The Expenses module is designed to enable you to track company expenses easily and accurately.
To ensure consistent and accurate reporting, you can set up vendors in the system to use when entering checks, invoices, credit memos, and transactions. You can either enter vendors on screen, or import vendor information from QuickBooks, Peachtree, or an Excel spreadsheet.
Once you set up a vendor in the system, you can:
§ Assign a default expense or liability account to the vendor. This account is then selected by default when you enter a transaction for this vendor, although you can change the default account to any other account, or expense the transaction to multiple accounts.
§ Identify vendors as sales representatives, for printing on customer invoices and tracking sales activity by sales representative, or as sales tax agents for paying state sales tax liabilities.
§ Identify 1099 vendors and specify the type of 1099, any initial balance, and other information. Alternatively, you can designate any transaction as a 1099 transaction regardless of the vendor. The system keeps a running total of 1099 transactions for all vendors, and lets you process Forms 1099 and 1096 at year end, including red copies.
The Expenses module enables you to use a number of different methods to record expenses, depending on the company’s way of doing business.
The Check Entry method, in which you enter checks directly into the system, is the simplest method of recording disbursements, and is well-suited for over-the-counter businesses, bypassing the Expenses module. Checks can be written to vendors you have already set up, or to any miscellaneous payee.
You can print checks or create Digital Checks and generate check numbers from the system, or record handwritten checks by check number, and you can designate any check as a 1099 check.
Alternatively, you can enter or import expenses and cash disbursements as double-sided entries.
To record double-entry transactions, you can record activity to the Purchases or Cash Disbursements Journals, either selecting vendors you have entered into the system, or entering payee names on the fly. The system supports departments and job costing, and enables you to set up recurring invoices, or create Transaction Templates for journals you enter repeatedly.
If you maintain expense transactions in another system but use the system for analysis and financials, you can import transactions from QuickBooks desktop, QuickBooks Online, or a properly formatted Excel file.
If you require a complete Accounts Payable system, you can use the options in the Expenses module to track vendor bills, credit memos, purchase orders, and payments.
The Expenses module enables you to set up bills so that bill creation becomes a simple matter of selecting a vendor and entering the amount paid.
You can optionally upload scanned images of any vendor bill to the Enter Bill screen as attachments, as a record of the original bill if needed for review or audit. The system also enables you to offer bill payment services to your clients, using the attachments to enter bill details on screen and then pay the checks.
You can specify additional information, such as the following:
§ Discount: Record discounts from vendors, if you have created an expense account for Purchase Discount.
§ Split Expenses: Split the total amount for any bill between multiple accounts, jobs, and departments.
§ 1099: Add the amount from any bill to the vendor's annual 1099 total.
§ Departments: Apply invoices in full to a single department, or line-by-line.
§ Job Costing: Set up jobs for your customers and allocate expenses to one or more jobs or job categories.
§ Inventory: Track inventory items, entering the quantity purchased and cost per quantity. The quantity on hand is adjusted and the cost tracked when the item is resold.
§ Recover Expenses: Generate a customer invoice from the Expenses module as you enter a bill to recover expenses from a customer.
§ Purchase Orders: Create bills from purchase orders you created.
§ Recurring bill: Make any vendor bill recurring at an interval you specify from the Bills List.
To make bill payments, you can generate checks to vendors from the system, or record manual payments.
From the Payments screen, you can drill down from the reference number to the originating bill. In addition, you can attach scanned images of your payment checks for review or audit.
To apply a credit memo, you must have an open invoice from the vendor. When you pay the bill, the credit memo appears as a negative amount, and the balance due the vendor is reduced or zeroed by the credit. A credit memo is also generated automatically if you create a vendor with an opening credit balance.
If you designate a vendor as a sales tax agent (normally the government agency to which you pay sales tax), customer invoices taxed to that state are recorded on the Sales Tax Report for you to track sales tax liabilities. The Sales Tax Payments screen computes all sales tax collected from your customers by state, and lets you print a check to the sales tax agent.
The system provides a number of methods for review and reporting. On-screen lists are provided for many areas of the system for you to review and edit individual items such as invoices or payments.
The Find Transactions feature on the main menu bar lets you search for any transaction using a variety of filter criteria.
The Pay Bills screen displays all invoices paid on a single check to any vendor, and lets you drill down from any line to the originating bill or to the check used to pay it.
From the Journals screen, you can drill down from any line to the originating transaction.
In addition to on-screen review, the Reports menu provides a variety of reports to track expense and vendor activity, including:
§ Transactions Reports such as:
§ General Ledger: Reports all activity for a single account or multiple accounts.
§ Transaction Journals: Reports all activity for a selected journal, for all offset accounts, or a single account.
§ Departmental Transactions: Reports all activity for a single department or all departments.
§ Cash Register: Reports all cash transactions, such as deposits.
§ Customer Sales Reports, including the Sales Tax Liability report that displays sales tax liability for any states for which sales tax has been collected
§ Vendor Expenses Reports such as:
§ Vendor List: Lists vendor names, phone numbers, and addresses.
§ Vendor Card: Displays payment information for all vendor transactions.
§ Vendor Profile Detail: Delivers a more detailed version of the Vendor List, also usable as a 1099 vendor report.
§ Accounts Payable Aging: Tracks payables to identify overdue bills.
§ Vendor Register: Displays a summary of balances, invoices, and payments for any vendor.