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Goldenseal Basics |
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BASIC FEATURES ACCOUNTING DETAILS ESTIMATING DETAILS PROJECT MANAGEMENT DETAILS INTERFACE BASICS WEBSITE INFO LINKS RELATED TOPICS The Goldenseal Reference Manual is a set of "hypertext" documents that you can view with any web browser. The hypertext links make it easy to view related information. Just click your mouse on the link, and you'll go there. Here are some hints to help you to find what you need in the manual, without getting lost:
Goldenseal is an integrated business management software program that handles all of the following:
Goldenseal includes a wide variety of business transactions that cover your expenses and income sources. It also has "action dialogs" which make it easy to pay bills for expenses, do billing for sales and projects, deposit funds, write payroll or see job costs for the work you do. Goldenseal also creates project schedules and material takeoffs , and it writes contracts that include detailed specifications for your projects. Goldenseal helps you to manage your small business. It handles all of the following accounting areas:
Data entry windows, printed forms and reports are all fully customizable. You can change the look of any layout, and even change the data fields that are included. Whenever you receive or spend money, enter a bank transaction. There are seven classes of bank transactions to handle money in your Cash, Checking, Credit card, Escrow, Investment, Loan and Savings accounts. All use a similar format. The bank transaction window looks different, depending on the type of transaction. A bank transaction can be a Check, Payment, Deposit, Transfer In or Transfer Out. When you switch between different transaction types, the window layout changes. Every bank transaction must have a bank account where the funds are added or subtracted. Every bank transaction must be allocated as an expense or revenue. You must do that in one of the following ways: You can write checks individually, or you can enter them in bulk via the Pay Bills and Write Payroll commands. You can enter deposits individually or enter them in bulk with the Deposit Funds command. You can also create bank transactions automatically with an instant purchase when you enter a Material Purchase, Other Cost, or Subcontractor Cost, and give it a Payment Method of Cash, Check or Credit Card. For more about bank setup, click here. Goldenseal handles both accrual and cash accounting. In accrual accounting, you record income and expenses when the transaction first occurs. In cash accounting, you record income and expenses when payment is received or made for them. No matter which accounting method you use, you enter the same data. Reports such as the Income Statement show numbers for both a cash and accrual basis, so the only difference is in the numbers that you look at. HINT-- Use the Custom Layouts command to change any reports, if you'd like to see only accrual or cash numbers. The following transactions cover your accrued expenses: Equipment Hours, Inventory Used, Labor Hours, Material Purchases, Subcontractor Costs, Other Costs. The following transactions handle your accrued income: Billing Records, Rental Transactions, Sales. The following bank transactions cover your cash expenses and cash income: Bank Checks , Bank Deposits, Bank Payments. HINT-- If you do cash accounting, you can still use accrual reports to see when income and expenses occur. If you do accrual accounting, you can still use cash reports to get a clearer picture of your cash flow. Goldenseal includes several simple record classes where you can store basic information about everyone you interact with. They are all optional-- you can use just the items that seem important to you. Use the following records for contact management:
Each set of records includes a Find command, so you can quickly locate any person or business. This lets you use Goldenseal as a phone book or address book, when contacting people or preparing mailings for them. HINT-- Goldenseal accounts also make a good "address book" when you need to contact customers, suppliers or others you do business with. Every business needs a convenient way to classify expenses and income so they are easier to track. Goldenseal uses Cost Categories for that. HINT-- Goldenseal also includes traditional expense and revenue accounts for its internal use. However you will probably find that you don't need to use them directly, since cost categories are a much more convenient and accurate way to track your expenses. How Cost Categories Help you A system of cost categories will do all of the following for you:
Types of Cost CategoriesYou can use a simple list of Cost Categories,
and add as many categories as you need. HINT-- Goldenseal includes pre-set category systems for several business types. You may be able to use one of them as a starting point. For more about category setup, click here.Customer and Project BillingGoldenseal offers several specialized types of billing via the Billing command.For retail sales, enter Sales transactions and then use Sales billing. For projects, use Draw Schedule, Progress Payment or Time and Materials billing. You can also bill separately for project Allowances and Change Orders. For rentals, enter Rental Transactions and then use Rental billing. For more about billing setup, click here. You can customize most aspects of Goldenseal so they match the way you do business. Use Calculators to change the numbers in reports. Use the Custom Layouts command to change any data entry layout, printed form or report. Use Dimension calculators to change the numbers for estimates. Use Passwords to control the access that each employee has to your company file. Use Preferences to change the way Goldenseal runs. Use Record Numbering to change the display of record numbers. Every record includes one or more data fields. Each field is a piece of data for a record-- for example, a name, money value or date. Every record in a record class includes the same fields, though the data in the field may be different for each individual record. Fields can be any of the following types:
To see the field titles for a record class, open the data entry layout with the Custom Layouts command. To see the field tag for one field, double-click on it. To view the field tags for all fields, choose Field Labels from the Options menu and change it to Field Tag. You can also see field titles or tags when you export data for a record class. HINT-- To determine whether to export field titles or field tags, choose Preferences from the Options menu and choose File from the submenu. Use the Export Tags not Titles checkbox to determine the heading to use. Goldenseal stores all your records in an object database, which allows quick retrieval of any record. There are three "container" terms that we use to describe Goldenseal data: Record Class-- Goldenseal includes 19 account classes, about 40 transaction classes and about 80 list classes. These are the basic types
of information that you'll use-- for example, customers an estimates. To view the records in your company file, choose Security from the View menu, and choose Database Report from the submenu. You'll see a listing of all record classes. Double-click on a class and you'll see the specific records that are currently in that class. Click on a record, and you'll see the fields that are in that record. HINT-- The most recently used records stay in a RAM cache, which is much quicker to access than the hard drive. If you give Goldenseal more RAM, it can store more records in the cache, which will speed up some operations considerably. You enter transactions into Goldenseal as you would in a one-write single-entry system. You simply
describe each transaction with as much information as
possible. Goldenseal offers all of the security of a standard double entry accounting program or manual accounting system. It does some accounting functions behind the scenes so it can be more understandable to non-accountants. If you prefer a classic style of accounting, you can set up Utility Accounts to handle revenues, expenses and other balance sheet items. However it's much simpler to use Goldenseal as it was intended, as an integrated job cost accounting package that uses concepts designed specifically for that style of accounting. If your accountant is not familiar with the specific needs of your business, here is some helpful information: Accounts Goldenseal uses Accounts only for real world items such as customers, bank accounts and employees. This is different from classic accounting, where accounts also cover abstract items such as Accounts Payable. If you want to create classic accounts to classify income, expenses or other item, add them as Utility Accounts. However you really don't need to do that, since that kind of classifying is already handled more easily with cost categories, cost locations, job types, or cost account types. NOTE-- If you don't need to use classic accounts, you can ignore the Utility accounts. Some Goldenseal accounts would never be included in a classic accounting. This is not a problem, since each type of 'real world' account in Goldenseal is handled appropriately. EXAMPLE-- Escrow accounts are used for money that you manage on behalf of others. Because of that, they are not included on either side of the balance sheet, and transactions to them are considered as expenses or income. Basic Security Goldenseal complies with all normal, sound accounting principles. When transactions are completed or changed, they are automatically posted to any other transactions that are affected. EXAMPLE-- When payment is received for a sale, the status of the Sale transaction is changed to Paid. If only partial payment is received, the status is Part Paid, and the unpaid balance will still show up in Billing and Accounts Receivable. Goldenseal will not let incomplete transactions dangle-- so normal use of the Pay Bills, Write Payroll, Billing and Deposit Funds commands will make sure that you don't neglect any items. HINT-- If you want to check for possible dangling transactions on your own, use the Find command to find items with an unfinished status, or make a transaction report and have it include open items. Goldenseal includes a complete unit cost estimating system. It uses smart
dimensions to make it easier for you to prepare rough estimates or
finished bids.
For more about estimate setup, click here . Goldenseal divides expenses into five basic types. Each has its own type of expense account and expense transaction:
For more about expense setup, click here. Job cost accounting helps you to track business costs in as much detail as you need. The general principle
is that you'll match costs against income, so
you can see which customers, projects or business sections are most
profitable for you. For many companies, job cost accounting is the best way to make the business as profitable as possible. It helps you see where you are making or losing money, so you can make business decisions based on that information. Goldenseal integrates job costs very closely with your general business transactions. In each expense transaction you can enter a specific job to which the cost applies. You can also break the cost down by Category and/or Location within the job. To make it easier to classify job costs, you can set up Category Systems which include cost categories and subcategories. You can also integrate job costing with the Unit Costs that you use for estimates. The Job Costs command gives you a quick overview of the latest job cost info. You can also see detailed information about each job, or print Reports that show job cost info in different formats. For more about job cost setup, click here. How Does Job Cost Accounting Work? Job cost accounting uses the same basic types of transactions as classic double entry accounting; you'll bill your clients, make sales, receive and pay bills, write paychecks, pay taxes and make reports as usual. There are also some specific features that make it easier to track job costs:
Who Needs Job Cost Accounting? Job cost accounting is important for any business than needs to control
costs in order to stay profitable. Companies that do Estimates Job cost accounting is vital for any business that provides firm bids or other price quotes before doing work. By tracking costs for each job, it is possible to see how accurate the original estimate was.Goldenseal's job costing features are well suited for the following types of estimate-based businesses:
Time Billing Services and ProfessionalsBecause job cost accounting is so good at tracking billable costs, it works well for service businesses and professionals that bill for services on an hourly or "time and materials" basis.The following types of business professionals will appreciate the time billing features of Goldenseal:
Service and Retail BusinessJob Cost Accounting works well for any type of business that wants to track costs for different services, divisions or phases of work, to see which are most profitable. Because it is so good at allocating income and expenses, job cost accounting can be used by:
When you first start with Goldenseal, it does not require passwords. Anyone can do anything, anywhere in the program. If you don't create any passwords, that is how the program will remain. HINT-- If only one person uses the program, or if all users are trusted, you can probably avoid using passwords. However you might still want to use a password for protection against snoopy outsiders. Once you create new passwords, Goldenseal will ask you for a password each time you open the company file. For more about password setup, click here. Goldenseal includes a full featured payroll system that handles all types of deductions, withholdings, insurance and taxes. Payroll integrates with the other parts of Goldenseal-- the information that you enter for payroll is also used to calculate job costs and time and materials billing. You can import Payroll Info for your state or province-- that way you won't have to spend much time setting up the Tax Items which calculate payroll withholding and employer taxes. Set up Wage Schedules to determine pay periods, paydays and other payroll details. Enter wage rates, marital status, number of exemptions and similar payroll information for each Employee Account. Then enter employee hours into Labor Hours records, and use the Write Payroll command to create Payroll Records. Each Payroll Record includes multiple breakdown tables so you can see the hours that are included, employee withholding, employer taxes, benefits and vacation info. Goldenseal automatically tracks each withholding and tax item and makes sure it gets paid. You can use the Pay Bills command to make tax payments to each agency. For more about payroll setup, click here. Goldenseal helps you to manage projects, whether they are being done for clients, or for your company's internal use. Goldenseal includes several tools to help you manage your projects. Some of the project management tools are simple organizational aids, and some are integrated into the general accounting functions. Project management features include:
For more about project setup, click here. Use Purchase transactions to handle the goods and services that you get from others. Types of Purchase Transactions Purchase transactions come in three basic types:
Payment MethodsThere are three basic ways you can enter and pay for purchases:1. Billed Purchases-- Create a purchase transaction, and enter Vendor Invoice into the Payment Method field. When you close the transaction, Goldenseal automatically adds the purchase to your Accounts Payable. Later on you can pay for it with the Pay Bills command. Record StorageBilled Purchases-- there are two records for each purchase-- a Material Purchase covering the expense, and a bank transaction covering the payment. You'll be able to see all purchases in one place.Prepaid Purchases-- there are two records for each purchase-- a Material Purchase covering the expense, and a bank transaction covering the payment. You'll be able to see all purchases in one place. Bank Purchases-- there is just one record for the purchase-- the bank transaction. You probably will not be able to see all your purchases in one place. For more about purchase setup, click here. Goldenseal includes two special transactions to handle property rentals-- Leases and Rental Transactions. You To handle rental income, follow these steps:
For more about rental setup, click here. Goldenseal manages retail sales. Follow these steps:
For more about sales setup, click here. Goldenseal includes several security features for safer operation:
Use unit costs for any part of your business that meets the following conditions:
There are two types of unit costs: For more about unit cost setup, click here. This section covers some "special tricks" that may help you when you are creating a system of unit costs for your business. Splitting Items It is often helpful to split work into two or more smaller unit costs, to give you maximum flexibility. For example, an automotive repair shop might have one unit cost for removing and replacing an engine, and then several unit costs for the specific types of work that might be done after the engine is removed. Lumping Items Goldenseal allows you to include assemblies as components in other assemblies. So after you have split an item of work into smaller components, you can create an assembly that combines several smaller unit costs into a larger package. For example, an automotive repair shop might have an "engine overhaul" assembly that would include engine removal and replacement, along with replacement of rings, valves, gaskets and timing belt. Small Parts Many assemblies include hardware, fasteners, or other small components.
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