Reading your books

Home

Home leads with the cash in the bank, drawn from the books. Next it tells you whether the books balance. If each entry balances, the trial balance nets to zero, and Home says yes.

If it says no, part of the books is broken, and the gap is named. The last part lists the most recent entries, newest last, each with its sum.

Accounts

Accounts lists the categories the books sort money into. Each one has a kind and a balance. Only one of them, Bank, is an account at a bank. The rest are headings, like rent, grants and money owed.

The balance is the money the books hold under that heading today, built from each entry that touched it. A category the society has closed is marked retired. It can be read, but it takes no new entries.

If a balance looks wrong, the Journal page lists the entries that made it, in the order they were recorded.

Funds

Funds shows one card for each fund, with its balance and what the fund is for. A fund that holds grant money also shows three sums: what was received, what has been recognised and what is still held.

What is still held is money kept for the purpose, not yet spent on it. A board can read a fund card and know where a grant stands.

Journal

Journal lists each entry with its date, its note and its lines. Each line names an account and a fund, and shows a debit or a credit. The two sides of an entry match to the cent.

An entry that cancels an old one says so on its face. No entry in this list can be changed or rubbed out. A fix is a new entry.

The raw entry screen

The New journal entry screen is bookkeeping in its raw form. It names debit and credit, and asks you to place each line by hand. Most work in the app is done in plain words on other screens.

Use this screen when a thing must be put in by hand. Check the two sides match before you post. A posted entry cannot be edited. A mistake is fixed with a reversing entry.