Can I add custom classes for my chart of accounts?
How many prior years can I enter accounting information?
How do I set up partners and their accounts?
How do I set up and use multiple cash accounts?
What types of checks does Accounting Power support?
What can I do if my checks are not aligned correctly?
What is the difference between voiding and deleting a check?
How do I enter an advance payment or customer deposit?
What is the Mobile Upload feature?
How do I enter a customer refund?
How do I set up sales tax for customers?
How do I record undeposited customer payments?
Can I cancel or delete an open customer invoice?
How do I bill customers for expenses?
How do I apply a credit card payment to an open bill?
Can I make a journal entry without using an automatic offset?
What is the best practice for entering and posting transactions?
What's the best way to enter transactions I need frequently?
Why can’t I print a report or financial?
How can I eliminate URLs from printing if I am using Firefox?
Why am I not seeing variances on my comparative statements?
Why are my income statements printing without percentages?
Can I set up my financials differently for different types of recipients?
Do I need to close each period?
How long can I keep a year open?
What happens when a year is closed?
How can I back up my data to a secure location?
Can I add custom classes for my chart of accounts?
Most account classes in Accounting Power are fixed, but for the expenses section of the income statement, you can define three account classes of your own for any client and add the appropriate accounts. These classes default to the names Miscellaneous 1-3, but you can rename the classes as needed when setting up your Financial Preferences.
If you select the Customization option when setting up financial statements, you can position these classes in the order you want in the expenses area on the income statement. By default, all accounts assigned to these Miscellaneous classes print, but you can set up your own group codes if you want to print combined balances for any accounts within these classes.
For how many prior years can I enter accounting information?
You can enter transactions for three years before the present year, for example, to run comparative financials, or for clients who have not filed past-due taxes or otherwise kept their books up-to-date.
However, because Accounting Power lets you keep three years open at any time for entering accounting information, you must close the first year you are entering transactions to open an additional year. For example, if your earliest year is 2010, you can enter data for 2010, 2011, and 2012, but you must close 2010 to enter 2013.
You can also run comparative financial statements for up to four years before your earliest year. To do so, enter year-end trial balances for these earlier years.
You can delete an account as long as it is not associated with a transaction. To trace where the account is used before deleting, use the Find Transactions search function.
How do I set up partners or S corporation shareholders?
To set up partners or S corporation shareholders, choose an entity type of Partnership, LLC, or S Corporation in Company Information, and select Capital Allocation from the Company Menu.
Enter each partner's or shareholder's profit-sharing percentage. Each partner or shareholder should also be set up with a Capital, Capital Contributions, and Capital Distributions account. You can enter these accounts for a single partner or shareholder and then generate the account structure for all others automatically.
How do I set up and use multiple cash accounts?
You can set up unlimited cash accounts, each of which must be linked to a bank. This relationship lets you use any cash account as an offset for entering transactions and other purposes.
If you set up a bank, you are prompted to create a cash account, and if you set up a cash account, you are required to name a bank. You can designate one bank as your primary account for banking transactions.
What types of checks does Accounting Power support?
When you set up your banks, you can specify the check type you use. Accounting Power supports:
QuickBooks-compatible checks
Pre-printed checks
MICR checks (print position top, middle, or bottom)
You can order MICR checks (mid-position) and compatible envelopes through AccountantsWorld.
What can I do if my checks are not aligned correctly?
If your checks do not align vertically, use the Vertical Position Adjustment in Bank Setup (Checks) to raise or lower the check image 1” in either direction. If this does not solve your problem, click the Print icon from Adobe Acrobat Reader and select these options:
Set Page Scaling to None
Select Advanced, then Print as Image.
What is the difference between voiding and deleting a check?
Deleting a check purges it completely without any trace of journal activity. Voiding a check retains a record of the original journal activity.
How do I enter an advance payment or customer deposit?
If you receive an advance payment before an invoice is generated, you can enter this amount as unapplied cash. To do so, you must have first set up a Deposits Payable liability account and assigned it to the category Deposit Account.
When you create the invoice, the deposit amount is applied by default to the customer’s balance due.
What is the Mobile Upload feature?
The Mobile Upload feature enables you to create and upload images of cash receipts and vendor bills for processing from your phone. Download the Mobile Upload application to your device and log in using your system user name and password, identify whether you are creating an image of a bill or a cash receipt, tap Add, and then tap Upload.
The image of the bill or receipt is recorded and stored for processing. The next time you access the Cash Receipts or Enter Bills screen, any pending cash receipts or bills are presented for processing.
How do I enter a customer refund?
You can issue a refund to any customer for whom you have entered an overpayment, a credit memo, or a deposit marked as an Invoice Payment.
From the Customer Refund screen, you can record a manually-issued refund check or approve a system-generated refund check for printing.
Select the customer, enter the amount to refund and the account from which to issue the refund check, and approve the payment.
How do I set up sales tax for customers?
For companies required to collect sales tax, you can set up one location as the default you expect to use for computing sales tax on customer invoices. If you need a different location and sales tax rate for any customer, specify it in the setup screen for that customer.
To compute the tax, you must also set up a current liability account and assign it to the category Sales Tax Payable.
When you enter a customer invoice, it computes sales tax using the company default or the customer’s own rate. You can also adjust the tax rate for any individual invoice.
How do I record undeposited customer payments?
To record payments received before you deposit them to your bank, set up a current assets account linked to the category Undeposited Funds. This functions as a holding account for recording payments until you deposit them.
To record cash receipts payments: Enter the payment as a cash deposit using your holding account as the bank account. When ready to record the actual deposit, locate your entry from the Cash Receipts list and select the items to deposit.
To record customer invoice payments: Select your Undeposited account as the bank account to record an undeposited payment. When ready to record the deposit, filter the Cash Receipts screen to display the Undeposited Account, select the items to include on your deposit slip, and click Move.
Undeposited cash payments must be recorded and deposited within the same period.
Can I cancel or delete an open customer invoice?
Before an invoice has been paid, it can be voided or deleted. Voiding creates a reversing entry, while deleting purges the invoice as if it never existed.
However, if a payment has been recorded, you must first remove the payment before you can act on the invoice. Locate the payment on the Customer Payments List and click the Reference number. You can now void or delete the payment.
How do I bill customers for expenses?
When you create a Customer Invoice, select Expense as the Type code, and enter the expenses to bill the customer. Alternatively, if you enter a vendor bill and know you are recovering expenses, check Recover the Expense from Customers to generate the customer invoice.
How do I apply a credit card payment to an open bill?
To record a vendor invoice that you are paying by credit card, enter the vendor’s bill into the system. From the Expenses menu, select Credit Card and select the credit card and billing date to use. In Statement Details, enter your payment date, select the payee vendor, and enter the amount to charge on your credit card. Click Apply Towards Bill and select the line corresponding to your vendor invoice number.
Can I make a journal entry without using an automatic offset?
To enter both debits and credits, use the General Journal. The General Journal also allows a 1-side entry, if needed, although a warning appears before you post it.
What is the best practice for entering and posting transactions?
Transaction Entry lets you enter multiple transactions quickly without having to set up customer or vendor invoices. Because an offset account is used to balance transactions, you gain speed by entering only debits for disbursements or credits for receipts.
Transactions are saved upon entry and can be edited if needed. For maximum system efficiency, we recommend posting all related transactions for any period at once. Transactions written to separate journals (such as Cash Disbursements, Sales, etc.) must be posted separately.
For even greater efficiency, create transaction templates for journal entries you use repeatedly.
What is the best way to enter transactions I need frequently?
For transactions you enter frequently, such as daily sales records, you can create transaction templates. Select the appropriate journal (Cash Receipts, Sales, Purchases, etc.) and enter a name for the template, then enter as much information as you know in advance, and save. You can then apply the template when needed to enter the amounts or any other necessary information.
Yes, if no payroll transactions have been entered for the employee.
Why can't I print a report or financial?
Typically, printing issues are the result of the following, not directly related to Accounting Power:
You must install or reinstall Adobe Acrobat Reader
A pop-up blocker is preventing the report from running. You can press the Ctrl key and click View Report to work around this or enable pop-ups for Accounting Power.
How can I eliminate URLs from printing if I am using Firefox?
To remove URLs that print with any document in PDF format (such as a check, report, invoice, or financial statement) on Firefox, select Tools, Options, and select Applications in Firefox, and, under Content Type, select Portable Document Format (PDF) to adjust your settings to recognize Adobe Acrobat Reader. Use the drop-down list to change Preview in Firefox to Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox).
Why do I not see variances on my comparative statements?
You must both check Show Variance for the balance sheet or income statement in Financial Preferences, and select a comparative type of statement on the Print Financials screen.
Why are my income statements printing without percentages?
Ensure that you have selected the Show Percent of Sales option on the Income Statement Options panel on the General Options tab of the Preferences screen, available from the Financials drop-down menu. Alternatively, verify that you set up the category for Sales Revenue in your chart of accounts.
Can I set up financials differently for different types of recipients?
You can format your balance sheet and income statement independently for three different recipients — for example, for yourself, your client, and a bank. If your client has access to the system, they see only the format you have marked as the client default.
Do I need to close each period?
It is not absolutely necessary to close any period (once a year is closed, all periods within it are automatically closed). When a period is closed, the system resets the default period ending date, posts any recurring or reversing journals to the next period, and prevents clients from writing entries to the closed period. Accountants, however, can continue to make entries such as adjustments to any closed period.
How long can I keep a year open?
You can keep three years open at any time, as established by the book year-end date on the Setup Company screen, enabling you to work in year 3 without immediately having to close year 1 or 2. During year 3, you must close year 1 to be able to enter data for year 4. Once a year is closed, it cannot be re-opened.
What happens when I close a year?
Closing a year is an irreversible process, so only accountants can perform this function. When you close a year:
Net profit or loss is calculated, and retained earnings updated.
Partners’ or shareholders’ capital is calculated, based on your allocation percentages.
The closed year's ending balances are rolled over to the next year's beginning balances.
All revenue and expense accounts and any equity-specific accounts for partners or shareholders are zeroed.
All fully paid customer and vendor invoices are deleted (journal entries are retained).
Profit and loss accounts and any equity-specific accounts such as Partner's Draw, Shareholder Distributions, etc. are reset to zero.
Before closing a year:
Review your trial balance to ensure accuracy, enter any necessary tickmarks and notes, and write adjusting entries.
Archive invoices, bills, year-end financials, and essential reports to Cloud Cabinet.
Email your client advising them the year is closed.
After you close a year, you can still enter payments for transactions originated in the closed year, and reconcile outstanding check and deposits from the closed year in the Bank Reconciliation.
How can I back up my data to a secure location?
It is important to back up your data on regular, periodic basis. In addition, it is particularly important to back up your data before you close a year, to ensure that you retain accurate records that may be needed for review or audit, and to create archival copies of vendor or customer invoices that were fully paid in a particular year. You can keep three years of data at any time for transaction entry. When you close a year, you can no longer access that year's paid vendor or customer invoices, so you must back up your data to create archival copies.
Use any of the following methods to back up data:
We strongly recommend that you use Cloud Cabinet, our electronic document storage system and client portal, to keep copies of your clients’ invoices, bills, reports, and financials. Cloud Cabinet can be configured to back up this information automatically, and is always available to you and your clients from any Internet connection.
Print hard copies of essential financial statements and reports.
Save financials and reports in PDF format from Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Export documents to Excel, to store them in spreadsheet form.