16. Managing Your Ledger

16.1 How Does Checkout Bookkeeping Work?

Each purchase order, invoice, payment or stock correction made in your store creates a journal entry in Checkout which can later be imported to an accounting application. Checkout follows an accrual based double entry accounting model internally to do so. When you create your store database you can select whether Checkout should use an Average Cost or a FIFO cost matching system to track your stock related transactions. Discussing the benefits of one method over the other falls beyond the scope of this manual, but it is something your accountant will gladly assist you with. Please note that you cannot change the cost matching system after you have created your store database.

Checkout’s bookkeeping system provides a solid starting point to account for your business in a GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) compliant way. Any transaction you make in Checkout is made final the moment it is performed. To make it easy to correct mistakes, various options are provided throughout the interface to make a correction. Whenever you make such a correction, a corresponding transaction will be created. In short, your bookkeeping records will always be accurate.

16.2 Integration

Checkout allows you to export your ledger and then import it to integrate with Acclivity's AccountEdge (2009+ Mac versions), Mamut's AccountEdge and AccountEdge Plus (2010+ versions), and Intuit’s QuickBooks Pro for Mac software (2007, 2009+ US versions). Below are details on how to setup your Checkout store to integrate with each of these packages.

16.2.1 Integration with AccountEdge

If you plan to integrate your Checkout store with AccountEdge, you first need to complete a one-time configuration in Checkout. After opening the Manager, select the Ledger option in the toolbar. Once the Ledger is open, click on the button towards the top-right corner labeled Export… On the left side of this window, you will see the option for the File Format. Click on the drop down list and select AccountEdge.

AccountEdge must be installed on the Mac that you are doing the one time configuration on. Checkout requires the AppleScript that is built into AccountEdge to access your company file's chart of accounts.

Click on the button labeled ‘Configure…’ that is shown on the right side of the Export window. The AccountEdge Configuration window will open. Click the Choose button and browse to the location of the AccountEdge company file you intend to import Checkout transactions into. After selecting your company file from the dialog that appears, enter your AccountEdge User ID and Password in the appropriate boxes and click the Continue button. If AccountEdge displays any window on top of the Command Center (such as a reminder window), Checkout will not be able to access the chart of accounts. Close the window and click Continue on the AccountEdge Configuration screen again.

Checkout will display a list of Checkout bookkeeping accounts and popups next to them where you can select the accounts from your AccountEdge company file that you want the Checkout accounts to be mapped to during an export session. After selecting an account in each popup click Continue to proceed to a second list of accounts to fill in. If the pulldown does not contain the account that you wish to select, place a check-mark in ‘Show all accounts’. After also matching the second list of Checkout accounts, click Continue to proceed to the date format screen and select the format Month/Day/Year. Then click Continue once more to store your settings and click Close.

Your Checkout store is now setup to export your ledger to your AccountEdge company file. From now on when you open the export window from the Ledger interface, you will notice that your AccountEdge company file is shown on the right hand side and that the ‘Save’ button at the bottom right corner is enabled. If you ever decide that you want to export to another AccountEdge company file, or to adjust how accounts are mapped, you can always click the ‘Configure…’ button again.

Below the ‘File Format’ field there are three buttons which allow you to select what will be exported from the ledger. Those options are:

• All Transactions - This option allows you to export all transactions entered in your store from the first entry through the last entry.
• Selection Only - This option will export whatever currently appears in your ledger based on both the date range you have selected and any search terms you have entered in the Ledger search field.
• Since Last Export - This option will export all entries made since you last exported your ledger in the currently selected file format. At the bottom of the window you’ll see a short description of the last transaction included in an export.

The ‘Since Last Export’ option is the recommended option when you using the exports to import into AccountEdge periodically. Whenever you are in doubt whether you actually imported a Checkout journal export into AccountEdge, you can use the description of the last exported transaction, displayed at the bottom of the Export window, to see for yourself if it appears in the Transaction Journal of your AccountEdge company file. Neither Checkout nor AccountEdge checks whether a transaction you are trying to import is a duplicate, so please save your exported files somewhere for later reference and always make a backup of your AccountEdge company file immediately before importing.

The last step is to choose what will occur when the export is complete. The options are:

• Reveal File - This option will direct you to the location of the file that was just exported from your store, allowing you to open, edit or delete the file as deemed necessary.
• Launch AccountEdge - This option will launch AccountEdge and allow you to import the ledger file immediately as a journal entry.
• Nothing - If this option is selected, the file will be exported with the selected name to the assigned location, and nothing more.

To complete the export process, enter a file name at the top, and choose a location to save the file. Once you have everything setup how you desire, click the Save button. Depending on which options you chose before, the file will either be revealed to you, AccountEdge will be launched, or you are brought back to the ledger.

The final step is to import your file into AccountEdge. To do so, first have your AccountEdge company file open. Go to the File menu and choose the Import Data option. In the sub-menu, scroll down to the option for General Journal Entries. On the next screen, select that ‘Tab-delimited’ as the import file format and that the first record is a Header Record, then click continue. You will be prompted to browse for the file you wish to import. Select the file that was created during the export process above and choose open. At the bottom of the screen, select the option titled Match All. This will match each of the entries from the export file to the format necessary for import to your AccountEdge company file. Verify that the matches AccountEdge makes automatically are correct, then click the Import button. The system will show you a progress bar, and upon completion, will provide you with a breakdown of what was imported. If there were any errors or warnings, you can check the import error log by going to the folder in which your AccountEdge company file is stored and double-clicking the file titled ‘AccountEdge Import Log’. This log file will provide you with a detailed explanation of any errors or warnings that might have occurred.

16.2.2 Integration with QuickBooks Pro for Mac

If you are using Intuit’s QuickBooks Pro for Mac and you plan to integrate your Checkout store with it, the first step is open your Company File in QuickBooks and choose the select the File menu and then the Export and Lists to IIF File. Select the boxes next to Chart of Accounts and Vendor List and then select OK and save the file to a convenient location.

The next step is to configure Checkout to work with your QuickBooks company file. To do so, first open the Manager Window and then select the Ledger option on the menu bar. Once the Ledger is open, click on the button towards the top-right corner labeled Export… On the left side of this window, you will see the option for the File Format. Click on the drop down list and select QuickBooks.

Click on the button labeled ‘Configure…’ that is shown on the right side of the Export window. The QuickBooks Configuration window will open. At least one vendor needs to be present in the QuickBooks company file that Checkout will use as the vendor for the Sales Tax account.

Next click the ‘Choose’ button from the configuration window and select the IIF file from the dialog. Next, you are asked to select which vendor in your QuickBooks file you want to use as the vendor on Sales Tax accounts. Select the vendor from the drop-down list and then click the Continue button at the bottom of this screen.

Checkout will now display a list of Checkout bookkeeping accounts and popups next to them where you can select the accounts from your QuickBooks company file that you want the Checkout accounts to be mapped to during an export session. After selecting an account in each popup click Continue to proceed to a second list of accounts to fill in. If the pulldown does not contain the account that you wish to select, place a check-mark in ‘Show all accounts’. After also matching the second list of Checkout accounts to QuickBooks accounts, click Continue once more to store your settings.

Your Checkout store is now setup to export your ledger to your QuickBooks company file. From now on when you open the export window from the Ledger interface and select the ‘QuickBooks’ file format, you will notice that the ‘Save’ button at the bottom right corner is enabled. If you ever decide that you want to export to another QuickBooks company file, or to adjust how accounts are mapped, you can always click the ‘Configure…’ button again. If you change the names of any or more of the accounts in your QuickBooks company file that Checkout maps to, you will also have to go through the configuration process again.

Below the ‘File Format’ field there are three buttons which allow you to select what will be exported from the ledger. Those options are:

• All Transactions - This option allows you to export all transactions entered in your store from the first entry through the last entry.
• Selection Only - This option will export whatever currently appears in your ledger based on both the date range you have selected and any search terms you have entered in the Ledger search field.
• Since Last Export - This option will export all entries made since you last exported your ledger in the currently selected file format. At the bottom of the window you’ll see a short description of the last transaction included in an export.

The ‘Since Last Export’ option is the recommended option when you using the exports to import into QuickBooks periodically. Whenever you are in doubt whether you actually imported a Checkout journal export into QuickBooks, you can use the description of the last exported transaction, displayed at the bottom of the Export window, to see for yourself if it appears in the Transaction Journal of your QuickBooks company file. Neither Checkout nor QuickBooks checks whether a transaction you are trying to import is a duplicate, so please save your exported files somewhere for later reference and always make a backup of your QuickBooks company file before importing.

To complete the export process, enter a file name at the top, and choose a location to save the file. Once you have everything setup how you desire, click the Save button. When Checkout is done exporting, the newly created .IFF file that you can import into QuickBooks will be revealed in the Finder.

The final step is to import the file you created from Checkout in to QuickBooks. To do so, launch QuickBooks and open your QuickBooks company file. Next, go to the File menu and choose the ‘Import’ option. In the sub-menu, choose the option titled ‘From IIF Files…’. Choose the .IIF file that you exported from Checkout in the dialog that appears. If the file was imported properly, you will receive a message telling you that your data has been imported. If there were any issues, you will be notified via a pop-up message.

16.2.3 Other Export Format Options

If you are not going to integrate with either AccountEdge or QuickBooks, you still have the option to export the ledger into a format that can be used to import into other packages, creates tables and charts or just to have a printed copy on hand for backup purposes. There are 4 other format options available to choose from. You can export in Excel format, Numbers format, a comma-separated (CSV) format and a tab-delimited (TSV) format. To do so, open the Manager Window and then choose the Ledger option from the menu bar. In the top-right corner, click on the Export… button. On the left side of this window, you will see the option for the File Format. Click on the drop-down menu and select the appropriate format from the list. Below that, you have three buttons which allow you to select what will be exported from the ledger. Those options are:

• All Transactions - This option allows you to export all transactions entered in your store from the first entry through the last entry.
• Selection Only - This option will let you export whatever currently appears in your ledger based on both the date range you have selected and any search terms you have entered in the Ledger search field.
• Since Last Export - This option will let you export all entries made since you last exported your ledger in the currently selected file format. At the bottom of the window you’ll see a short description of the last transaction included in an export.

On the right side of the screen, you have the option to choose the layout format of the ledger for the export. To choose the appropriate option, click on the drop-down list and select from the 2 available options:

• Journal - The journal layout exports a detailed version of the transactions in a double entry accounting layout.
• Simplified - The simplified layout exports transactions the same way they are presented in the simplified view in the ledger interface. The data generated using this option is not detailed enough to import into an accounting application, but it can be very useful as a more human readable summary of your store’s transactions.

16.3 Ledger Options

When you are looking at the ledger within Checkout, you have several options including the ability to specify a date range, filter the ledger by keywords and change the ledger view between 1 of 2 options.

16.3.1 Simplified View

The simplified view is exactly as the name would suggest, a simple breakdown of entries. This view shows the basics of each entry including the date and time of the entry, what the entry was, what customer or supplier the entry was made for, the profit amount (if any) on the entry and the total amount involved with the entry. You have the option to filter the list to seek specific actions, customers or suppliers by keying in what you are searching for in the filter bar. Change the Start and End dates at the top of the screen to specify the time-frame you want to review.

16.3.2 Journal View

The journal view shows a detailed double-entry breakdown of each transaction in the system. This view will show the date of the entry, what the entry was for, which account was affected, each debit for the entry, and each offsetting credit for the entry. Just as with the simplified view, you can filter the list using the filter bar and you can specify the time-frame simply by changing the Start and End dates at the top of the screen. You can also print the ledger or create a PDF version of the journal by choosing Print from the File menu.