Software > Accounting > 102.1 - General Ledger
Our General Ledger module includes the Chart of Accounts, Ledgers, Income Statement and Transaction reporting, and Balance Sheet Reporting. Some Accounting software vendors break those parts into separate modules, so it's important to understand what is included in a General Ledger module when trying to compare apples to apples.
Our General Ledger module has been branded as "ZAP Accounting Software", it is FREE to the public, and an entire website has been dedicated to it: http://zap-accounting-software.weebly.com
In many ways, our software is a CPA's dream tool for their clients, because not only is it simple, we educate people about the idea of doing your bookkeeping with a "Tax Accounting First" methodology that dramatically simplifies small business accounting as well as all downstream software needs.
As a heads up...
While some of you may view that as a step backwards, you shouldn't. This is how the professionals at the IRS work adn this is how CPAs work, and you haven't figured this out yet because you got sucked into a thought process that was flawed. That's all.
Our General Ledger module has been branded as "ZAP Accounting Software", it is FREE to the public, and an entire website has been dedicated to it: http://zap-accounting-software.weebly.com
- The IRS can audit you without ever looking at "your accounting records". How does that work?
- CPAs prepare returns every year for people who don't keep any significant accounting records of their own. How does that work?
- When CPAs take on book keeping clients, the seldom want to use any software that has an automatic connection to a bank for transaction importing. Why is that and how do they do what they do?
In many ways, our software is a CPA's dream tool for their clients, because not only is it simple, we educate people about the idea of doing your bookkeeping with a "Tax Accounting First" methodology that dramatically simplifies small business accounting as well as all downstream software needs.
As a heads up...
- This software is designed for manual entry of transactions or the import of transactions from download files from your banking institution. This is how CPAs have been doing things for decades. If there was a better system don't you think they would have adopted it?
- This software does not require/utilize month end reconciling, but it does enable running total tracking, which is what is needed by you, your accounting and the IRS to make sure all banking transctions have in fact been accounted for in any reporting generated from your software.
While some of you may view that as a step backwards, you shouldn't. This is how the professionals at the IRS work adn this is how CPAs work, and you haven't figured this out yet because you got sucked into a thought process that was flawed. That's all.
The information and screen shots below are just a quick overview of ZAP Accounting Software. Please visit http://zap-accounting-software.weebly.com for details. Please remember, the knowledge shared on that entire website is in fact a pre-requisite for digging into this website and other downstream software solutions in general.
1) ZAP Part A - Home Tab
This workbook includes the Chart of Accounts, the General Ledger and Income/Expense reporting. It also includes worksheets for preparing information for the Balance Sheet, and that information feeds into ZAP Part B (which is just Balance sheet formal reporting).
2) ZAP Part A - Notes
There's a worksheet to free hand any notes relevant. Obviously you could add more worksheets for such a purpose or remove this one.
3) ZAP Part A - Chart of Accounts
The Chart of Accounts is split into two groups: Asset and Liability Accounts and the rest... This split reduces software configuration requirements in other places in the workbook. You can have unlimited Accounts.
Everything is fully customizable. We offer different versions of the software pre-loaded with income and expense accounts in line with your Business Entity, but you can change them all as you wish.
We are in the process of eliminated this split system, and the word All at the top of the Account list(s). We expect those new versions to be completed by 10/1/2017, and until then, these work just fine.
Everything is fully customizable. We offer different versions of the software pre-loaded with income and expense accounts in line with your Business Entity, but you can change them all as you wish.
We are in the process of eliminated this split system, and the word All at the top of the Account list(s). We expect those new versions to be completed by 10/1/2017, and until then, these work just fine.
4) ZAP Part A - Checking
This checking tab is for the working checking account. The tab can be renamed anyway you'd like. If you have multiple checking accounts a new tab is added for each account and a five second setting modification is needed in the transaction aggregator.
5) ZAP Part A - Credit Card
The tab name can be customized here just like the checking worksheet above. In this case, this is a corporate credit card account, so we've done an interesting work around to identify each transaction by the card holder (or as a corporate account level transaction).
6) ZAP Part A - Transaction Aggregator
The Transaction Aggregator is the place where the transactions from the separate tabs are aggregated for reporting purposes. Something special happens on this page related to the flipping of signs on certain transactions and it's this required functionality for reporting that has prevented everyone from just using spreadsheets for accounting since the beginning of time. If the algorithm for this relatively simple sign flipping secret had been given away in the 1990's we likely would never have seen the rise of Intuit.
7) ZAP Part A - Other Transactions
This is just a scratch pad for recording business transactions that were not paid for via corporate funds. While these expense can be automatically included in the overall reporting, they are not by default, as that messes up a lot of things from an accounting reporting perspective. Generally speaking you will either repay the payor for these from corporate funds, in which case they disappear from the list or you will report these to your tax professional as unreimbursed business expenses.
8) ZAP Part A - Income Statement
Spreadsheets are far better for reporting than typical database systems and this income statement has some features and customization abilities that will make you cringe if you ever have to do accounting reporting again outside of our system.
You'll notice the first row on this worksheet is row 12 and the top 11 have been hidden. We use something we refer to as "Hidden Headers" to assist with the creation of our reports. You will see screens shots of those in the other sections of this website.
You'll notice the first row on this worksheet is row 12 and the top 11 have been hidden. We use something we refer to as "Hidden Headers" to assist with the creation of our reports. You will see screens shots of those in the other sections of this website.
A printed report is shown to the right. All aspects of the graphics are customizeable.
9) ZAP Part A - Transaction Report
Our transaction reporting is as powerful as any database system, and it looks like a database system too! With this reporting module we have really stretched spreadsheets to their max, and it works exceptionally well and is relatively simple pro-grammatically.
As with the income Statement this report uses a Hidden Header for report preparation as well, as evident by the starting row of 32. Again, you will see screens shots of Hidden Headers in other sections of this website that will give you an idea of what is done to create this type of reporting system.
As with the income Statement this report uses a Hidden Header for report preparation as well, as evident by the starting row of 32. Again, you will see screens shots of Hidden Headers in other sections of this website that will give you an idea of what is done to create this type of reporting system.
This is what a printed version of this report looks like...
Summary
There are other worksheets in Part A related to Balance sheet preparation and for storing raw downloaded bank data into perpetuity. Part B is only a few worksheets and it is all about Balance Sheet reconciliation and reporting, and that also has not been shown here since it is fully covered on the ZAP Accounting software website.
The most important thing you need to take away from this introduction is that this accounting software is NOT connected to a Point of Sale system nor an Accounts Receivable system nor any other core accounting module and that is just the way it should be!! This system is driven off of your bank activities alone. With this kind of system all of your other systems should convey details about your banking activities but those details need NOT be in your core accounting system, and with this type of setup (with our software or any GL module for that matter), you are much freer to create appropriate A/R and Point of Sale systems without nearly the limitations many put on them.
Please see http://zap-accounting-software.weebly.com for more information about our FREE General Ledger Module.
The most important thing you need to take away from this introduction is that this accounting software is NOT connected to a Point of Sale system nor an Accounts Receivable system nor any other core accounting module and that is just the way it should be!! This system is driven off of your bank activities alone. With this kind of system all of your other systems should convey details about your banking activities but those details need NOT be in your core accounting system, and with this type of setup (with our software or any GL module for that matter), you are much freer to create appropriate A/R and Point of Sale systems without nearly the limitations many put on them.
Please see http://zap-accounting-software.weebly.com for more information about our FREE General Ledger Module.