FAQs > What should NOT be expected from this solution?
- This solution is NOT a rigid double entry bookkeeping system However, this system does have the potential to have the same types of checks and balances of such a system. If you follow our instructions you will reap most of those benefits with less time, hassle and education.
- This solution does NOT offer monthly statement reconciliation functionality. With some small tweaks, one could create or generate reports that could be used as reconciliation reports against bank statements quite easily if those were desired.
- This solution does NOT automatically produce a Balance Sheet. However, once you learn the simple steps for producing that manually you won't care about that and you'll be a more powerful Small Business person due to your added knowledge.
- This solution does not have hyperlink style drill down reporting. This is probably the biggest single user interface feature that will make you feel like you are taking a step backwards instead of forward. Google is in fact behind Microsoft in allowing local links to operate within in their spreadsheets. It's an incredibly simple thing for Google to implement so hopefully it makes it in one of the next upgrades. Truthfully, even if they create local links, it may never really provide for that awesome drill down functionality that makes websites great, but we feel this is insignificant in the big picture of Small Business and the need to do Accounting in a fast, efficient and affordable manner.
- This solution does not have a graceful way for handling split transactions. Split transactions are transactions in which multiple expense categories apply to a single transaction amount. If you have a proper accounting strategy, split transactions are typically rare and they can be worked around if you understand your accounting system limitations. If you ran a bar and restaurant tab at a hotel, and you planned on paying that bill with the total for the room, that final bill you'd pay would include meals and entertainment and travel, and parsing out the meals and entertainment from the other is relevant given they are only deductible at 50%, so this is an example of where a split transaction is required for proper accounting. If you want or need to track split transaction such as this with this system you would just enter two transactions with the partial amounts and you would categorize as appropriate. You would then note the split in the comments or you could in fact create a column that you could flag for split transaction entries if desired. With this setup the total of the splits must add up to the total transaction or your running balance cross reference for your Balance Sheet will produce an error.
- This solution does not automatically create multi-year reporting. We suggest starting over each year with a new Income Statement file. If you want multi-year reporting, you will just create an income statement file solely for archiving historical transactions. It's a 2 minute process that just isn't a big deal if you want that. It could also be created anytime in the future with just a few minutes of work if needed.