Bookkeeper-For-You Manual

Backup Manager | Database Manager | Category Manager | Notes | Enter Data | Show Data | Find Data | Profit Report | Tax Report | Email Manager

Here is the manual for your Bookkeeper-For-You account, all on one page for easy printing.

If you've just opened your account you might want to first refer to the New User Guide for a quick summary of a few important concepts.

Don't be scared off by the length of this page, you should be able to operate most Bookkeeper-For-You controls without reading about them first. This is a reference document, not required reading.

If you're ever confused when using Bookkeeper-For-You, click the Help link at the top of whatever screen you're looking at, and you'll be taken to the appropriate section of this document that describes that feature.

The following sections describe each feature of Bookkeeper-For-You.

Backup Manager

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The first thing you'll probably want to do, before you start entering data, is learn how to download backups of your data to your personal computer.

Maintaining current backups of your data on your own computer is your responsibility.

If you choose Backup Manager from the Bookkeeper Features menu (top right of screen once you login) you'll see three backup options.

1) Automatic Backups

Recommended: If you turn on automatic backups Bookkeeper-For-You will email you a backup of all the data in your account every time you login.

Backups will be sent at most once per day, no matter how many times you login during that day.

2) Email Backups

You can also manually email yourself a backup of your data at any time by submitting the appropriate form on the Backup Data page.

3) Download Backups

Or you can download backups with your web browser whenever you wish.

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Database Manager

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You can create as many databases as you need to keep records for all your projects.

As example, you might wish to keep your personal finances within one database, and your business finances within another database.

Or maybe you have more than one business and you want to keep separate accounting records for each enterprise. You could set up a database for each of your businesses.

Each database you create is a completely seperate set of financial records.

Before you begin entering data you may want to give some thought as to how you want to organize your data within one or more databases.

Test Database

A test database is automatically installed in each account so that you have a place where you can experiment freely while you get used to using your account.

When you enter your account for the first time you are taken in to this test database.

Once you feel comfortable using the system, you can create new databases named as you wish, and ignore the test database.

Creating A Database

You can easily create a new database whenever you need one by choosing Database Manager from the drop down Bookkeeper Features menu seen at upper right of screen. Once you're in the Database Manager, enter a name for your new database, and click "Create New Database".

Changing The Active Database

Only one database can be active at a time.

You can use the Database Manager to change from one database to another whenever you like.

As example, you could first enter some data in to your business database. Then use the Database Manager to make your personal finances database active, and work with that set of data.

Active Database Indicator

You can remind yourself which database is active at any time by looking at the upper left corner of the screen, where your login and current active database are always shown.

Edit A Database

If you wish to change the name of one of your databases, using the Edit Database feature. Select the database you wish to edit, enter the new name, and click the Edit button.

Erase A Database

You can delete a database if you no longer need it.

Go to the Database Manager. Select the database you want to delete in the red panel at bottom of page.

You can't delete the currently active database, (or the test database) so you may need to change to a different database before you can delete the one that is currently active.

Before the database is deleted, you'll see a "Are you sure?" alert which asks you to confirm your decision.

Be careful here, once you delete a database, it's gone forever.

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Category Manager

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Inside each of your databases you can further organize your data within income and payment categories that you create.

You could for example place all the money you spend on promoting your business within an "advertising" category.

You might file all the income you get from the sale of your ebook in a category you call "ebook sales".

Once you create an income or payment category, that category is auto added to a drop down menu in the search feature, which makes it easy to retrieve any specific set of data you are interested in tracking.

Edit A Category

You can change the name of a category using the edit function.

Delete A Category

You can delete a category if desired. Please understand that when you delete a category you are also deleting any income or payment data within that category.

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Notes

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You can add a note to each income and payment entry, further customizing the organization of your data.

You could for example use the note field to include the check number of a payment.

In an example above, we put all your ebook sales in to an income category we called "ebook sales".

We could use the notes feature to further refine that organization by typing which specific ebook was sold in the notes field.

So, a particular sale might be placed in the "ebook sales" category, and in the notes field we specify the ebook that was sold as "My Big Fat Ebook".

Once that is done you can easily find all ebook sales, or all sales of any specific ebook.

This is just an example, you can use the category and notes feature to organize any kind of income and payment data.

Databases, categories and notes are all under your control and provide you with the flexibility to organize your data in whatever manner is appropriate for your project.

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Enter Income Or Payment

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You can enter income or payment data in to your account by choosing either "Enter Income" or "Enter Payment" from the Bookkeeper Features menu at the top right corner of every screen.

Once you reach the entry screen you'll see that each income or payment entry is automatically given a unique number.

Today's month, date and year are auto selected for you, but you can change them as needed for each entry.

You enter the source of the income or payment, and the amount, on the right side of the form.

You can then select any of the income categories you have established using the Category Manager. By assigning a category to your income or payment entry, you're making it easier to find specific types of data with searches.

Finally, you can add a short note to each entry. You could add a check number here, or any other information that would make it easier for you to later find specific data, or groups of data.

Once you've submitted your data you will be returned to the Income or Payment entry screen again, so you can quickly add the next item.

Please note that you will use one screen to enter income data, and another screen to enter payment data. Be sure to use the correct screen for the type of data you wish to enter.

If you wish to see all your income or payment data, click the button at the bottom of the screen, labeled, "Show All Income" or "Show All Payments".

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Show Income Or Payment

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You can view all of the income or payment data you have entered in to your account by choosing either "Show All Income" or "Show All Payments" from the Bookkeeper Features menu.

You can tell the program how many income or payment records to display on each page by choosing "Records Per Page" from the Bookkeeper Features menu.

You can edit the data in any entry by clicking the Edit button in the yellow section on the left of the screen.

You can delete any entry by clicking the Delete button on the right hand side of the screen.

If you want to find a specific entry, or set of data, click on the "Find Specific Income" or "Find Specific Payments" button in the lower right corner of the display.

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Find Income Or Payment

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You can search for income or payment data by choosing "Find Income Data" or "Find Payment Data" from the Bookkeeper Features menu.

Please note that income and payment data each have their own search feature. Choose the appropriate search screen for the type of data you are looking for.

Search Multiple Fields

The first search box you see at the top of the screen helps you search through multiple fields of your database.

If you leave the settings at the default of....

Any Date
Any Month
Any Year
Any Source
Any Category

...you'll be shown all the income or payment data in your database.

If you wish to limit your search to a particular date, month, year, income source, payment to, or category, select the appropriate choice from one or more of the drop down menus.

As example, if you wish to find all the payments you made to your hosting company in the year 2004, choose 2004 from the year drop down, and "hosting" from your list of custom categories (we're assuming here you set up "hosting" as a payment category).

Search The Notes Field

In the 2nd box on the screen you can search all of your notes.

For example, if you use the notes field to store the check numbers of payments, you could use the notes search to find a specfic check.

Or, if you use the notes field to record income from specific customers, you could search the notes field to find all income from any customer.

The notes field can contain any kind of information you want, which helps you organize your data, your way.

Please note that data in the notes field should probably be limited to a few words or numbers so that the tables that display your data will remain tidy and easy to view.

Search The Amount Field

The last search box on the page makes it easy to search for a specific income or payment amount.

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Edit Income Or Payment

You can edit any income or payment entry.

Use the "Find Income Data" or "Find Payment Data" features to locate the entry that you wish to edit.

When you click on the Edit button attached to that entry you'll see a form that will allow you to edit any of the fields within that entry.

When you've completed your changes, click "Edit This Entry" and you'll be taken to a listing of all your income or payment data, depending on the data type of the item you just edited.

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Profit Report

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The Profit Report offers a method to obtain a quick overall summary of your income, payments and profit/loss.

When you enter this feature you'll see a drop down menu that asks you to choose a year. This drop down will display each year you have entered data for.

Once you select a year you'll see a printout that shows your income, payments and profit/loss for each month of that year, with a total at the bottom.

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Tax Report

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The Tax Report feature shows an overall summary of your data by category, instead of by month.

You'll first be asked to select a year.

Once you've done so, you'll see a printout that your income and payments totaled by the custom categories you have created.

This information can help you analyze your business, and provides a very handy worksheet for filling out tax forms like the IRS Schedule C, the self employed income tax form used by U.S. tax payers.

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Email Manager

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Use this feature to change the email address the system sends your backups to.

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