Entry Accounts

The Book Explorer shows a number of Entry accounts, or if none is shown, you simply click on the Entry account node with your right mouse button to bring up the menu, then select the "Insert..." button to create a new entry account. This is typically a current account, or a savings account you have with your bank, although you can also create an Entry account without an external account, like one which lists all your expenses etc. Click on this icon to see the entry screen for an Entry account. Note that you can enter your opening balance, and the date this balance is relevant for. It is important to note that running balance shown in the transactions section below will take into account this date, so you should make sure it is earlier than the first entry in the list of transactions, unless you know for sure this is the balance for that date from the statement of your bank account. The blue title at the top of your transaction list will display the opening balance and the date this balance is relevant for, as a reminder that you should take this into account when looking at the running balances for the transactions.

Transaction Editor

You can call up the editor for the row you select be either double clicking on it or by pressing CONTROL+E. The editor should superimpose exactly on the fields for that entry. The following columns can be entered:

• Invoice Date: the date the entry is recorded into your account. Note that this date is different from the transaction (effective) date, which is the date the money actually leaves or enters your account. You should use this column to put in the date you put in your cheque, or the date when you actually withdraw money from your bank account, even though this is not the date shown in your bank statement
• Transaction Date: the date in which the transaction is actually effective. This date should be used to reconcile against your bank statement
• Reference: free format field to denote a reference, say an invoice number, a cheque number, or other free format text of your choice
• Description: the description of the transaction. This field is used in reports and should be used to identify the transaction visually
• Account: use this field if you are transferring the amount between your accounts. These internal transfers can be excluded from the business reports for reporting purposes
• Debit: put the amount into this column if the amount is a payment
• Credit: put the amount into this column if the amount is a deposit or income
• Balance: this field is automatically calculated as the running balance and is not editable
• Allocation popup: popup up the Allocator to specify the ledger postings you want to make. The Allocator has a dropdown of the pre-configured Allocation Rules you can use to send percentages of your total amount into different ledger accounts. This facility is useful if you are entering tax related transactions

Popup Calendars can be shown for the first two date columns by clicking on the calendar icons on the entry editor, or by using the key bindings CONTROL+DOWN ARROW.

The Reference and Description fields have associated with them pop ups of memorised entries which have been entered before. Also, when you tab out of the description field, the application will attempt to fill in the amount the the Allocations automatically from the last entry of the same description. These features are designed to aid speedy data entry.

Allocator Popup

The Allocator can be brought up by either clicking on the allocation button in the last column of the entry editor above, or you can use ALT+L key binding. The Allocator shows a number of empty rows, each of which will represent a percentage of your total amount, and the Ledger Account that percentage will be debited or credited against. Built in Allocation Rules should make it easy for you to enter tax related entries

The first column controls the Ledger account the row will affect. Ledger accounts do not have to be pre-created, as you can type in a new name and the ledger will be created automatically. However, you will have to right click on the Ledger Account subsequently and select Edit... in order to specify whether that Ledger Account falls into the category Income, Expense, Asset or VAT . The categories are used for reporting purposes.