Basic bookkeeping for dummies software

Assets and liabilities like inventory, equipment and loans are tracked separately. Double-entry is more complex, but also more robust, and more suitable for established businesses that are past the hobby stage.

Under double-entry bookkeeping, all transactions are entered into a journal, and then each item is entered into the general ledger twice, as both a debit and a credit. Enter your transactions into this Excel template, and voila!

You get a ready-made Income Statement. Perfect for entrepreneurs who aren't ready for full-fledged accounting software. You have another important decision to make when setting up your bookkeeping: whether to make your accounting process cash or accrual based. Under cash accounting , you record transactions only once money has exchanged hands. Generally speaking, accrual accounting is better for larger, more established businesses. This helps your bookkeeper catch more deductions, and will make your life easier if you get audited.

Six months later, an unmarked receipt for lunch at a restaurant might not mean much to you. Was it a client lunch? Did you treat your employees after a successful quarter? The way you categorize transactions will depend on your business and industry.

Generally speaking, your transactions fall into five account types—assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Individual line items are then broken down into subcategories called accounts. Bookkeepers are responsible for recording, classifying, and organizing every financial transaction that is made through the course of business operations. Bookkeeping differs from accounting.

The accounting process uses the books kept by the bookkeeper to prepare the end of the year accounting statements and accounts. Very small businesses may choose a simple bookkeeping system that records each financial transaction in much the same manner as a checkbook. Businesses that have more complex financial transactions usually choose to use the double-entry accounting process. Bookkeeping is the process of keeping track of every financial transaction made by a business firm from the opening of the firm to the closing of the firm.

Depending on the type of accounting system used by the business, each financial transaction is recorded based on supporting documentation. That documentation may be a receipt, an invoice, a purchase order, or some similar type of financial record showing that the transaction took place.

The bookkeeping transactions can be recorded by hand in a journal or using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. Most businesses now use specialized bookkeeping computer programs to keep books that show their financial transactions.

Bookkeepers can use either single-entry or double-entry bookkeeping to record financial transactions. Bookkeepers have to understand the firm's chart of accounts and how to use debits and credits to balance the books. The bookkeeping process should allow for communication of the financial results of the firm at the end of the year for income tax purposes and the preparation of financial statements by the firm's accountant. Bookkeeping in a business firm is an important, but preliminary, function to the actual accounting function.

A bookkeeper collects the documentation for each financial transaction, records the transactions in the accounting journal, classifies each transaction as one or more debits and one or more credits, and organizes the transactions according to the firm's chart of account.

The financial transactions are all recorded, but they have to be summarized at the end of specific time periods. Some firms require quarterly reports. Other smaller firms may require reports only at the end of the year in preparation for doing taxes. At the end of the appropriate time period, the accountant takes over and analyzes, reviews, interprets and reports financial information for the business firm.

The accountant also prepares year-end financial statements and the proper accounts for the firm. One of the first decisions you have to make when setting up your bookkeeping system is whether or not to use a cash or accrual accounting system.

If you are operating a small, one-person business from home or even a larger consulting practice from a one-person office, you might want to stick with cash accounting. If you use cash accounting, you record your transaction when cash changes hands. Using accrual accounting, you record purchases or sales immediately, even if the cash doesn't change hands until a later time, Sometimes firms start their business using cash accounting and switch to accrual accounting as they grow.

If you are going to offer your customers credit or if you are going to request credit from your suppliers, then you have to use an accrual accounting system. You also have to decide, as a new business owner, if you are going to use single-entry or double-entry bookkeeping.

Single-entry bookkeeping is much like keeping your check register. You record transactions as you pay bills and make deposits into your company account. It only works if your company is relatively small with a low volume of transactions.

If your company is larger and more complex, you need to set up a double-entry bookkeeping system. Go the site map or enter a search term in the Google bar at the top of the website if you are looking for something specific. Are you currently studying this subject or business, finance or accounting? I am sure you will find this resource a helpful addition to your study material. Remember to Bookmark this site so you can easily return! I've yet to get a handle on my bookkeeping but for the first time ever, I'm actually feeling slightly comfortable about facing this task.

I hope to get a better handle on my personal budget as well as my business accounts! Thank you for this very impressive layout of documents and information! What a truly amazing initiative you have put together here. I am so glad to have come across your website - can not give enough good praise.

You far exceed any expectations - most of us are always so doubtful of someone actually coming through due to historically encountering failure after failure from the myriad of "free" and "I can help" site after site. You deliver exactly what you say and then some. Again, thank you very much. I've started self- employment and running the finances of my business was a terror!

Not anymore! I can grasp the basics and learn a little more everyday with your information! Site Sponsors. It lets you generate various types of reports related to your accounts. You can view quick summary of your account with one click.

As it is a desktop edition, there is no multi user support while multi user support is available in cloud edition paid. It is a cross platform program and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Express Accounts is a simple and easy to use accounting software. You can use this bookkeeping software for fulfilling daily account needs.

Free version is available for small business company with less than five employees. It can handle sales, purchases, banking and other useful modules easily. You can access this program through web as well as from your local network.

Various types of analysis and reports can be generated date wise as required. The program has an intuitive interface and working on this program is easy. GnuAccounting is a Java based multi-platform accounting and bookkeeping program. You can make various bookkeeping entries by clicking Bookkeeping button on its main interface. Import and Export of data from various formats in also its great feature.

As an administration tool you can design your own templates for Invoice, Credit Note, Receipt, Offer and various others. To use this template design feature you need to install OpenOffice or LibreOffice in your system.

Adminsoft Accounts is a free software for accounts. It has two levels of operating: Basic Level and Advanced Level. Beginners can use its basic level to learn its functionality. Every menu item is self-explanatory. As a Bookkeeper you can maintain daily transactions records in the respective account books.

You can customize its look from the Help menu. Home Page. Download Page. About Us. Provide details to get this offer. Cookies This site uses cookies: Find out more.