Books and QuickBooks

Cedar keeps the day-to-day records. Your accountant's books are kept in QuickBooks or in a double-entry ledger. This chapter covers the ledger Cedar has and the QuickBooks files you can export.

Chart of accounts

Accounting holds the chart of accounts: assets, liabilities, equity, income, cost of sales and expenses. Cedar starts you with a standard set. Add an account with + New account. An account that is in use, or that is built in, can only be archived, not deleted.

Journal entries and the trial balance

A journal entry records a transfer between accounts by hand. Choose + New journal entry, add at least two lines, and make sure the debits equal the credits. Cedar refuses an entry that does not balance. Only the entries you typed by hand can be deleted.

Nothing posts to the journal on its own. Invoices, payments and expenses stay in their own screens. The trial balance therefore shows your hand-made entries only, and it says so.

QuickBooks files

Owners and admins open QuickBooks in the menu to download a period's records. Choose QuickBooks Online for a ZIP of spreadsheets, or QuickBooks Desktop for an IIF file. The file works out the double entry from your invoices, payments, refunds, expenses and bills. Tick Only what's new since the last file to skip what you have already sent. Each download is logged.

When you switch to QuickBooks, use the same page to import from your old files: choose Choose files, then Review what's in them. Cedar reads your account list, customers, vendors, items and open balances, and each part becomes an import you can undo.