Clarity Accounting has some tips and tricks that are not completely obvious, but might save a bit of time or give you access to functionality you couldn’t access any other way.

1. Date Entry

The date fields (the ones with the little calendar) support a variety of date formats to type in beyond the usualy YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY.

• you can type strings such as “yesterday”, “last week”, “last april”, “next tuesday”, … it does its best to understand whatever you throw at it, so try some shorthand that suits you and see if it takes.  It may be faster than the way you enter dates currently
• if you type just the month and day, it will fill in the year for you
• if you just press enter in a blank date field, it will fill in a default date (usually today’s date)
• use +10 or +5 for ten or five days from today
• use -5 or -10 for five or ten days ago

2. Multi-currency Prices

• When entering a price into an invoice or bill, or entering an amount into an adjustment or transfer, you can put a currency code before the amount to switch to that currency without changing tabs or using the currency drop-down.
• The currency code must be one that is supported by Clarity Accounting

3. Customizable Reports

You can edit the “columns” field when viewing a report to enter custom column dates and rate ranges.

• Separate each column name with “vs” or a comma
• Use phrases like “last 7 days”, “last 5 weeks”, “prior 6 months” to describe dates
• Use the word “current” for today, or “YTD” for this year-to-date
• You can also enter a fixed date, as long as it doesn’t contain a comma, like “dec 1″, “2007-08-02″, or “-5″.  See “Date Entry” above for tips on acceptable date formats
• If it doesn’t understand a column it uses today or YTD for that column
• Press enter when done editing and it should show a new report using your custom columns

Entering Sales Taxes

When entering sales taxes, there are some shortcuts:

• Sales taxes often have a “short version” shown in the dropdown - for example, type “g” for gst
• When you don’t know the percentage of a sales tax amount, you can type in the actual amount instead; for example 3.24g would become $3.24 GST
• If you enter a percentage or an amount with no tax following, the first tax in the list is selected.  So if you have GST and PST in the list, typing “5.5%” would become “5.5% GST” and typing “5″ would become $5.00 GST
• If your receipt shows the value after taxes more clearly, use the minus sign on any of the above to mark the tax as being “included” in the price.  The software will calculate the before-tax amount that would have resulted in the given after-tax amount.  For example, typing “-g” for a $100 purchase, where “g” means “5% GST”, would result in $95.24 in expenses and $4.76 in GST, because $95.24 + 5% is equal to $100.00
• When entering a meal receipt that includes a tip, the easy way to record the taxes correctly is to enter the total after taxes and tips as the price, and then enter the tax as an included dollar value.  For example, if a meal cost $20 and you paid $1 in tax and $2 in tip, you could enter the price as $23 and the tax as -1g

Searching in Combo Boxes

Type part of an account name to search for it

Type an account number to choose that account

A “combo box” is a text entry field that has a pop-up list you can choose options from.  It is a combination of a text field and a list.

Our combo boxes have a search function built in.  By typing part of the name/number of an account, item, country, province, customer, vendor, or payment term, it will reduce the number of items in the pop-up list to only those matching what you typed.  Once you have reduced the number of choices down to just one or two, use the up and down arrow keys to select the one you are looking for and press the Enter key to select it.

One benefit of the search feature is that once you start searching it may reveal accounts that were not shown in the list because they were the wrong type.  Otherwise you would have to click “Show All Accounts…” and then click the account you want.  For example if you are buying office furniture you have to choose a Fixed Asset type of account, which isn’t shown by default in the Expense Account combo box.  By typing “furn” you will see the office furniture account in the list and you can select it.

If you type the exact name or number of one of the options for that combo box, it is automatically selected and highlighted; if you see the account number of an account you want to use (or you happen to have memorized it, as many bookkeepers do) you can just type that in and press Enter or Tab to move to the next field, which be a great time saver compared to using the mouse.

Keyboard Navigation

Switching between the mouse and keyboard can be time-consuming for the power user in a hurry - here are some keyboard shortcuts available in the application on some browsers.

• Press the TAB key (to the left of Q on US keyboards) to jump to the next field of a form; hold SHIFT while pressing TAB to go to a previous field
• Hold SHIFT while pressing ENTER to jump to the Add button on a form
• Hold ALT while pressing S to save a bill or invoice while you are working on it
• Press ALT and LEFT to go back to the previous screen you were looking at
• Due to browser and keyboard differences, these shortcuts may vary - ALT, SHIFT, CTRL, and COMMAND might be different on other browsers, and some browsers have their own functionality for shortcut keys.  These examples work for Firefox 3 in Windows and some other browsers
• As mentioned above, you can use searching and the arrow keys to select items in a combo box

Clarity Accounting Enter Income View

Online Accounting Software | Enter Income

This is the enter income view users will see as soon as they sign in and enter the “Dashboard” area.

It is split into 4 sections using horizontal tabs:

• Enter Income
• Enter Invoice
• Enter Payment
• Detailed

Users of our online accounting software can also use the Income link on the left navigation to go to an income specific data entry page showing all entries as data is being entered.

Using the “Enter Income” Tab

This section is mainly used for the purpose of entering income that has already been paid.  Examples of this type of income are:

• commission income from sales
• products and services paid by cash, credit card, or direct bank transfers

Components of an Income Record

• Date
• Customer
• Invoice / record #
• Payment Account
• Income Account
• Description
• Quantity
• Price
• Applicable Sales Tax

Terms & Payment Accounts

There are 2 ways income records can be recorded.  They can be recorded as “Paid” or “Unpaid”.

Paid income records generally refer to products and services that are paid immediately with cash, credit card, or direct deposit.

Unpaid income records are generally used for invoicing.  In an accrual / double ledger accounting system, when you invoice a client for your products or services, you are considered to have “earned” that income regardless of whether or not you are paid.  Invoices usually have a “payment term” associated with it, allowing customers to pay days after the initial invoice was sent.  Outstanding invoices are referred to as “Aged Receivables” in accounting terms.  Unpaid income records will also require small businesses to track down payments and entering payments into the accounting software when payments are received.  If for some unfortunate reason, an invoice was not paid, then it can be written off as “bad debt”.

To record income that is “Paid”, select the account into which the money was (or will be) deposited. For example, if you receive a cheque and deposit it into your checking account, you would select “Checking Account”.

Income Accounts

Income accounts are used to differentiate revenue from different sources of income that will show up in your profit and loss statement.  This is also a great indicator of which products or services are most profitable to your business.  When you first create a business with Clarity Accounting, you will be asked to fill in your income sources.  However, if you did not list all the income sources at the time you set up your business profile, you can always click on the “New Income Account” to add more income accounts.

For each component of the income, select an income account in order to categorize the income; this allows you to view the income you have earned broken down by account in the Profit & Loss report.

Entering Income Case Study:

Jane is a real estate agent who received $10,000 in commission income from Remax (the real estate agency she represents) on October 3, 2008 for the sale of a piece of property.  She is paid via direct deposit into her checking account.  There are no applicable taxes in this transaction.

Click “Add” after the data has been entered.

Multi-Currency Entries

If your company pays and accepts income in currencies other than your own default currency, please use the “Enter Invoice” tab for multi-currency options.

Available options after clicking “Add”

Edit

The edit option will bring you to a summary of this particular record, allowing you to change anything you need to change.

Repeat

This option allows you to “repeat” this transaction.  Many people use this feature if they are entering an income record with very similar elements such as same customer with the same payment and income accounts.  This allows users to make minor changes with date, description, or price without re-entering all the information.

Download PDF

A PDF of the transaction can be downloaded as an invoice or a receipt (with the balance due marked $0.00) depending on the nature of the transaction.  We allow users to add their own logo on the PDF download.  Please refer to the help file “Uploading logo to Invoices” for detailed instructions.

The purpose of this help file is to show Clarity Accounting users how to enter invoices as well as creating and downloading PDF Invoices.

Invoices can be entered right on the Dashboard or under the “Income” section on the vertical navigation bar.

Clarity Accounting Invoice View

This section is used for small businesses whose primary method of getting paid is through “Invoicing”.  Invoices are generally issued by businesses providing products or services to their clients.  An invoice usually consists of the following elements:

• Invoice Number
• Invoice Date
• Vendor Contact Information
• Client Contact Information
• Payment Terms / Due Date
• Income Account
  
• Quantity (number of items sold / number of hours worked)
• Price / Rate (cost per item / hourly rate)
• Subtotal
• Applicable Taxes
• Balance Due
• Pre-payments (if applicable)

Terms & Payment Accounts

There are 2 ways income records can be recorded.  They can be recorded as “Paid” or “Unpaid”.

Paid income records generally refer to products and services that are paid immediately with cash, credit card, or direct deposit.

Unpaid income records are generally used for invoicing.  In an accrual / double ledger accounting system, when you invoice a client for your products or services, you are considered to have “earned” that income regardless of whether or not you are paid.  Invoices usually have a “payment term” associated with it, allowing customers to pay days after the initial invoice was sent.  Outstanding invoices are referred to as “Aged Receivables” in accounting terms.  Unpaid income records will also require businesses to track down payments and entering payments into the accounting software when payments are received.  If for some unfortunate reason, an invoice was not paid, then it can be an expense written off as “bad debt” .

To enter a “Paid” invoice, select one of the rows with “Paid” in the second column, and the bank, cash, or credit card account into which the payment is deposited.  For example, if you received a cheque and deposited it into the bank, you would select your Checking Account.

To enter an “Unpaid” invoice, select one of the rows with “Unpaid” in the second column, and the number of days the receiver has after the invoice date to pay.  For example, if you receive a bill that has “net 30″ terms (due 30 days after receipt), you would select “30 days”.

Income Accounts

Income accounts are used to differentiate revenue from different sources of income that will show up in your profit and loss statement.  This is also a great indicator of which products or services are most profitable to your business.  When you first create a business with Clarity Accounting, you will be asked to fill in your income sources.  However, if you did not list all the income sources at the time you set up your business profile, you can always click on the “New Income Account” link to add more income accounts.

For each line item on the invoice/income record, select the income account that best matches that item, or add a new one if it doesn’t fit an existing category.

Sample Case Study:

Clarity Accounting recently demonstrated their online accounting software at a very successful Launch Party event put together by Bootup Labs.  They received overwhelming requests from bloggers and freelancers to integrate Clarity Accounting with Freshbooks.  This is because Freshbooks is an awesome online invoicing software and Clarity Accounting is an awesome online accounting software.  Freelancers thought such an integration would allow those who use Freshbooks to generate Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports within Clarity Accounting.

Creators of Clarity Accounting took user suggestions seriously and contracted Habitsoft, Inc. to implement the Clarity Accounting - Freshbooks integration.  It took Habitsoft, Inc. 40 hours of work to complete the project and Habitsoft charges an hourly rate of $100 / hour.  Habitsoft sends an invoice to Clarity Accounting with a 30 day term (payment of the invoice is due within 30 days of the date the invoice was created).  There was also a 5% sales tax applicable to this invoice.

This is how the data entry fields look like:

After Habitsoft clicks “Add”, it will be given several options:

Download PDF

Click this link to download a PDF of the invoice.  Users can add their own logo on the PDF invoice.  Please refer to the help file “Uploading logo to Invoices” for instructions on uploading your own logo.

Here is what the PDF invoice for this example looks like:

Please note: Addresses and contact information shown on the invoice will depend on how much information is included when filling out the Business Profile information as well as the Customer information when adding a new customer.  You can edit the customer information by going to the “Customer” link on the Dashboard under “Setup”.

Edit

The edit option will bring you to a summary of this particular record, allowing you to change anything you need to change.

Repeat

This option allows you to “repeat” this transaction.  Many people use this feature if they are entering an income record with very similar elements such as same customer with the same payment and income accounts.  This allows users to make minor changes with date, description, or price without re-entering all the information.

Entering Payments

When Habitsoft receives a payment from Clarity Accounting, it will have to enter the payment into the accounting system with an associated Bank and Income Account.  For detailed information on how to add invoice payments, please refer to the help file “Adding Invoice Payments”.

Based on popular demand on our feature request tool, we have implemented the feature allowing users of Clarity Accounting to include their own logo on the PDF invoices generated within our online accounting software.

Here are the specific instructions:

1. Log in to Clarity Accounting
2. Go to the “Business Profile” link under the “Setup” section on the Dashboard
3. Scroll down until you see a section that would allow you to upload your logo
   
4. Click on the “browse” button, select your company logo from your computer
   Please note: the logo should be less than 50K in size and in the file format of GIF, JPEG, or PNG
5. Click “Save” and you should see your logo appear in the “Logo” section

What will this look like on your professional looking PDF Invoice?

Ensuring Proper Display of Addresses

Your Company Address
Please ensure you have filled in your complete business address and contact information in order for you company address to automatically show up on your invoices.

Your Client’s Address
When adding new clients, please ensure you fill in your client’s company name and contact information.  This will appear on the PDF invoice generated.

Suggestions?

If you have any suggestions on how we can make this process better, please do not hesitate to contact us at Clarity Accounting or submit a feature request on our user voice system.