It's a good idea to also post your contact information on the Home page for people who come to the site to quickly find your phone number or address.
Company Name
Phone number
Fax number
Address
State, ZIP code
E-mail address
eBook_MOA_Microsoft_Office_Accounting_2007_Training_Chapters_1-10.mht
eBook_MOA_Microsoft_Office_Accounting_2007_Training_Chapters_1-10.doc
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 Training
Get ready for a huge opportunity. Discover and learn why Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 is even easier for you and your clients to use.
Training Modules
Download the following training modules to see for yourself why Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 is better. These modules will help small business customers get the most of Office Accounting 2007, so please feel free to share them with colleagues and clients.
We’ve divided the training into a series of 10 modules, so you can choose the module for the area you're most interested in:
Overview of Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Installation
Setting up a new company
Importing data from QuickBooks and Microsoft Money
Basic accounting and company management
Customers and sales flow
Vendors and purchase flow
Items and inventory management
Online sales
Working with your accountant
Please note: We cannot offer CPE credit for reading these modules. We will have CPE accredited courses and a certification exam on Office Accounting 2007 available in January 2007. You can access existing CPE courses and certification here.
Read more about all the new features of Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Announcing the release of Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional 2007
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007 will be available through retail on January 30, 2007.
Get your free copy today by joining the Microsoft Professional Accountants' Network and get ready for huge opportunity.
At Microsoft we're committed to unlocking the potential of small businesses through innovative software. That's why we've worked extensively with accounting professionals like yourself as well as small businesses to ensure that what we deliver meets your needs and those of your clients. We are excited about the launch of Microsoft® Office Accounting 2007, which will put full-featured accounting software into the hands of millions of Microsoft Office users and help you grow your practice as a result.
Office Accounting 2007 will be available in two versions to meet the diverse needs of small businesses:
* Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 - immediately available as a FREE download.
* Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional 2007 - available for purchase through retail or online early next year.
Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007
Office Accounting Express 2007 offers small businesses a FREE, full-featured accounting package. This application is tailored to the millions of home-based, sole proprietor and new businesses that currently use pen and paper or Excel to do their accounting. Office Accounting Express 2007 helps these small business owners get right into an accounting management system with a familiar and consistent user interface that works with and looks like other Microsoft Office programs.
In addition to robust accounting features, Office Accounting Express 2007 offers small businesses the opportunity to sell merchandise on eBay®, send invoices and receive payments electronically through PayPal®, bank online, process payroll, run credit reports, share their books with their accountant remotely and more.
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007
Businesses with more complex accounting needs and those currently using Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 will want to upgrade to Office Accounting Professional 2007. This application offers all the capabilities of Office Accounting Express 2007 plus additional features including inventory, purchase orders, customizable reports, fixed asset manager and multi-currency support.
Special features for Accounting Professionals
Both versions of Office Accounting 2007 offer enhanced features that make managing your clients' books more easily, quickly and accurately than before such as:
* Accountant Navigator-manage multiple clients from a single dashboard
* Accountant Transfer Wizard-edit and transmit client files for seamless transfers and updates
* Payroll Center-run payroll for an unlimited number of clients from a single account
* Journal Entry Worksheet-enter multiple accounts, customers, and vendors in one journal entry form
* Online File Sharing - online sharing of books with your clients using Office Live
Availability
Office Accounting Express 2007 is FREE and downloadable for you from the link at the right and for small businesses at www.ideawins.com.
Office Accounting Professional 2007 will be available through retail in early 2007.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
1: Overview of Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Welcome to Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, the complete accounting solution for Microsoft Office users. Office Accounting 2007 provides a comprehensive set of accounting tools that helps you get organized, save time, and expand your business.
Small Business Challenges
Running a small business today is more challenging than ever. With limited resources, the business owner is often responsible for managing most of the day-to-day tasks of running the business, including handling the finances. Most business owners recognize that accounting is a vital task, yet the complexity of managing cash flow, payroll, taxes, invoicing, and expenses can be overwhelming. The daily challenges of running the business make it difficult to get a complete view on the financial health of the business.
Many business owners view managing business finances as complex and time consuming. Most do not have the time to devote the level of attention and detail required to truly understand and make use of their financial data. Essential information is often held by different people and spread across several places in the business such as paper files in file cabinets, e-mail messages, Microsoft Office Word documents, or Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets. General accounting software can help perform key financial tasks, but still does not provide all the answers. Even if the business hires an accountant or bookkeeper, gaining relevant information to make business decisions can be costly and time-consuming.
The key to successfully managed finances in a small business is to simplify the process and make it easier for the owner and employees to get work done. The owner and employees need a way to organize and collect day-to-day customer and financial data easily from Microsoft Office documents and other sources. They need a way to view the critical accounting information so that they can effectively perform everyday tasks like quoting, invoicing, or tracking billable time, without having to enter the information multiple times. Employees should be able to enter the information in the programs they use most commonly and this information should flow into the accounting system automatically. Finally, the owner needs a way to get a complete view of the business to make the right decisions and help the business grow.
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 is a complete accounting solution that helps you easily manage business finances. It is designed for business owners, bookkeepers, and office managers in any company with up to 50 employees. It requires no accounting experience, and the familiar Microsoft Office interface saves time and helps you manage everyday tasks more efficiently.
Office Accounting 2007 works seamlessly with the Office applications you use every day to improve productivity. By organizing financial information in one place, you get a complete view of your business and obtain better information when interacting with customers. Office Accounting Professional 2007 includes comprehensive tools for you to manage your business finances more effectively so you can spend more time developing your business.
What is new in Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Office Accounting 2007 includes new features to help you save time, work the way you want, communicate with an accountant, sell online, and work more effectively with other Microsoft Office programs. Key enhancements to the latest edition of Office Accounting include:
• Improved! Data import enables you to import accounting and financial data from additional applications and versions, including Microsoft Money® and Intuit QuickBooks.
• Improved! Work with Microsoft Office applications more efficiently. Export all reports and lists to Excel with formatting and formulas intact. Easily export documents to Word. Use the Write Letters Wizard for customers, vendors and employees. Easily e-mail documents using Outlook. Use the optional Analysis Tools to generate Microsoft Office Excel pivot tables and Microsoft Office Access database reports.
• Improved! Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager provides a way to track customer and financial information together with Office Small Business Accounting. The new Account and Customer Integration Wizard enables synchronized data sharing. Make updates to a customer’s record in either application and immediately see the results in the other application.
• Improved! Forms customization lets you modify and save the layout of most Office Small Business Accounting forms. Fully customize the data elements in a form by adding fields, moving fields, creating custom fields, and hiding unneeded fields.
• Improved! Customizable roles allow you to add and remove permissions for different roles in the organization – giving you ultimate flexibility over who has access to your accounting data.
• New! Accept new payment types including credit cards and PayPal®.
• New! Share data through Microsoft Office Live to seamlessly exchange Office Small Business Accounting data with an accounting professional.
• New! Easily upgrade company data from previous versions of Office Small Business Accounting using the Upgrade Company Data Wizard.
• New! Accountant Export Wizard helps you share data with an accounting professional while continuing to use Office Small Business Accounting. When the accounting professional is finished, the data easily synchronizes.
• New! Accountant View page provides a centralized location from which accountants can manage Office Small Business Accounting data for multiple clients independently.
• Improved! Journal entry is now expanded so you can enter multiple customers and vendors in the same journal entry. Be more productive by creating numerous journal entries posting on different dates and with different accounts.
• New! Online Sales gives small businesses the ability to sell inventory and track activity in online marketplaces such as eBay directly from Office Small Business Accounting.
• Improved! Combine Microsoft Point of Sale with Office Small Business Accounting to create an integrated retail solution.
• Improved! Faster database performance by compressing historical data. Using the Compress Data feature, you can roll up past fiscal year data in a separate company database to make the active database faster than ever. Data for all years remains available if needed.
• New! Equifax credit service to order credit reports and monitor credit for your business, customers, or prospects.
Save Time and Work More Efficiently
During a typical day, small business owners and employees rely on a variety of documents to get their jobs done. Essential financial and customer information can be stored in diverse places such as paper files, Office Excel spreadsheets, Word forms, and other documents. In such a situation, accomplishing simple accounting tasks such as creating customer quotes, invoices, and sales reports can be time-consuming. Yet the prospect of switching to a new accounting program can be intimidating for many people.
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 helps you save time with everyday accounting tasks because the extensive financial tools are easy to use and have the familiar look and functionality of Microsoft Office. If your business is currently using any other accounting solution, Office Accounting 2007 provides an easy and fast way to switch.
Get Started Quickly and Easily
Most small businesses do not have the time or IT staff to install and configure complicated business software. Office Accounting 2007 is easy to set up and learn, so you can get started in just a few minutes. Because Office Accounting 2007 looks and feels like familiar Microsoft Office products, you can be productive right away with minimal effort and training.
Get Up and Running in Minutes
A Startup Wizard imports your existing accounting data from sources such as Microsoft Office Excel, Intuit QuickBooks, and Microsoft Money. The Startup Wizard gets your company set up, connected, and working right away so you can be writing your first invoice within minutes. Office Accounting 2007 is intuitive and easy to use, and it doesn’t require extensive training to become proficient. Best of all, Accounting 2007 looks and works just like other familiar Microsoft Office programs.
If you are starting a new business, the Startup Wizard makes it easy to select the list of accounts and enter information about customers, vendors, and items. Your accountant or CPA can also use the Startup Wizard to set up the accounts, taxes, and other accounting information for you to get started.
The Startup Wizard gets Office Accounting running quickly and easily.
Import Data from QuickBooks and Other Sources
Office Accounting 2007 is designed to import data from many sources. You can easily use existing financial information and not be concerned about starting from scratch or losing valuable data. Import data from Microsoft Office programs such as Excel and other accounting software such as Intuit QuickBooks and Microsoft Money.
QuickBooks users can easily import their data using the Convert from QuickBooks Wizard. You can import all your QuickBooks data including master records such as chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items, employees, and supporting tables as well as beginning balances and transactions. In addition, if you are using a previous version of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, it is very easy to upgrade to Microsoft Office Accounting 2007.
Work in a Familiar Interface
Small businesses everywhere rely on Microsoft Office applications to get work done. The familiar Office interface and functionality helps people communicate more effectively and be more productive. Office Accounting 2007 helps extend that ease of use and productivity to a company’s finances.
A Navigation Pane provides centralized navigation and easy access to home pages to launch commonly performed tasks. Office Accounting 2007 is so easy to use that you can start right away, no matter if you are new to accounting software or an advanced user. Furthermore, Office Accounting 2007 works seamlessly with Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to provide customer information in one place.
Office Accounting provides a familiar, intuitive interface.
Save Time Managing Everyday Tasks
Time is money. Yet accounting tasks such as tracking expenses and managing payroll are time-consuming necessities that can take hours out of a day. Even simple tasks such as paying bills or invoicing customers may require that information be written down or entered multiple times, leading to errors. Office Accounting 2007 streamlines time-consuming processes to help you manage your everyday tasks more efficiently.
Enter Information Once
Office Accounting 2007 simplifies everyday tasks because you can share and reuse common data across different forms rather than retyping the information. To make entering recurring transactions easier and faster, Office Accounting 2007 memorizes transactions for future use. You can also easily share accounting data across other Office programs you use most often. For example, within Office Accounting 2007 you can easily export a quote to Office Word to create a professional-looking proposal that is customized for your business.
Easily Create Quotes, Invoices, and More
Office Accounting 2007 helps you easily create common documents such as quotes, invoices, purchase orders, and more. You can quickly convert information such as a customer quote into an invoice without tedious data re-entry. You can easily customize each form to suit your business’s needs and style.
Furthermore, Office Accounting 2007 works seamlessly with Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to put customer information and financial data in one place. From within Business Contact Manager, employees can view financial information about customers and create quotes, orders, and invoices in Office Accounting—without having to transfer data from one application to another.
Easily create new documents, such as invoices, from existing information.
Office Accounting 2007 in Action: Save Time by Eliminating Repetitive Tasks
Track Transactions Automatically
The process of paying bills and recording expenses is often inefficient. Writing down information to be entered later can be time-consuming and is prone to errors. Office Accounting 2007 automatically tracks all transactions, including expenses, as you enter information. You can easily categorize income and expenses for tracking and reporting.
You can see detailed views of each transaction, and you can audit transactions to understand changes made to records. To save time, advanced users can enter multiple transactions by creating numerous journal entries posting on different dates and relating to different accounts in one journal form.
Easily track and categorize expenses and other transactions.
Create, Modify, and Export Documents in Office Word
Because Office Accounting 2007 works seamlessly with Office Word, you can easily export quotes, sales orders, packing slips, invoices, and other information to Word with a click. If your business has already created personalized Word documents, you can reuse existing templates and documents. You can also customize templates that come with Office Accounting 2007 to create professional-looking materials and documents. The Write Letters Wizard is an easy way to create and modify letters from Word templates for your customers, vendors, and employees.
Create professional-looking documents with Microsoft Office.
Automate Bank Accounts
Businesses must track banking activities to keep tight control on the flow of funds into and out of the company. If your business has an online banking account, you can download its records from the bank or other financial institution directly into Office Accounting 2007. The Online Banking Wizard helps you easily set up and use the Online Banking feature.
Office Accounting 2007 helps you manage multiple company bank accounts and maintain one consolidated view of the various accounts. The Banking home page summarizes your company’s banking activities. From the Banking home page, you can easily write and print checks, make deposits, reconcile your bank accounts, and perform other banking tasks.
The Banking home page summarizes banking activities.
Automate Customer Payments
In addition to online banking, Office Accounting 2007 enables you to customize and organize customer payments. With the Credit Card Processing option, you can accept credit and debit card payments to better serve your customers and reduce transaction costs. For credit card purchases, you can print receipts and create customer credit memo templates for future transactions.
Track Employee Time and Costs
Billable time is the livelihood of service businesses. You can track and manage employees’ billable time directly in Office Accounting 2007 through the Time Entry form. Accounting 2007 can then use the billable hours to create customer invoices.
Many companies, such as consulting firms and contractors, organize their businesses around specific customer jobs. Office Accounting 2007 helps you track revenues and expenses by job and monitor and compare total job profitability. You can also track estimated versus actual job costs, and compare invoices versus quotes. This data becomes useful for business planning, for example, it helps increase the accuracy of future job estimates.
Working with Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager helps you achieve more accurate, timely billing. Employees can mark appointments in their Outlook calendars as billable time, and then transfer that information to Office Accounting 2007 with a single click.
Easily track billable time by job in Office Accounting.
Manage Payroll and Taxes
Managing payroll and calculating government taxes can be one of the most difficult financial tasks for any business. With Office Accounting 2007, you can subscribe to online payroll functionality powered by payroll-industry leader ADP for an additional fee. The Process Payroll tool in Office Accounting 2007 provides a full-featured payroll and tax processing application for calculating federal, state, and local taxes, yet it is simple to set up and use. ADP offers multiple payroll options so you can select a service that meets your business’s needs. In addition, with the connection between Office Accounting 2007 and ADP, you can import timesheet data directly into the payroll application, and import payroll and tax information to the general ledgers.
Track and Forecast Inventory
For small businesses that sell products, effective inventory management is key to minimizing costs and maximizing profits. Office Accounting 2007 provides an Inventory system that automatically updates quantities when you create invoices or take returns. You can track and adjust overall inventory quantities in the system, in real time, and you can use the Physical Inventory Worksheet to perform a physical count. An Inventory form contains inventory information for each item, including the quantity on hand, the reorder point, and total value.
Sell and Buy in Foreign Currencies
For businesses that work with to customers or vendors outside the United States, Office Accounting 2007 provides foreign currency capability. The multicurrency feature makes it easy to do business with your vendor and customers in their foreign currencies. .Office Accounting 2007 is designed to handle the complexity of currency conversion and reconciliation.
Get a Complete View of Your Business
In many small businesses, financial information and customer data reside in different places - file folders, e-mail messages, spreadsheets, documents, and even sticky notes. Many small business owners do not have adequate time to truly understand and make use of their financial data. There is often no easy way to share or organize the information to enable faster decisions and provide better service to customers. Furthermore, because comprehensive information is difficult to compile and understand, getting the big picture of the business’s financial health is challenging, if not daunting.
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 gives you a single, complete view of your business by helping you to manage financial information in one place. You can get organized and work the way you want by customizing the information you would like to see at a glance. Furthermore, you can track customer and financial information together by sharing customer account information using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager. Unique features help you easily share financial information with your accounting.
View Your Financial Information in One Place
Office Accounting 2007 puts financial data and business information in one place, giving you a comprehensive look at your business to enable better-informed decisions. Employees can improve productivity, reduce errors, and provide better service to customers. By sharing and synchronizing customer account information using Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, you can provide your employees with better financial information to serve customers.
Store and Organize Data Centrally
Office Accounting 2007 gives businesses a central place to collect, organize, and manage financial data so they don’t have to use multiple methods and tools. Easily work with information about your customers, employees, and vendors organized in one place.
Because Office Accounting 2007 and Office Outlook 2007 for Business Contact Manager share a single database, information related to customers, vendors, prospects, and employees can be easily shared in real time between the two applications. The ability to track, bill, and query financial history can be used by sales people as well as office managers and business owners.
Get a Snapshot of Important Information
When accounting data is available in one place, you can quickly get a better look at the fiscal health of the company. The Company Home Page provides an at-a-glance snapshot of important information, critical tasks, and reminders on one screen. By capturing this information in one location, you can stay on top of changing customer and accounting information and quickly get an overall sense of the company’s performance.
The Company home page provides a centralized view of critical business information.
Share Account Information with Business Contact Manager
When you combine Office Accounting 2007 with Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, you get a complete business and financial picture of your customer in one place. From within Business Contact Manager, employees can turn opportunities into quotes, orders, and invoices in Office Accounting 2007 —without having to transfer data from one application to another. Employees can mark their Outlook calendar appointments, projects, tasks, and phone logs as billable and automatically send that information to Office Accounting 207 to create customer invoices.
The Account and Customer Integration Wizard helps you link your Business Contact Manager accounts and contacts with your customers in Office Accounting 2007. Because the products share a database, data entered in either application automatically flows to the other so information is always synchronized. This keeps you informed of account and customer changes and provides a central location for critical information, which can also be shared with employees selectively, based on their roles.
Use Business Contact Manager to work seamlessly with Office Accounting.
Work the Way You Want
Every business is different. That is why it’s important to be able to customize and tailor your accounting solution to suit your business’s needs and style. Office Accounting 2007 makes it easy to customize and personalize the information you see.
Create a Personalized Company Home Page
The Company Home Page provides a snapshot of your company's overall financial condition as well as your day-to-day accounts payable and accounts receivable information. You can personalize this information by easily adding and removing dashboard content such as reminders, recent cash flow forecasts, bank account information, vendors, customers, and more.
Easily customize the Company home page to personalize snapshot information.
Customize Almost Any Form
Using Office Accounting 2007, you can easily customize quotes, sales orders, invoices, purchase orders, reports, and more. You can fully customize the data elements used in most forms by moving fields, creating custom fields, renaming fields, and hiding unneeded fields. These customized forms and letters can be exported to Word templates to sharpen the professional appearance of marketing materials and financial documents.
Customize most forms to suit your business.
Provide Employee Access and Customize Security Roles
Having better insight into financial and customer information can help employees be more effective workers. Yet because some employees may not need access to all the company’s accounting data, providing even basic information to the right employees can be challenging.
With Office Accounting 2007, owners and managers can control access to sensitive data based on an employee’s role by providing only the information the employee needs to be effective. You can add and remove permissions from different roles such as Owner, Office Manager, Accountant, and Salesperson, as well as add new customized roles. This gives you ultimate flexibility over who has access to your business’s accounting data.
Multiple users can work with Office Accounting 2007 from different computers at the same time. In addition, multi-user access functionality in Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can give employees direct visibility into the company’s sales pipeline.
Manage which employees can access accounting information by customizing roles.
Find and Organize Information Quickly
Even though a business may be small, finding essential information is sometimes more work than it needs to be. It is essential to make financial and customer data accessible and usable to everyone in the company that needs it. Office Accounting 2007 includes features to help you quickly find mission-critical data, whether it is related to customers, vendors, jobs, or other information.
To improve database performance, the Compress Data feature compresses historical data in a separate company database, making the active database faster than ever. Data for all years remains available if needed for year-by-year comparisons.
Get an insight into Your Business Finances
Business owners are often caught up in the day-to-day tasks of running the business. It can be challenging to gather financial information to gain an insight for making short-term and long-term decisions about the direction of the business. Office Accounting 2007 provides the features and reports to give you the information you need at a glance, to make more informed business decisions. You can further analyze the data by exporting accounting data to other Microsoft Office programs such as Office Excel or Office Access.
Understand Your Business with Comprehensive Reports
Office Accounting 2007 offers more than 60 pre-defined reports that help you get an insight into all aspects of your business. Through easy-to-use reporting, you are empowered with many kinds of financial information across the company, such as the sales pipeline, cash flow, item profitability, and customer transactions. In addition, you can easily customize the reports by setting filters, changing fonts and formatting, and more. You can to tailor reports to meet your company’s unique needs. If you need to further analyze or format the data, you can export these reports to Excel.
Keep track of your business with more than 60 pre-defined, customizable reports.
Understand Your Customers
Using the Customer home page in Office Accounting 2007, you can perform all the tasks related to customers and receivables and get an immediate view of the state of each account. You can stay up-to-date on the latest customer needs through a financial summary, with outstanding payments or balance information.
If more information is required to manage sales and predict sales activity, you can run detailed reports. For example, you can run reports that show sales status, order information, and probability of closing. Salespeople can filter data to view status for accounts they are working on or to display customers they have not contacted recently.
The Customers home page is the starting point for managing customer sales.
Monitor and Forecast Cash Flow
One of the more important tasks for running most businesses is analyzing cash flow—the difference between income and expenses. Office Accounting 2007 includes cash flow tools that help you conduct complete and accurate analysis of history and trends of the cash coming in and going out of the business.
The Cash Flow Forecast tool keeps track of sales, purchases, and payments to help you manage and predict cash flow easily. You can model different scenarios to help forecast future cash flows and make decisions about which customers to contact or which bills to pay. For further cash flow analysis, Office Accounting 2007 reports such as the Cash Flow Statement can show cash inflows and outflows of the business over a period of time.
The Cash Flow Forecast tool helps businesses easily manage and predict cash flow.
Analyze Data with Office Excel and Office Access Integration
Microsoft Office integration helps you work with Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Access more efficiently. Microsoft Excel makes it possible to view Office Accounting 2007 data in reports and lists to facilitate analysis or create financial forecasts. You can easily import accounting data from Excel or export reports while maintaining rich formatting and formulas. With Office Accounting 2007, you can also export data to Microsoft Office Access.
With the Microsoft Office Accounting Analysis Tools, you can extend your accounting system by connecting to your Office Accounting 2007 database and generating Excel PivotTables views and Access database reports. With these PivotTable views and reports, you can make better sense of your company transactions by extracting meaningful information from your data.
Share Data with Your Accounting Professional
Many small businesses regularly work with an accountant or bookkeeper, whether it is for payroll, tax preparation, or other tasks. Office Accounting 2007 includes unique features to make it easier to share your business’s financial data with an accounting.
Using the Accountant Export Wizard, you can send your business’s accounting data to your accountant and continue using Office Accounting 2007. When the accountant is done updating the books, he or she can send the data back to you to merge the changes. Alternatively your Accountant can also remotely connect to your copy of Office Accounting 2007 and update it.
Easily send your data to your accountant with the Accountant Export Wizard.
Microsoft Office Live 2007 helps businesses create a fully featured online presence. With Office Live 2007 and Office Accounting 2007, you can share financial data securely with your accounting and others. You can easily transfer data to and from an accountant through this service.
If an accountant works with multiple clients who are using Office Accounting 2007, the Accountant View page provides a centralized dashboard from which the accountant can independently manage client accounts and payroll, import and export client data, and manage journal entries for each client.
Manage and Grow Your Business More Effectively
In a competitive world, small business owners are looking for better ways to manage and develop their businesses. More small businesses are selling online because it gives them the ability to reach millions of potential customers. Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007 works seamlessly with online marketplaces to help you sell more effectively and receive customer orders and payments with confidence.
Sell Online More Effectively
With the Microsoft Small Business Online Sales option, you can easily and cost-effectively sell on Internet marketplaces. This service is fully incorporated in Office Accounting Professional 2007, so you can sell through online marketplaces such as eBay or a Microsoft Office Live Web site. Whether you’re selling online for the first time or have had an eBay business for years, working through Office Accounting Professional 2007 can save you time and help you sell more.
List and Track Inventory Items
From the Online Sales home page, you can easily list inventory items, check the status of your listing, download & process orders, and track activity in real time from within Office Accounting Professional 2007. A single listing screen helps you manage all inventory items in real time, including quantity, reserve prices, and images. You can easily upload multiple listings simultaneously. After an item sells, the order information including the commissions and fees are downloaded directly into Office Accounting Professional 2007 to save time. These online orders can be processed in Office Accounting Professional2007 and payments can be received using the integrated credit card services or PayPal.
The Online Sales page gives small businesses e-commerce features.
Work with an eBay Site
Office Small Business Accounting 2007 works with eBay to help you reach millions of potential customers. From the Online Sales home page, you can easily sell inventory, track activity, and download orders directly from eBay. Even if you run an eBay business today, Office Accounting Professional 2007 helps you run your business more efficiently.
Microsoft Office Live Integration
An Internet presence is indispensable for small businesses, and Microsoft Office Live 2007 can help you move to the world of e-commerce with a feature-rich online presence. Office Live can provide a professional Web site, expertly hosted by Microsoft. If you have an e-commerce Web site hosted by Microsoft Office Live, you can manage your inventory directly from Office Accounting Professional 2007. From the Online Sales home page, you can post inventory items directly to the Office Live site, track inventory, and modify inventory information.
Work with Microsoft Point of Sale
If you are a single-store retailer, Microsoft Point of Sale provides an easy-to-use application that helps track sales, inventory, and customer information. Combining Microsoft Point of Sale with Office Accounting Professional 2007 creates an integrated retail solution that connects the point of sale to accounting. You can send all the sales details of the day from Microsoft Point of Sale to Office Accounting Professional 2007 without retyping data, thus saving time and reducing errors. You can then use Office Accounting Professional 2007 to run financial reports, helping you to manage cash flow and improve profitability.
Do Business with Confidence
Managing customers can be a constant challenge for small businesses. Office Accounting Professional 2007 provides integration with services that help you get paid the way you want, including credit card payments and online payment methods. You can also obtain information to help you do business with confidence, such as ordering credit reports on customers and prospects.
Get Paid Faster Through PayPal
Smart businesses offer customers a variety of payment methods. Office Accounting Professional 2007 gives you the ability to offer customers a PayPal payment option to help you get paid faster. Using Microsoft Outlook, you can easily generate an e-mail message with an invoice that includes an integrated PayPal option. Customers simply click an automatically generated link and use the PayPal service to enter payment. All transactions are tracked in Office Accounting Professional 2007 to dramatically simplify your payment processes.
Get paid through e-mail using Microsoft Outlook and PayPal.
Monitor Credit with Equifax
Office Accounting Professional provides easy access to Equifax credit report services to manage customers and your business more effectively. To help you evaluate business risk and make better decisions about customers, you can obtain one-time credit reports or ongoing credit monitoring on customers or prospects. As well, to help you make well-informed decisions about your company, you can order Equifax credit reports to view credit scores for your own business.
EndOfChapter1
Chapter 2
2: Installation
This module provides information about system requirements for Microsoft® Office Accounting 2007. You will also learn about installation procedures.
Step-by-step Installation
Installing Office Accounting is a wizard-driven process that makes it simple and straightforward to install. To begin installing:
1. Close all programs.
2. Place the Office Accounting CD into your CD-ROM drive.
3. If Autorun is enabled, Setup will start automatically. If Setup does not start, open Windows Explorer and double-click the Setup.exe file on the CD.
Office accounting 2007 uses Microsoft .NET framework 2.0. If this is not installed on your computer, the following dialog box will appear:
Click OK to install Microsoft .NET framework 2.0. This may take a few minutes.
During the installation, you may also be asked to install additional hotfixes to .NET framework 2.0. Click OK to install the hotfixes as well.
The Welcome screen appears.
If you already have Outlook 2007 installed, both Office Accounting and Business Contact Manager will be installed. If you do not have Outlook 2007 installed, only Office Accounting 2007 will be installed. Click Next.
The setup wizard will allow you to pick a folder for the installation. Click Next.
Setup is ready to begin the installation. Click Install.
A progress window will be displayed. This process may take several minutes. The setup wizard will then continue with the installation of SQL Server 2005 Express and Office Accounting 2007. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express will be installed as a named instance (MSSMLBIZ).
An Installation Complete window will appear.
To start Office Accounting, on the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office, and then click Microsoft Office Accounting 2007. A Start – Microsoft Office Accounting window will appear.
To set up your company, see the module 3 “Setting up a new company”.
System Requirements
The system requirements of Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 are:
Component Requirement
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 2 or later or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 (or higher) required
Computer And processor 1 gigahertz (GHz) processor or higher; 512 megabyte (MB) RAM or more; 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM or more is required for Office Accounting 2007 with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager.
CR-ROM or DVD drive.
In general, a more powerful processor and more RAM will make Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 run faster.
Hard disk 2 gigabyte (GB) necessary for install; a portion of this disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive
Monitor resolution 1024x768 or higher
Internet Connection Broadband connection, 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) or greater, for download and activation of products
Additional components Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with service packs or later, Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or later required for Outlook 2007 users. To install Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, you will need to first install Outlook 2007
EndofChapter2
Chapter 3
3: Setting up a new company
There are two ways to set up a company: By setting up a company manually or by importing your data from QuickBooks® or Microsoft Money. Importing existing data is covered in the next chapter.
Before you start the new company setup process, you need to plan how you will set up your company records for use in Microsoft Office Accounting.
1. Define your company's fiscal year. You can use a standard calendar year, or you can use another period for accounting and reporting purposes.
2. Determine a start date on which you want to begin using Office Accounting to track your company's finances.
3. Collect the following information on your company:
• Checking account statement dated just before your company's start date
• Checkbook with any remaining, uncleared checks that you have written but that have not yet shown up on your checking account statement
• Savings account statement dated just before your company's start date
• Bank receipts or any other record of any remaining, uncleared deposits, withdrawals, or transfers that have not yet shown up on your account statement
• Any other bank statements dated just before your company's start date
• Credit card account statement dated just before your company's start date
• Credit card receipts or any other record of any credit card charges that have not yet shown up on your account statement
• Records of unpaid customer invoices as of your company's start date
• Records of vendor bills that your company has not paid as of your company's start date
• Account balances for any other assets, such as stocks, as of your company's start date
• Account balances for any other debts, such as loans, as of your company's start date
New Company Startup Wizard
The first step to using Office Accounting 2007 is to setup a new company.
Start page in Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Click Set up a new company to start the startup wizard.
If you have already started Office Accounting, you can set up a new company by selecting File, New Company from the main menu as shown below.
Setting up a New Company from within Office Accounting 2007
This action will close your current company before proceeding to the next step.
Office Accounting 2007 provides a startup wizard to help you set up your initial company and establish some of the defaults and preferences in your new system.
Microsoft Office Accounting Startup Wizard
Click Next to begin setting up your company.
Tip
The link at the bottom of the page can help you find a Microsoft Professional Accountants' Network member to assist with setting up Office Accounting 2007. Please refer to the Working with your Accountant module for more information.
The Office Accounting 2007 Startup Wizard is divided into seven sections as follows:
1. Company and Preferences (required step) – This section allows you to enter basic company information, defaults, and preferences. When this step is completed the Office Accounting company file and database is created and you can continue with the rest of the steps or start using the application right away.
2. Accounts - This section allows you to set up and enter opening balances for your company’s assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses.
3. Customers - This section allows you to set up and enter opening balances for the individuals and companies that owe your company money.
4. Vendors - This section allows you to set up and enter opening balances for the individuals and businesses that your company owes money to.
5. Items - This section allows you to set up the products and services that your company sells and enter opening balances for the inventory items at hand.
6. Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager Integration – This section helps you integrate Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager and Microsoft Office Accounting 2007. After integration Business Contact Manager for Outlook and Office Accounting 2007 share a common database
7. Business Services - This takes you to a Microsoft web site where you can learn more about the various Office Accounting 2007 services, such as payroll, online banking and credit card services that can help increase your productivity and help your business grow.
It is only necessary to complete the first section of the Startup Wizard, which will create the Office Accounting 2007 company file and database. The rest of the data may be input directly into the Office Accounting 2007 user screens. The choice is up to you.
Introduction
Company and preferences, Introduction
The first step of the startup wizard gives you an introduction to the steps ahead. Click Next
Company Details
Add your company name and contact details as well as your federal tax ID. As a minimum you must provide the company name and legal name.
Add company details
Click Next
Set up Accounts
You have two options for entering a chart of accounts.
• If you do not have a chart of accounts, then Office Accounting 2007 provides sample charts of accounts based on your business type.
• You can also enter your own chart of accounts later in the startup wizard, if you already have a chart of accounts.
Set up accounts
For more information on financial accounts, please refer to the Basic Accounting and Company Management module. Click Next.
Office Accounting 2007 provides 17 different business types as shown below.
Office Accounting 2007 Provides 17 Different Charts of Accounts to Help You Get Started
If you do not find a company type that exactly matches your company, you should select the company type that is the closest match, and later edit the chart of accounts to meet the specific needs of your company. Click Next.
Fiscal Year Settings & Start date
The fiscal year and start date differs as follows:
• This fiscal year is the financial year of your company. Many businesses use the calendar year as their fiscal year.
• The Start Date is the date for which your trial balance or supporting data is compiled.
You can change both later after you have completed the company and preferences section of the startup wizard, but it is recommended that you pick them carefully so you won’t have to change opening balance etc.
Select Fiscal Year and Start Date
Select the first fiscal year and start date and click Next.
Note
The first fiscal year does not have to be 12 months long. E.g. if you have started your company in the middle of a calendar year, you can use the start date of the company as the start of the fiscal year and December 31st as the end of the first fiscal year.
Preferences
The next part of the company and preferences section of the startup wizard captures the preferences for your company. These can be altered later in the company preferences dialog described in the Basic Accounting and Company Management module. Click Next.
Preferences
Jobs
Office Accounting 2007 allows you to track jobs (sometimes known as projects) in the system; however you must turn this feature on by answering yes to the preferences question – do you want to track jobs?
Using Jobs in Office Accounting 2007
You would normally use jobs either to track profitability for a certain piece of work over time or to have a better understanding of expenses incurred for a particular sale, even if you don’t track inventory.
Jobs allow you to track profitability and estimated vs. actual invoicing and have a start date and end date. The start and end dates can span multiple fiscal years. By creating multiple jobs for a customer, you can measure and track the income, expenses, and profitability of each individual job, as well as the income, expenses, and profitability for each customer.
Jobs are described in more detail in the Managing Jobs module. Select your jobs preference and click Next.
Sales Taxes
Office Accounting 2007 allows you to calculate and charge sales taxes on all orders and invoices; you can configure this feature by answering yes to the preferences question – does your company collect sales taxes from customers?
Select sales tax preferences
If your company does track sales taxes, Office Accounting 2007 offers two options as follows:
• If your company collects a single tax rate from its customers and pays that tax rate to only one tax agency, you should select the single tax rate option.
• If your company collects multiple tax rates, or it pays sales tax to more than one tax agency, you should select the multiple tax rates option.
These options are shown below.
Select sales tax preferences, selecting single or multiple tax agencies
The process of charging, collecting and properly reporting sales taxes can be a complex matter for many businesses, especially for those businesses that serve customers in multiple sales tax districts or states.
Please refer to the Sales Taxes module for detailed description of how to work with sales taxes in Office Accounting 2007.
Form Layout Preferences
To determine the layout of the company’s invoices, cash sales, and sales orders, Office Accounting 2007 helps to select a form layout that is based on the products or services that company provides.
Select the option according to the company whether it sells services or both products and services.
Select form layout preferences
By selecting Sells products, or both products and services, the sales order, invoice and cash sales layout will include additional shipping information.
Numbering Preferences
Office Accounting 2007 can assign numbers to help in identify accounts, customers, vendors, employees, or items that the company sells.
Select things to which you want Office Accounting 2007 to assign numbers. If you change your mind, numbers can later be hidden or shown by changing your selections in the company preferences dialog.
Select numbering preferences
Office Accounting will keep track of the numbers and increment them as you add new records, regardless if you use numbers (e.g. 1, 2,…) or a combination of numbers and letters (Customer 1, Customer 2,…).
The numbers can contain a mix of numbers and letters up to 60 characters, however the numeric part cannot exceed (roughly) 2 billion.
Currency
Office Accounting 2007 now has the ability to conduct business in foreign currency by having customers, vendors, bank- and credit card accounts in foreign currency.
Enable foreign currency
Turning this preference on will change the layout on almost every form, list and report in the product displaying both the account- or transaction currency as well as the base currency (US dollars).
Office accounting comes with a number of predefined currencies, most common to the US market, but you can set up as many as you like. As with any other preference, the use of currencies can be turned on or off, however the accounts and transactions remain in the currency they were creating in.
Please refer to the Using Foreign Currency module for detailed description of how to work with foreign currencies in Office Accounting 2007.
Set Up Payroll
One of the most frequent complaints about entry level accounting is that the payroll solution is inadequate or limited in its capabilities. In order to avoid this common problem, Office Accounting 2007 offers an integrated solution together with Automated Data Processing (ADP). The proven ADP payroll solution provides virtually every payroll feature a company desires.
Set up Payroll
The ADP payroll solution is covered in detail in the Employees and Payroll module. You can select Yes to set up payroll now or select No to set up payroll later.
Online Sales
Office Accounting 2007 offers the exiting capability of listing your excess inventory on online marketplaces such as eBay.
Enable online sales
Microsoft provides a fully-integrated solution that enables you to list your products online and download the transactions later for invoicing, once the auction is over.
Enabling online sales will add the online sales as an area in the product, similar to customers, vendors and banking.
Please refer to the Online Sales module for a detailed description of setting up- and managing your online sales.
Cash basis or accrual basis accounting
Office Accounting 2007 lets you view Company’s financial reports as either a cash basis or accrual basis. The view can be switched in company preferences or when viewing the individual reports.
• With cash basis reports, revenue is recognized when your company receives a payment, and expenses are recognized when your company pays a bill. Cash basis reports are easier to understand than accrual basis reports as they reflect the cash flow that has been received and paid from the cash and bank accounts.
• With actual basis reports, revenue is recognized when your company writes an invoice, and expenses are recognized when your company receives a bill. Accrual basis reports give a more accurate view of a company’s operating performance. Most businesses use accrual based accounting.
Select cash basis or accrual basis reporting
Cash and accrual basis accounting are described in more detail in the Basic Accounting and Company Management module.
Enable Add-ins
Office Accounting 2007 comes with a number of add-ins that each enhance the functionality of the application.
Enable Add-ins
The add-ins may either be provided by Microsoft, as seen with the Equifax add-in above, or by third party ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). ISV add-ins include a long range of solutions such as:
• Network-Mobile Solutions
• Email & Document Management
• Project Management
• Web Site Integration
• Inventory Solutions
• Tax & Financial Analysis
• Resource Planning
• Shipping Solutions & Management
• Manufacturing Solutions
Microsoft provides a full list of certified application for Office Accounting 2007 on www.microsoft.com.
Saving Your New Company File
Upon completing the Company and Preferences section of the Startup Wizard, Office Accounting 2007 will ask you to save your company file. Click Finish to save your file.
Company details and preferences completed
Upon clicking Finish, the following dialog will appear:
Saving Your New Company File
The default name for your company will be the name you gave the company in the first step (without spacing) and with a .sbc file extension. The file extension enables Windows to start Office Accounting when you double-click the icon of the company file.
Note
The company files are by default place in My Documents\Office Accounting\Companies folder, but you can place them anywhere you want.
When you click Save Office Accounting will save the company file and create the SQL database that will contain all your company data. This may take a few minutes.
Creating the company database
Optional Sections of the Startup Wizard
Startup Wizard Progress
After completing the required step of the Startup Wizard and save your company file, you can begin using Office Accounting 2007. However, it is recommended that you first complete the setup of all accounts, customers, vendors and items.
The Startup Wizard Progress shows you the sections of the Startup Wizard that you have completed, in addition to the sections you still have to complete. At any point in time, you can exit the wizard by pressing Close. If you return to it later (by selecting Company Setup in the File menu) Office Accounting will keep track on your progress.
Startup Wizard Progress
This screen can be used to launch wizards to help you complete the setup of accounts, customers, vendors, employees, items, integration with Outlook with Business Contact Manager as well as business services. The remaining parts of the startup wizard are described in the sections below.
Accounts
The accounts section of the startup wizard enables you to add or edit new financial accounts as well as setting their balance as of the start date of the company.
Setting op Accounts
Click Next to see the list of accounts that exist for you company. These may have been selected earlier, if you chose a specific business type or they may just be a list of the system accounts that have been automatically set up by Office Accounting 2007. The system accounts are described in more detail in the Basic Accounting and Company Management module.
Accounts and opening balances
To set up a new account press New. To edit an existing account, select the account on the list and press Edit. To delete an account, select the account on the list and press Delete. You cannot delete accounts with an opening balance, system accounts or accounts referenced by other accounts.
You can see that the list of accounts has a Balance column and an As of column. This enables you to set an opening balance for each account as of a specific date. As default the starting date of the company is provided.
When you have completed editing the list of accounts click Next and Finish to complete the Accounts section.
When setting up a new account, you have to select the account type first:
Select Account Type
The following table provides an overview of the individual account types:
Account Type
Description
Income Accounts that represent the revenue from sales of goods and services to your company's customers.
Other income Accounts that represent revenues coming into your company that do not relate directly to the main purpose of your company. For example, interest income.
Expense Accounts that represent what your company is spending to operate the business. For example, operating expenses include wages, rent, supplies, advertising, or utilities.
Other expense Accounts that represent expenses that do not relate to the normal course of your company's business. For example, interest payments on long-term debt.
Cost of goods sold Accounts that represent the cost of goods, materials, or services that are directly related to the generation of your company's sales revenues.
Cash Accounts that consist of cash items, such as petty cash or undeposited funds.
Bank Accounts that are considered liquid or easily convertible to cash. For example, bank accounts, short-term investments, and some securities.
Other current asset Assets other than liquid ones that have a life of less than one year. For example, accounts receivables and inventory. Even though accounts receivable is a current asset, you do not have to set up accounts receivable in Other Current Assets. When you create a company, Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 creates a system account named Accounts Receivable, which is categorized as an Accounts Receivable account type.
Inventory asset The value of goods on hand at a given time. Inventory assets are purchased or manufactured to sell to your customers.
Other asset Assets of a minor type that are classified outside of the current or fixed asset categories. They can include investments or intangible assets such as goodwill or patents.
Fixed asset Equipment, property, or plant assets that are purchased to use in your company rather than for resale. Fixed assets can be depreciated over various lengths of time depending on their type. Your company can absorb the expense over a period of time.
Credit card Current obligations to a financial institution that are created by using your credit card for purchases or expenses.
Payroll liability Tax obligations that the company owes to Federal and State tax agencies as a result of running payroll.
Current liability Obligations due within one year or the normal operating cycle of your business. Accounts payable, short-term notes, accrued liabilities, and taxes accruals are examples of this type of account. Even though accounts payable is a current liability, you do not have to set up accounts payable in Current Liabilities. When you create a company, Accounting 2007 creates a system account named Accounts Payable, which is categorized as an Accounts Payable account type.
Long-term liability Obligations of greater than one year or the normal operating cycle of your business. Mortgages, long-term notes, or non-current portions of customer warranties are examples of this type of account.
Equity An account to record the difference between assets and liabilities. This category is also known as net worth, shareholders' equity, or net assets on company balance sheets. Another account of this type is Retained Earnings, which records the cumulative amount of net income left in the company.
Account types in Office Accounting 2007
After you have selected the account type, you can edit the account details.
Editing a new or existing account
The only mandatory information is the name of the financial account. You can add the rest of the details later.
The financial account form is described in detail in the Basic Accounting and Company Management module.
Customers
The Customers section of the startup wizard enables you to set up your customers with details and opening balances.
Setting op Customers
Click Next to see the list of customers that exist for you company. This list will normally be empty.
Customers and opening balances
To set up a new customer press New. To edit an existing customer, select the customer on the list and press Edit. To delete a customer, select the customer on the list and press Delete. You cannot delete customers with an opening balance or customers referenced by a job.
You can see that the list of customers has a Balance column and an As of column. This enables you to set an opening balance for each customer as of a specific date. As default the starting date of the company is provided.
When you have completed editing the list of customers click Next and Finish to complete the Customers section.
When setting up a new customer, you only have to provide the customer name in order to save the customer . All the other details may be provided later:
Adding a new customer
A customer may have up to 8 addresses (business, bill to, ship to, warehouse, home legal postal and other) and as many contacts as desired.
The five tab-pages of the customer form (General, Details, Financial Summary, Financial History and User-Defined Fields) will be described in more detail in the Customers and Sales Flow module.
Note
Office Accounting 2007 also requires the user to specify the tax group (placed on the Details tab) for each customer; however this will automatically be set the customer’s tax group to None unless a tax group is specified. Setting the tax group to None means that all sales to this customers will be non-taxable until a proper tax group is defined. Please refer to the Sales Taxes module for information on how to set up sales taxes.
Vendors
The Vendors section of the startup wizard enables you to set up your vendors with details and opening balances. Vendors are sometimes known as suppliers.
Setting op Vendors
Click Next to see the list of vendors that exist for you company. This list will normally be empty.
Vendors and opening balances
To set up a new vendor press New. To edit an existing vendor, select the vendor on the list and press Edit. To delete a vendor, select the vendor on the list and press Delete. You cannot delete vendors with an opening balance.
You can see that the list of vendors has a Balance column and an As of column. This enables you to set an opening balance for each vendor as of a specific date. As default the starting date of the company is provided.
When you have completed editing the list of vendors click Next and Finish to complete the Vendors section.
When setting up a new vendor, you only have to provide the vendor name in order to save the vendor. All the other details may be provided later:
Adding a new vendor
A vendor may have up to 8 addresses (business, bill to, ship to, warehouse, home legal postal and other) and as many contacts as desired.
The Account no. field of the vendor is your customer account number with the vendor (usually found on the bills and statements from the vendor).
Use the Expense account field on the Details tab to specify if bills and checks to this vendor should be defaulted to a specific financial account, such as utilities.
The five tab-pages of the vendor form (General, Details, Financial Summary, Financial History and User-Defined Fields) will be described in more detail in the Vendors and Purchase Flow module.
Items
Office Accounting 2007 uses items to keep track of goods and services that your company sells. The Items section of the startup wizard enables you to set up your Items with details and quantity on hand.
Setting up Items
Note
Office Accounting Express 2007 does not include inventory functionality and inventory items. The inventory module is only available in the Office Accounting Professional 2007.
Service Items
Service Items are typically set up work performed (either by a vendor or work performed for customers), but it could also be non-physical items such as shipping or insurance.
Service items are expensed when they are purchased and have no direct cost associated when sold.
Add service items
Select Yes if your company buys or sells service items and click Next. This will display a list of service items. This list will normally be empty.
List of service items
To set up a new service item press New. To edit an existing service item, select the item on the list and press Edit. To delete an item, select the item on the list and press Delete. You cannot delete items that have already been referenced on documents.
When you have completed editing the list of service items click Next to proceed to non-inventory items.
The Service Item form looks as follows:
Service Item form
When setting up a new service item you have to provide the following:
• Item Name The name of the item.
• Sales price (if sold) The price for which the item is sold to customers (can be $0).
• Income account (if sold) The financial account where the income is recognized when the service item is sold.
• Item Tax group (if sold) If the item is taxable or not.
• Purchase price (if purchased) The price at which the item is normally purchased from vendors (can be $0).
• Expense account (if purchased) The financial account that incurs the expense when the item is purchased.
Notice the two checkboxes labeled “I sell this item” and “I purchase this item”. These boxes define if the service item is available in sales- and purchase flows.
The standard cost is used for item and job profitability purposes.
Non-inventory Items
Non-inventory items are typically used for physical items that are sold or purchased but where the business does not want to track the individual items in inventory. These could be items purchased in bulk, but consumed in smaller scale such as piping or wiring.
Non-inventory items are expensed when they are purchased and have no direct cost associated when sold (similar to service items).
Add non-inventory items
Select Yes if your company buys or sells non-inventory items and click Next. This will display a list of non-inventory items. This list will normally be empty.
The non-inventory item list and form are identical to the corresponding service item list and service item form described above.
Inventory Items (Office Accounting Professional only)
Inventory items are physical items that are purchased for resale and kept in stock.
Unlike service items and non-inventory items, the cost of the purchase is not incurred until the item is sold.
Add inventory items
Select Yes if your company buys or sells inventory items and click Next. This will display a list of inventory items. This list will normally be empty.
List of inventory items
To set up a new inventory item press New. To edit an existing inventory item, select the item on the list and press Edit. To delete an item, select the item on the list and press Delete. You cannot delete items that have a quantity or value on hand nor can you delete inventory items that have already been referenced on documents.
Once you have added the inventory items, you can specify the quantity and value at hand as of a specific date (as default your company start date).
When you have completed editing the list of inventory items click Next and Finish to complete the Items section.
The inventory item form looks as follows:
Inventory Item form
When setting up a new inventory item you have to provide the following:
• Item Name The name of the item.
• Sales price The price for which the item is sold to customers (can be $0).
• Income account The financial account where the income is recognized when the inventory item is sold.
• Item Tax group If the item is taxable or not.
• Purchase price The price at which the item is normally purchased from vendors (can be $0).
• Asset account The financial account that holds the inventory as an asset on the balance sheet when the item is purchased.
• COGS account The financial account that bears the Cost Of Goods Sold, when the inventory item is sold.
If you specify a reorder point, the item will appear with a triangle icon on the item list and add a reminder to the dashboard when the quantity on hand falls below the reorder point.
Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager Integration
Office Accounting 2007 can be integrated with Outlook with Business Contact Manager.
Integration with Outlook Business Contact Manager
Office Accounting 2007 can be integrated with both Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager as well as Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.
If Office Accounting 2007 is integrated with Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, the two applications will use the same data store (the same SQL Express database), which means that contact information updated in one application automatically gets updated in the other.
When Office Accounting 2007 is integrated with Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager (service pack 3 required), the two applications use separate databases and the information is linked, but not synchronized. Linking the databases must be initiated from Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager.
Click Next to set up integration with Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.
Select a Outlook Business Contact Manager database
Select the Outlook Business Contact Manager database to integrate with and press Next. This will back up the two databases and create a new database and company file. Setting up the integration may take a few minutes.
Please refer to the Office Integration module for detailed information about the integration with Outlook Business Contact Manager.
Business Services
Office Accounting 2007 offers a series of online business services which enhance the capabilities of the product. These services must be setup individually online. The business services are available from the Startup Wizard, and they can also be accessed from the main menu by selecting Company, Business Services, Services Overview. The various add-on services available in Office Accounting 2007 are described in detail in the Business Services module.
Updates to Office Accounting 2007
Microsoft continuously provides service packs and add-ins to Office Accounting 2007. Office Online has a list of all the updates, and from the help menu of Office Accounting 2007, you can find the latest update:
Check for updates
EndOfChapter3
Chapter 4
4: Import data from QuickBooks and Microsoft Money
Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 allows you to import data from your existing accounting application if you are using Intuit QuickBooks or Microsoft Money.
The import from QuickBooks or Money will create a new company file, so in order to start the import process you will have to close any open companies and select to import data from the Office Accounting start page
Start page in Microsoft Office Accounting 2007
Import Data from QuickBooks
Microsoft has created a tool where a new company file can be created from an existing QuickBooks company file. The tool is available as a free download from Microsoft and allows you to import all the data (including transactions) from the QuickBooks file.
Convert from QuickBooks Wizard
The Transaction Migration Update can be downloaded for free by clicking on the link in the wizard.
After downloading the update, it must be opened to install the update.
The Transaction Migration Update
Click Next to continue.
License Agreement
Select I accept the terms in the license agreement and click Next. The transaction migration upgrade will now be installed in a folder of your choice.
The tool is updated on a regular basis. Please note that the tool generally requires you to have the latest Office Accounting 2007 service pack installed.
Convert from QuickBooks Wizard
Click Next on the conversion wizard.
If you don’t download the transaction migration update you can still use the wizard, but you will only be able to convert master records.
The Convert from QuickBooks allows you to choose between importing master records and all data, including transactions:
Select type of data
Importing All Data from QuickBooks
It is recommended that you select All Data, so you don’t have to go back and reference old data in QuickBooks after the data has been imported. Note that this option requires QuickBooks to be installed on the same computer.
Click on the Browse button to pick the QuickBooks file (with a QBW file extension) you want to import.
Select QuickBooks data file
Select the QuickBooks file and press Open. Click Next in the wizard.
Access and migrate your data
You now need to give Office Accounting access to your QuickBooks file. The Allow Access button will help you accomplish this by opening QuickBooks and ask you if you want to provide access.
Giving Access to Office Accounting
Select the Yes, always; allow access even if QuickBooks is not running and Allow this application to access personal data options and press Continue. (This dialog may differ for different versions of QuickBooks).
Access Confirmation
QuickBooks will confirm that access has been granted. Press Done and close QuickBooks.
Select I have completed the above steps and s Next.
Company Details
The company details will be pre-filled with the information from the QuickBooks file. Validate the information and click Next.
Define fiscal year
Office Accounting will now ask you to validate the fiscal years from QuickBooks. As a default, Office Accounting will set the fiscal years to be one year long. Click Import when you have validated the fiscal years. This will start the database creation and migration.
Migrating data
Office Accounting will start by importing the master records. When the master records have been imported, the master record summary will be shown:
Master record import completed
The link on the page will take you to a log that has recorded all the records that were imported and the ones that did not import.
An example of a data migration log can be seen below:
Data migration log
Non-posting financial accounts such as accounts for sales orders, estimates, and purchase orders are not imported. Office accounting does not import fixed assets.
Click Next in the wizard when you have reviewed the data migration log.
Transactions pending import
Click Next to start the migration of transactions.
Importing QuickBooks Transactions
Importing transactions may take quite some time depending on how much data is in the QuickBooks file. Office accounting will show progress by incrementing the number of transactions that have been imported.
Importing QuickBooks Transactions
When the data has bee imported the import status is shown for all transactions:
QuickBooks data imported
As with the import of the master records, Office Accounting provides a log file that details the individual transactions that were imported. A sample log file is shown below:
Transaction Migration log
Click Finish in the wizard to complete the import and open the company.
Importing Master Records Only from QuickBooks
If you don’t have QuickBooks installed on your pc or you chose not to download the transaction migration update to Office Accounting 2007, you can still import the master record from QuickBooks.
Select type of data, Master records only
The following data will be imported:
• Financial Accounts
• Customers
• Vendors
• Employees
• Items
• Jobs
• Support lists
You can choose to import opening balances as well, which will set an opening balance for financial accounts, customers, vendors and inventory items.
Browse to the QuickBooks file and select Next to enter the company details.
Company details
Enter the company details and click Next to set up the fiscal year for the new company.
Define fiscal year
Click Import to start the import of master records. This will create the database and import the data specified.
Creating database and importing data
When the import is completed a summary is displayed:
Master record import completed
The link on the page will take you to a log that has recorded all the records that were imported and the ones that did not import.
An example of a data migration log can be seen below:
Data migration log
Non-posting financial accounts such as accounts for sales orders, estimates, and purchase orders are not imported. Office accounting does not import fixed assets.
After you have reviewed the log, click on Finish to complete the migration.
Import Data from Microsoft Money
Office Accounting 2007 also supports the import of data from Microsoft Money.
Convert from Microsoft Money wizard
Office Accounting 2007 imports the following data:
Microsoft Money Data Office Accounting 2007 Data
Account Account
Payee (marked as vendor) Vendor
Payee (marked as customer) Customer
Bill Bill
Deposit Journal entry
Transfer Journal entry
Paycheck Check
Investment purchase Other current asset
Invoice Invoice
Invoice (marked as estimate) Quote
Purchase Purchase order
Product Item
Service Item
Project Job
Reimbursable expense Billable expense
Business category Financial account
Recurring bill information Memorized transactions
Split transaction Multiple line items associated with different financial accounts
Sales tax Sales tax group and tax code
Ship by Shipping method
Payment terms Payment terms
Non-inventory items Non-inventory items
Fiscal years Fiscal years
Company details Company details
EndOfChapter4
Chapter 5
OA2007_05-General_Ledger.doc
5: Basic Accounting and Company Management
What is Accounting
Accounting is the art of recording, summarizing, reporting, and analyzing financial transactions. An accounting system can be a simple check register, or, as with Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, it can be a complete record of all the activities of a business, providing details of every aspect of the business, allowing the analysis of business trends, and providing insight into future prospects.
By using Office Accounting, you can work with your accountant to set up your accounting system to meet the needs of your business.
Recording, summarizing, reporting, and analyzing
Recording transactions includes documenting revenues (by invoices or sales receipts), and entering purchases (in the account payable account) and expenditures (in the check register). Using Office Accounting, the small business owner can move beyond daily recording to higher level accounting tasks, such as recording sales orders, tracking prospective customers, and projecting sales opportunities and cash flow.
Calculating and summarizing transactions in a traditional accounting system is a tedious process. Office Accounting frees you from these repetitive tasks by calculating and summarizing hundreds or thousands of individual transactions and generating reports to satisfy managerial, governmental, investing, or banking needs. Based on a generally accepted standard, these reports are powerful tools to help the business owner, accountant, banker, or investor analyze the results of their operations.
Double-entry accounting
Since the fourteenth century, when Luca Pacioli first wrote about the practice, the term “accounting” has referred to double-entry accounting. Double-entry accounting uses a system of accounts to categorize transactions. Each transaction that is entered consists of one or more debits and credits, and the total debits must equal the total credits. For example, if you purchase a car with a down payment of $1,000 and a loan from your bank for another $14,000, the entries to record this transaction would be the following:
• A debit of $15,000 to your fixed asset account named, for example, “Vehicles”.
• A credit of $1,000 to your bank account for the down payment.
• A credit to an Auto Loans account for $14,000.
• The entries balance because the $15,000 debit is equal to the sum of the two credits.
If you’re not a bookkeeper or an accountant, the whole system of debiting certain accounts and crediting others can seem reversed. This is because banking transactions have traditionally been described from the bank’s perspective. A credit from the bank will increase your checking account balance on the bank’s books. Bank accounts are assets on your books, so you will record a debit (see the following table) to your checking account while the bank records a credit to its liability account.
Account Type Normal Balance Debit Credit
Asset Debit Debits increase asset balances Credits decrease asset balances
Liability Credit Debits decrease liability balances Credits increase liability balances
Equity Credit Debits decrease equity balances Credits increase equity balances
Income Credit Debits decrease income balances Credits increase income balances
Expense Debit Debits increase expense balances Credits decrease expense balances
The following table illustrates which accounts are debited and which are credited for three types of transactions.
Action
Account Type Debit or Credit
Sell an inventory item Accounts Receivable Debit
Income Credit
Inventory Credit
Cost of Goods Sold Debit
Create a credit memo for a customer for an inventory item Inventory Debit
Cost of Goods Sold Credit
Income Debit
Accounts Receivable Credit
Purchase an inventory item Inventory Debit
Accounts Payable Credit
If debits and credits seem overwhelming, don’t be discouraged. Office Accounting uses double-entry accounting; however, the debiting and crediting to various accounts is done for you. You enter transactions and Office Accounting will calculate and enter the debits and credits. Because you are freed from thinking about debits and credits, you can focus on the accounts used to summarize and categorize transactions.
Accrual and Cash basis accounting
Most businesses use one of two accounting methods to keep track of their transactions. These accounting methods consist of rules that are used to determine when and how income and expenses are reported.
With the accrual basis of accounting, used by all publicly traded companies and most large businesses, income is recorded when it is earned and expenses are recorded when they are incurred. With the cash basis of accounting, used primarily by smaller businesses, income is recorded when it is received and expenses are recorded when they are paid. Individuals generally use cash basis accounting when they file their income tax returns.
Some important differences between these two methods are:
• There are no receivables or payables in a cash basis balance sheet.
• For small businesses that are within certain income tax limits, there may not be inventory on a cash-basis balance sheet.
• Only the cash amounts that are collected from sales and other revenue activities are shown as income in cash basis reports; on accrual basis reports, income includes both collected and uncollected amounts.
• Only the cash paid to vendors and others are shown as Expenses in cash basis reports, whereas on accrual basis reports, Expenses include both paid and unpaid amounts.
When you open reports in Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, the reports display, by default, either a cash basis view or an accrual basis view, depending on what you selected in the Preferences section of the Startup Wizard. You can change your selection on the Company tab in the Company Preferences dialog box.
Cash discounts that you offer your customers and the write-off of uncollectible customer amounts both represent a reduction in the cash to be collected from sales. Similarly, the discounts you take when paying vendors represent a reduction in the cash paid on purchases. The reporting of these items in sales and income tax returns is different from state to state. The Office Accounting 2007 cash basis reports display these amounts so you can properly report them on your tax return if your state or other tax agency permits these items to be deductions.
Accounts and Documents
Office Accounting is built around two fundamental concepts; Accounts and documents.
Accounts
Accounts represent static data that are used when creating documents. Documents in turn will also belong to one or more accounts. The accounts in Office Accounting are as follows:
• Financial Accounts are account used for financial postings. These accounts hold the financial information for the company.
• Customers are the companies or the people you sells products and services to
• Jobs are time constrained projects performed for customers
• Vendors are the companies or people you buy products and services from
• Items are the products and services you buy and/or sell
• Employees are people working for your company
Documents
Documents are like physical paper documents which contain information business transactions. The transactions can either be an actual financial transaction such as an invoice or a future financial transaction, such as a purchase order.
The documents in Office Accounting are:
• Quotes are offers given to customers in hope that they will accept the quote and purchase products or services from the company
• Sales Orders are orders that have been requested by customers, but not yet completed or invoiced
• Invoices are customer orders that are being billed and fulfilled
• Cash Sales are invoices that are being paid at the time of purchase
• Customer Payments are payments for one or more invoices
• Customer Credit Memos are credits to the customer for returned items or discounts given after the sale
• Returns are payments made back to customers
• Write Offs are journal entries writing off part or all of a customer’s balance
• Finance Charges are invoices with charges for missing or late payments
• Online Orders are sales orders for online sales. The can be invoiced
• Online Sales Receipts are online sales that are being paid as they are being sold
• Purchase Orders are orders to your vendors for products or services
• Item Receipts are used for adding received goods to inventory before the bill is received from the vendor
• Bills are invoices from vendors for products or services
• Cash Purchases are similar to bills but they are paid when the purchase is made
• Vendor Credit Memos are credits for products or services from your vendor
• Vendor Payments are payments made for one or more bills
• Time Entries are used to enter time spent by an employee for a customer or job
• Timesheets are used to track time used on a weekly basis
• Checks are physical checks to vendors employees or customers
• Credit Card Charges are purchases made with a company credit card
• Credit Card Credits are credits from the bank or a vendor on the credit card
• Credit Card Misc. Fees are fees from the bank
• Deposits are used to deposit cash and checks received into a ban account
• Fund Transfers are used to transfer funds between accounts
• Bank Fees are fees charged by the bank
• Interest Income transactions are interest credits to you by the bank
• Journal Entries are used for adjustment to financial accounts
• Opening Balances are transaction made when setting up a company
• Currency Adjustments are adjustments to the value of foreign currency accounts made at the end of the year
• Sales Tax Payments are payments to tax agencies
Financial Accounts
Office Accounting 2007 provides 16 different financial account types as described in the Setting up a new company module:
1. Income
2. Other income
3. Expense
4. Other expense
5. Cost of goods sold
6. Cash
7. Bank
8. Other current asset
9. Inventory asset
10. Other asset
11. Fixed asset
12. Credit card
13. Payroll liability
14. Current liability
15. Long-term liability
16. Equity
The individual account types are described in the sections below.
Income Account Types
Income
Income accounts are used for revenue from sales of goods and services to your company's customers. It is usually also used for cash discounts given to customers, as this reduces the income. The account form looks as follows:
Income account form
The only mandatory information is the name of the financial account.
On the profit and loss report the Income accounts are placed at the top under the label Income.
The fields on the different account forms are mostly identical for most account types and are described in the table below:
Field
Description
Account type Denotes the type of the account.
Account no. Used to reference the account when turned on in Company Preferences. Account numbers can be used instead of the name of the account when creating new documents, such as checks or journal entries.
Account name The name of the account. This name must be unique
Status Active If the account is active. Inactive accounts do not appear in drop-downs and are as default filtered out when looking at the chart of accounts; however it is still possible to record transactions to an inactive account.
Subaccount of Office Accounting allows accounts to exist in a hierarchy up to 5 levels deep. If an account is a subaccount of another account, that account is known as the parent account. In the profit and loss report and on the balance sheet, amounts on subaccounts are added to the balance of parent accounts
Hierarchy This visually shows where the account is placed in the hierarchy
Cash Flow category Used for the Cash Flow Statement report. An account can be in the Operating, Financing or Investment category.
Opening Balance The balance of the account. You can set an opening balance for the account by typing a balance as of the date specified in the As of field (by default the company start date).
As of The financial date of the opening balance
1099 Category The 1099 Category list reflects the categories on the 1099-MISC forms you send, at tax time, to vendors you have designated as 1099 Vendors
Include in cash-basis reports Denotes if the account is treated as a cash account and thus included in cash basis reports
Comments Add additional information about the account you are creating here.
Other Income
Other Income account are usually used for interest and investment income and income that does not come from the company’s ordinary operation.
The other income account form is identical to the Income account form.
On the profit and loss report the other income accounts are placed after the ordinary income and expenses under the label other income / expenses.
Expense Account Types
Expense
Expense accounts represent what your company is spending to operate the business. For example, operating expenses include wages, rent, supplies, advertising, or utilities. Expense accounts are sometimes known as operating expenses.
The expense account form is identical to the Income account form.
On the profit and loss report, expenses are deducted from the gross profit to get the net ordinary income.
Other expense
Similar to other income, other expense accounts represent expenses that do not relate to the normal course of your company's business or financing expenses such as interest payments on long-term debt.
The other expense account form is identical to the Income account form.
On the profit and loss report, other expenses are placed after the ordinary income and expenses under the label other income / expenses.
Cost of goods sold
Cost of goods sold (COGS) accounts are special expense accounts that represent the cost of goods, materials, or services that are directly related to the generation of your company's sales revenues. COGS accounts are sometimes known as direct expenses.
The cost of goods sold account form is identical to the Income account form.
On the profit and loss report, COGS are deducted from the company income to get the gross profit.
Asset Account Types
Cash
Cash accounts consist of cash items, such as petty cash or undeposited funds.
When setting up a new company, Office Accounting will automatically create a cash system account called Undeposited Funds. This account is used to store cash and checks received from customers but not yet deposited in the bank.
The cash account form is identical to the Income account form. On the Balance Sheet report, cash accounts are placed at the top under current assets, cash.
Bank
Bank accounts are used for physical bank accounts as well as assets that are liquid or easily convertible to cash. For example, checking, savings and money market accounts, short-term investments, and some securities.
The bank account form looks as follows:
Bank account form
The bank account form has additional information about the bank name, the bank account type and the bank account number.
Tip
Your bank may not be listed in the bank name drop-down. This list can be updated by starting the Sign up for online banking wizard..
On the Balance Sheet report, bank accounts are placed at the top under current assets, cash.
Other current asset
Other current asset accounts are used for assets that have a life of less than one year but fall outside the types listed above. An example could be employee advances.
A special version of the other current asset account is the Accounts Receivable system account which is created when you set up a new company. This is used for customer balances.
The other current asset account form is identical to the Income account form
Inventory asset
Inventory asset accounts hold the value of the inventory items on hand. Whenever an inventory item is purchased or sold, the value of the inventory is adjusted based on the acquisition cost of the inventory item.
You can set up as many inventory item accounts as you like for your inventory. The inventory account form looks as follows:
Inventory account form
The inventory asset account form is identical to the income account form, except that you cannot set an opening balance for inventory asset accounts. The opening balance is set by setting up quantity on hand and value for new inventory items.
Inventory valuation is explained in detail in the Items and Inventory Management module.
Other asset
Other asset accounts are typically used for assets of a minor type that are classified outside of the current or fixed asset categories. They can include investments or intangible assets such as goodwill or patents.
The other asset account form is identical to the Income account form.
Fixed asset
Fixed asset accounts are used for equipment, property, or plant assets that are purchased to use in your company rather than for resale. Fixed assets can be depreciated over various lengths of time depending on their type. Your company can absorb the expense over a period of time.
The fixed asset account form is identical to the Income account form.
Microsoft is providing an add-in that enables detailed handling of fixed assets. Add-ins for Office Accounting 2007 are explained in the Add-ins module.
Liability Account Types
Credit card
Credit card accounts are used for your company credit card issued by a financial institution.
The account form looks as follows:
Credit card account form
Like the bank account form, the credit card account form holds additional information about the bank, the credit limit and the last 4 digits of the credit card.
Payroll liability
Payroll liability accounts are used for tax obligations that the company owes to Federal and State tax agencies as a result of running payroll. When setting up a new company, Office Accounting creates a number of payroll liability accounts for the payroll powered by ADP.
The payroll liability account form is identical to the Income account form.
Current liability
Current liability accounts are used for obligations due within one year or the normal operating cycle of your business. Short-term notes, accrued liabilities, and taxes accruals are examples of this type of account.
A special version of the current liability account is the Accounts Payable system account which is created when you set up a new company. This is used for vendor balances.
Another system account is the Sales tax Payable which is used for sales taxes and tax vendor balances.
The current liability account form is identical to the Income account form.
Long-term liability
Long-term liabilities are obligations of greater than one year or the normal operating cycle of your business. Mortgages, long-term notes, or non-current portions of customer warranties are examples of this type of account.
The long-term liability account form is identical to the Income account form.
Equity Account Types
Equity
The final account type is the equity account, which is an account to record the difference between assets and liabilities. This category is also known as net worth, shareholders' equity, or net assets on company balance sheets.
There are two special equity accounts. The first is the Retained Earnings account, which records the cumulative amount of net income left in the company. Whenever you close a fiscal year, Office Accounting posts the net result to retained earnings by clearing all the balance s of income and expense accounts.
The second account is the Opening Balance Equity system account, which is used to offset the opening balance of all other financial accounts as well as opening balances for customers, vendors and inventory items. When all balances have been set up, the balance of the opening balance equity account should be zero.
The equity account form is identical to the Income account form.
The Chart of Accounts
The chart of accounts lists all the financial accounts that have been set up in Office Accounting along with their type and balance:
Chart of Accounts
Notice that subaccounts are indented and their balances are rolled up into the balance of their parent account. This is the way the chart of accounts depict the hierarchy of the accounts.
If you click on the Collapse Hierarchy button at the top of the chart of accounts, the list will be “flattened” so each account displays just the balance of itself.
Chart of Accounts with collapsed hierarchy
As you can see in the image above the 2200 Payroll Liabilities account no longer contains the balances of its subaccounts.
Account Balances
The balances if the different financial accounts are displayed with the sign expected for the account type. This means that a debit balance is positive for asset and expense accounts and a credit balance is positive for liability, equity and income accounts. This makes it easier to see if an account has unusual activity on it.
The Account Register
When you double-click any account in the chart of accounts, the account register for the account is opened.
Account Register
The account register contains all the transactions that have been posted to the financial account.
The Show Transactions filter at the top left of the form allows you to see a subset of the transactions (e.g. last 30 days) or all the transactions posted to the account.
The Ending Balance at the bottom left shows the balance as of the latest dated posting (which could potentially be in the future).The columns are as follows:
Column
Description
(icon) The column will show an icon if the transaction has been voided, matched or reconciled. Additionally it shows an icon at the bottom of the account register where the user can add new transactions
Date The financial date of the transaction
Type Document type
Document No. Document number
Increase Amount which the transaction increases the balance
Reduce Amount which the transaction reduces the balance
Account Financial account offsetting the transaction. Multiple means that the transaction is made against multiple financial accounts.
Memo Memo provided on the document
Balance Resulting balance of the transaction
Adding Transactions
You can add transactions to the account either by using the Make Journal Entry button (see Journal Entries below) or by editing the last, editable line in the account register.
The editable line in the account register
When adding a transaction using the editable line, do the following:
1. Pick a date.
2. Type the amount to increase or decrease the account with
3. Select the offset account (the other account that is affected, e.g. the expense account)
4. Type a memo.
As you tab to the next line, Office Accounting will let you know that the transaction is being saved:
The transaction is being saved
Journal Entries
Journal entries are typically recorded to make changes in the system in order to reclassify items, correct errors, or record adjusting transactions. Journal entries are the primary document used by accountants to make adjustments at the end of the month or year.
Journal Entry
Creating a new Journal Entry
Use the following steps to create a journal entry:
1. On the Company menu, click New Journal Entry.
2. If necessary, change the journal entry number.
3. Type a memo to describe this journal entry (optional).
4. Pick a date for the first line on the journal entry. The default date is today.
5. Click the drop-down list in the Type column and select the appropriate option. Depending on what option is chosen, different records will displayed in the Account column.
• Financial Account – The chart of accounts is available in the Account field.
• Vendor – The vendor list is available in the Account field and the Accounts Payable account will be updated.
• Customer – The customer list is available in the Account field and the Accounts Receivable account will be updated.
• Tax Code – The list of tax codes will be available in the Account field and the Taxes Payable account will be updated.
6. Select the appropriate account, vendor, customer, or tax code in the Account column.
7. Enter an amount in the Debit column if this is a debit entry or enter an amount in the Credit column if this is a credit entry.
8. Repeat steps 5 through 7 until the Balance field display $0.00. This means that debits and credits equal each other and the journal entry is in balance.
9. Repeat steps 4 through 8 for the next transaction on the journal entry
10. Click Save and Close.
Journal Entry Tips
• When entering general journal entries, it is a good idea to use a consistent format. Many bookkeepers enter the debits first, and then the credits. This makes for a more readable presentation.
• The journal entry memo should convey the reason or purpose of the journal entry as this shows up in the memo line of the account register.
Company Lists
From the company area you can reach a number of lists:
Company Lists
The company lists are explained in the table below:
List
Contains Default sorting Default View
Chart of Accounts All the financial accounts. Account type Active accounts
Journal Entry List All journal entries, including opening balances, bank transfers and fiscal year closings Date Non voided
Item List All items for purchase and sale Item name Active items
Customer List All customers “File as” customer name Active customers
Vendor List All vendors “File as” vendor name Active vendors
Employee List All employees “File as” employee name Active employees
Payment List All payments made by the company Payment date Not issued payments
Memorized Document List Memorized documents of any type Next reminder date All memorized documents
Company Information
The company information dialog is the place where you set up the basic information about the company, such as name, legal name and contact information:
Company Information dialog
The company information dialog can be found on the Company menu.
You can set up 3 addresses for the company (Business, Legal and Shipping).
Company Preferences
The Company Preferences dialog enables you to make appropriate selections that will configure Office Accounting to best accommodate your company. Select Company, Preferences to open the company preferences dialog:
Company Preferences
The preferences on the different tabs are explained below:
Overall Company Preferences
The overall company preferences on the Company tab are:
Use account numbers – This will enable you to number your financial accounts so they can be used by either name or number. Account numbers can be up to 40 characters in length, and can be any combination of numbers, letters and special characters. Each account number has to be unique (if assigned). Account numbers can be changed at any point in time.
When account numbers are turned on they show up in the financial account forms, the chart of accounts, in drop-down boxes for accounts and in the financial reports.
Use classes – This will turn on classes in Office accounting. Classes are used for recording department or purpose on financial