line from a landmark in the map towards the trail and see where it intersects the trail. Charting your location on a map using known landmarks that appear on the map is a proven way to avoid getting lost when hiking in the wilderness. In the same way, reconciling your accounts with that of your bank and your credit card company is the proven way to validate your bookkeeping. If you are on a long hike, it is prudent to check your position often, so that you can make corrections before you stray too far off from your intended path and end up getting lost.
In this chapter we shall cover:
- Manual bank reconciliation using a printed monthly statement
- Why you should avoid editing or deleting a reconciled transaction
- Electronic bank reconciliation using a downloaded statement
- Credit Card reconciliation
- Why you should exercise care in selecting the account while importing transactions for the first time.
- How to recover if you pointed at the wrong account.
So let's get on with it....
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