Creating Businesses

When you start the app for the first time, it prompts you to create the accounts for your business. Easy Books can manage the accounts for many businesses, and you can always create more businesses later.

To create the first set of accounts for a new business, tap the “Get Started!” button.

Demo Business

If you just want to try out the app quickly, there is an example business you can use. It's called Demosys, and has a lot of entries that you can use to evaluate the app, produce the financial reports and see if you like using it.

Note that this business contains quite a few transactions, and will count against your limit of 120 transactions. So when you've finished using it, remember to delete the demo business to make space.

Template Businesses

To make it easy to create the list of accounts for your own business, there are a number of pre-defined templates defined in the app:

* Bare Bones
* Sole Trader
* Company
* Personal Accounts

Select Bare Bones if you want only the bare minimum of accounts created. This creates a bank cheque account and the various VAT accounts.

Note: The VAT accounts are hidden from view unless you turn on VAT, by changing the settings for the business.

Company is the best choice if you are creating a set of accounts for a small business. It includes a typical set of expense and income accounts, a couple of bank accounts, petty cash and a credit card.
Note: Don't worry if the template doesn't give you all the accounts you need; you can easily add any missing accounts. For example, if you use more than one credit card just add a new credit card account as needed. Likewise, you can remove any accounts you won't need.

Once you have created a set of accounts from a template, the main screen is displayed.

Creating Another Business

If you want to create more businesses, just do the following:

1. Tap on the business button on the main screen. This is the button that shows the name of the business you are currently working on.
2. On the next screen, you can add a new business using the + button.

Later you can switch between your businesses by tapping on the name of the business again.

When you add a new business to Easy Books, you can again select from a built-in template. You can also choose to use an existing business as a template for your new one. The name of the business is generated automatically.

Each business has settings that are independent from the others, and some that are shared across the whole app. For example, the app can be secured with a passcode, which is shared by all businesses.

The business settings displayed are always the settings for the current business. If you want to change settings (such as the name, year-end date, VAT scheme) in another business, just switch to that business first.

Deleting Businesses

To delete a business, tap on the i button to display the business settings, then tap on the delete button at the bottom of the screen.

Main Screen

Once you have created a set of business accounts, the main screen is displayed. From here you can view...

* The list of accounts and their current balances,
* Bank statements for the bank accounts,
* Sales invoices you have created for your customers,
* Purchase invoices you have received from suppliers,
* Time Tracker, that you can use to log time worked for your clients (if you bill by time),
* Easy Books Sync, that merges changes from all your devices to keep everything in sync,
* Financial reports (profit and loss, balance sheet and VAT return)
* App Settings

The sales and purchases icons will not be displayed if your business does not have any customer or supplier accounts set up. You don't need to use customer and supplier accounts if your customers always pay you on the date of sale, and you always pay your suppliers in the same way. You should use the supplier and customer accounts if you receive goods or services from a supplier who you pay later, or if your customers pay your invoices later. If your business is registered for VAT using a cash scheme, Easy Books uses the customer and supplier accounts to adjust the amount of VAT you owe based on whether you have received the money for your sales (and similarly whether you have paid your suppliers).

Because we have just created the business, we should spend some time in settings to set the name, date of next consolidation and whether the business is VAT registered. To do this, tap the business settings icon next to the business name. (If you created the business from a template it may be called "Company").

The app keeps business settings and program settings (preferences) separate. The main application settings are presented if you tap on the settings icon. To view the business settings, tap on the circular black information button to the right of the business name.

(We'll look at the business settings first)

Settings

Settings are grouped together depending on what they do. The following groups are used in Easy Books:

* App Settings are system-wide (for example, the passcode lock)
* Business Settings are specific to each business (for example the name, VAT scheme, business address)
* Account Settings are per account (for example, opening balance, notes, customer address)

To view settings for the app, tap the main settings button.
For business settings, tap the circular black information button that appears next to the business name in the main screen (pictured).
For account settings, tap the circular black information button that appears next to each account. For information on these settings, see Account Settings.

App Settings

The app settings and tools are available on this screen. The following options are available:

* Passcode Lock
* Show Inactive Accounts
* Amount Entry
* Sync Settings (username and password)
* Backup
* Restore

A Passcode Lock can be set for Easy Books. This is in addition to the phone's own lock. You might use this if you lend your phone to someone, and you want them to be able to use all the other phone features, but not including Easy Books. The passcode is a four digit code you choose yourself. Be careful to remember it because you cannot access Easy Books if you forget. You can however restore your data to the phone if you remove the app and add it back again. You will be able to re-download the in-app purchases you have made for free.

Show Inactive Accounts is used to show or hide the older accounts, that have transactions. You can simply delete an account that has no transactions, but if there are transactions it can only be set to "inactive". These accounts are hidden from the lists normally, but you can view them by changing this settings.

The Amount Entry setting is used to change how you enter amounts in Easy Books. Normally the app uses the account you tapped on in order to decide whether you are entering an amount including VAT or excluding VAT. If you always want to use one or the other, you can use this setting to override the normal behaviour.

The Backup and Restore options are used to backup the database to an email and restoring a previous backup to the app.

Business Settings

Start with the business settings, by giving the business a more meaningful name by tapping on Business Name.

For this example in the user guide, we have set the following:
* Business Name = “Demosys”
* Next P&L Consolidation = 31 March 2012
* VAT Registered? = “Yes”

If the business is VAT registered, further options are available as described in Setting Up VAT. The app can manage VAT and keeps track of sales and purchase VAT separately. It also splits VAT by category.

If the Customer Invoicing add-on is purchased, there are further options available to set the business address, logo and footer for all invoices and statements.

The trash can icon at the bottom of the screen is used to delete all the business information, including its transactions (invoices, transfers and so on). There is no way to recover this information other than restoring from the backup file so be careful!

Setting Up VAT

You'll find the main VAT settings under business settings, each of your businesses can be set to use a different VAT scheme.

In the business settings screen you can set the scheme, which affects how Easy Books accounts for VAT on your returns. The schemes are described briefly below, and by way of a disclaimer, you should check carefully that your business is using one of the schemes below.

You should also set the date for the next VAT period end, and the number of months in each period. Easy Books automatically updates the period end for you when you file a return, so you shouldn't need to change any of these settings again.

But I use GST...

You can set the name of your scheme (for example GST, IVA and so on). This affects the whole app, and the report output. However, your account names are not changed, so you may also like to edit the name of each VAT account as well. To do this, keep reading!

VAT Schemes

Easy Books handles the following Value Added Tax (Goods and Services Tax) schemes:
* Standard Scheme
* Cash Scheme
* Cash Scheme (sales only)
* Flat Rate (Standard)
* Flat Rate (Cash)

Standard Scheme

The difference between the standard and cash methods lies in the effective date used to record the sale or purchase. In the standard scheme, your business becomes liable to pay the sales tax you have collected from your customers on the date of invoice (which may not be the same date that you receive the payment from the customer).

Cash Scheme

If the business runs the Cash Accounting VAT scheme, any VAT owed is adjusted by unpaid balances on customer and supplier accounts. This means the business does not need to pay VAT on its sales invoices to the tax office until the business has received payment from its customers. Similarly, if the business receives an invoice for purchases, it cannot claim back the VAT amount until the payment has been made to the supplier. Easy Books can compute the adjustments if you have entered the sales and purchase invoices.

Cash Scheme (sales only)

In Ireland it is possible to run a cash based scheme for sales, but a standard scheme applies for purchases. This is the "Cash Scheme (sales only)" method in Easy Books. This means any purchases made allow you to reclaim the tax paid on the date of purchase, even if you haven't yet paid. The scheme still allows you to defer the tax you owe on any unpaid sales invoices.

Flat Rate (Standard)

Businesses using the flat rate scheme are not able to claim back any input tax (tax on purchases). They still add VAT to sales, and record the amount of VAT charged to customers. The tax due is based on a percentage of the gross income (including the tax charged).

Although tax cannot be claimed on normal purchases, it can be claimed on purchases of large assets. You will need to check the tax rules in your own country to find out what the value limits are. To cater for these purchases, Easy Books creates a new VAT account called "Vat (large assets)". For qualifying purchases, you should select this account for the purchase VAT. Easy Books will adjust the tax owed using this account in the same way as the standard scheme adjusts for purchase VAT.

When a VAT return is filed, Easy Books creates a new income account for the surplus VAT amount after paying your flat rate VAT. It also creates a new expense account for any VAT you have entered on purchases that cannot be reclaimed. You can (or may be able to) reclaim VAT on large assets, and these should be assigned using the "Vat (large assets)" account.

Flat Rate (Cash)

It is possible to mix the flat rate scheme with a cash accounting method. In this case, the sales are adjusted by unpaid balances on the customer accounts, then after the adjustments are applied, the app calculates the flat rate on the adjusted gross income. Likewise, for purchases of large assets using the "Vat (large assets)" account, these are adjusted using the balances on supplier accounts.

Setting Tax Rates

To set the percentage rate of tax, use the Account Settings. Each VAT account can be given its own tax rate, which is used to speed up data entry by pre-setting the VAT amount based on the sale or purchase amount. If the rate is not set, or is incorrect, it just means you will always need to manually set the VAT amount. Remember to set the rate for both the sales and purchases!

If you just need to set the standard rate, you can do this for both sales and purchases by changing the amount shown in the business settings under VAT. This is simply to save time, and all it does (behind the scenes) is set the percentage rate the same for both "Vat sale standard" and "Vat purchase standard".

First tap on the accounts icon to bring up the list of accounts. The VAT accounts are shown at the bottom of the list. If these are not present, your business is not set as a VAT registered business. To do that, see the business settings.

The rate of tax can be set for each VAT account. Tap the account settings button to the right of the account, highlighted in the screenshot.

If you need more VAT accounts, feel free to add more, putting them in the correct category (either "Tax rate on sale" or "Tax rate on purchase"). For any accounts you add, you can also set the percentage rate, and Easy Books will keep track of the VAT assigned to this account. It will also appear on the supporting calculations section of your VAT return.

You can change the name of the VAT account if you need to, depending on the name of your VAT scheme. So for example, you can re-name it to "GST Sale Standard".

You should also set the normal percentage rate as indicated in the screenshot. This is useful because Easy Books will automatically set the amount of tax for you using this rate.

Performing a VAT Return

The balances of your VAT accounts will gradually increase over time, and once your VAT return becomes due, you can use Easy Books to calculate the overall tax amount you owe. This will zero the individual VAT accounts, moving the outstanding balance over into the VAT due account. To find out how to perform the VAT return, see VAT report under the reports section.

Passcode Lock

You can set a passcode lock in Easy Books from the Settings screen.

This passcode is used to secure the app as it starts running. It will not show the main screen unless the correct passcode is tapped in.

Note: The passcode is stored on the phone rather than the accounts database. The backup files produced by Easy Books do not require the passcode to be entered before they are restored. The intention is to prevent the situation where we forget the passcode and cannot gain access to the data. If you forget the passcode, you can re-install the app and restore the last backup.

To turn the passcode off, or to change it, use the Settings > Passcode Lock screen. If you want to change the passcode, you will need to re-enter the current passcode again first before choosing a new one.

Add-ons for iOS

You can add functions to Easy Books as you need them from the Add-ons screen. Each business is different, you can pick and choose which pieces of the software you need, leaving out the ones you don't. This way, you only pay for what you actually use, and you won't see settings and functions that you don't. We think this will give everyone a better experience using the software because it won't bombard you with irrelevant options you don't need.

Will I be charged again if I use Easy Books on a second iOS device?

No! You will not be charged again for the purchase on any other devices, as long as you use the same iTunes account. Just tap the restore button in the add-ons screen to bring your purchases over to your second device. And even if you try to buy the same add-on, you won't be charged twice. Note that the Mac version of the app is sold in the Mac App Store, and is priced separately, but just like the iOS version, you can use your in-app purchases in the Mac version on all your Macs.

If you un-install the app from your phone and later re-install it, you can go through the same steps as if buying the item again but you will not be charged if you have already purchased it.

The prices for these add-ons are listed in iTunes in your local currency. But you cannot purchase these from iTunes, they are only available from within the app. To purchase, tap the Add-ons button shown in the main title bar of the app as shown above.

What can I add to Easy Books?

The following add-ons are available:

* Transactions (This increases the initial 120 transaction limit)
* Customer Invoicing (email sales invoices)
* Time-Tracker (log hours worked)
* Online Backup & Sync (let us backup for you!)

You can try Easy Books before you pay for anything: it comes with space for 120 entries. An entry (or transaction) can be a sales invoice, purchase invoice, or a transfer amount from one account to another (e.g. Cheque Account to Credit Card to pay it off, or Credit Card to Insurance). Likewise, you can create customer invoices, time-entries and you can even register for our online backup & syncing service for two weeks of free use.

What does it cost?

You can pick any of these options, but typically all businesses will need the Transactions add-on because this extends the limit of 120 entries that you can make.

* 6 months use of our syncing service

If an item is available to buy, its is listed with the price next to it. Once purchased, the item is displayed with the word "Installed". Note that if you have disabled the in-app purchase system on the iPad, the option to buy is not available. Other words may be displayed, such as "Connecting..." when the device is connecting to the iTunes store to retrieve the product prices.

Some products can be turned off if you don't want to use them. To do this, use the slide switch and turn the feature off. This will hide any icons from the main screens, hide any reports and other parts of the program to keep the user interface nice and simple.

Transactions

The app can be extended to handle more transactions by tapping the "Buy" button. The purchase price is shown in your local currency. The iTunes in-app purchase system will ask for your iTunes account password to confirm you are able to make the purchase. Once the purchase has gone through, the app is updated immediately.

The unlimited transactions are available for the entire app, not just for one business. So once you've purchased this option, you can add as many transactions as you like for all your businesses. You can also use the product on more than one device for no extra charge because of the way the product is marked up in iTunes.

If you un-install the app from your phone and later re-install it, you can go through the same steps as if buying the item again but will not be charged if you have already purchased it.

You will not be charged again for the purchase on any other devices, as long as you use the same iTunes account.

Customer Invoicing

The app will create sales and purchase invoices for the purposes of bookkeeping as standard. These affect the profit and loss of the business.

But the app is also capable of sending PDF sales invoices via email, this feature is described in Customer Invoicing along with a sample invoice in PDF format so you can see what Easy Books is capable of producing.

The app currently produces sales invoices, credit notes, receipts, refunds and remittance advice slips.

Online Backup & Sync

Our Online Sync service will make sure you never forget to backup your important financial data! Over the time we have been selling Easy Books, we've been surprised at how many people have emailed to say they have replaced their device and have lost their data because they have not made a backup. The app does feature a very easy backup and restore system, which can be used to make a backup copy of your businesses. However, you need to do this manually and it's easy to put it off, or forget completely until it's too late.

By registering for our Online Sync service, you can choose to keep a copy of the Easy Books data online. Once you have uploaded your data, Easy Books uploads each change you make, as you make it. This happens silently in the background and does not interfere with what you're doing.

As well as providing backup, the system also allows you to keep multiple devices (iPhones and iPads) in sync. Each change you make is tracked by the system and when updates are available on your device the system will alert you.

For more details, see Online Backup & Sync.

Time-Tracker

If your business makes money by charging out time to customers, you might benefit from this add-on. It keeps track of all hours worked for customers, and uses some configurable rules to produce sales invoices automatically.

You can add as many workers and customers as you like, and for each combination you can set the billable rates and rules about how to process the hours into sales invoices. The app comes with 10 time entry slots, but just like the transactions, you can increase the limit to an unlimited number.

Backup and Restore

Everyone should backup their information regularly, say every week. It's important because if something goes wrong with your iPad, you could lose all the information you've ever entered into Easy Books.

Automatic Backup

We know it's easy to forget to backup. We've developed a service that can help. It provides continuous online backup and synchronisation of your accounts between your iPad, iPhone and Mac. We call it Easy Books Sync. Should disaster happen, it's good to know you have a copy of your business accounts online. You can try out the service for two weeks for free.

Manual Backup

Making a manual backup of your business data is easy. You can run a backup manually and send the backup as an attached file in an email. When you later want to restore the backup, the iPhone and iPad both allow you to tap on an attachment and send it into an app that handles that type of file. It makes restoring an old backup very easy; just tap on the attachment in mail on the iPad, and it asks if you want to open it with Easy Books. You can also backup to other compatible apps such as Dropbox, Box.net if you have a compatible app installed on your device.

To create a new backup, find the app settings screen and tap Backup.

The backup system exports the database with the file extension "easybooks_backup". Easy Books can open this file again from apps such as Mail, Dropbox and so on.

When producing the backup, you pick which of your businesses you want to include in the backup. Backing up individual businesses is useful if you want to send a copy to a business partner without sending any other businesses or personal accounts.

The backup can be sent to other compatible apps on the iPad, or emailed.

Manual Restore

You can restore direct from the email attachment in Mail, or from a list of files available on your Dropbox (for example) app. To restore a backup from an email, simply view the email in Mail, then tap on the attachment. Mail will ask you whether you want to open the attachment in Easy Books. If you do, the file is passed to Easy Books, and the restore process can start.

The backup file is opened and the businesses contained in it are listed. You can choose to restore any or all of the businesses contained in the backup. Similarly, if the backup contains settings, you can choose to overwrite your settings with those from the backup, or keep your own.

To go ahead with the restore, tap "Restore". If you are worried about overwriting an existing system, you can always produce a backup first, which will give you the option to restore later if you need to.

View Accounts

From the main screen, tap the Accounts icon to show the list of accounts. You can view all the accounts for the current business.

Each account is grouped under standard accounting categories such as Bank accounts, Direct expenses, Income from Sales and so on. The total value of the category is shown as well, which is useful if you have lots of bank accounts, as it shows the total balance.

The current balance of each account is shown on the right together with a circular black information button. Tapping on the information button shows the settings available for that account (see Account Settings).

Viewing Transactions

Tapping on the name of the account brings up a list of transactions for that account. Initially there won't be any transactions listed, and you will add them gradually as you pay for things, or make sales.

The colour of the text shows whether a transactions is locked or fully editable:

Black - The transaction is editable.
Grey - The transaction is dated before the last P&L consolidation or VAT Return, or is reconciled on a statement and cannot be altered.

Account Settings

On the account list screen, you will see the current balance of each account shown on the right together with a circular black information button. Tapping on the icon will show the settings available for that account. You can easily add a new account to the list, just tap the + button at the top.

When adding an account, set the category first. For customer and supplier accounts you can choose to fill in the information from the Contacts on the iPhone or iPad. To do this, tap the action button at the bottom of the account settings screen. This will only appear for customer and supplier accounts, so be sure to pick the category first. The following information is transferred from the Contacts:

* Company name
* Contact name
* Postal addresses (invoice address, then delivery address if present)
* Email address

The link is not maintained permanently; if you change the information in Easy Books it will not be overwritten by any changes to the Contact.

It can be useful to hide accounts as time goes on, perhaps when all work with a particular customer or supplier has finished. The account cannot be deleted if there are transactions on it, so in this case, the account can be marked as inactive. Any inactive accounts are hidden from the lists unless you choose to display inactive accounts in Settings.

To change the settings for an account that already exists, tap the small arrow button to the right of the account balance.

You can add notes to each account (since version 3.0). The notes are not used by the app in any reports or invoices, so you can use them to keep any information you like about your account. As an example, you might keep contact information for customer and supplier accounts.

For VAT accounts there is an additional setting available to set the rate of tax. Each VAT account should be set up with the current rate, remembering to do this for both the purchase and sales VAT accounts. This allows you to use any number of VAT accounts, and Easy Books will calculate the tax amount using the rates you choose.

For customer accounts, you can store their invoice address, reference number (PO Number) and your agreed payment terms. This information is used to create the sales invoices if that product is installed. See Customer Invoicing for more details.

Container Accounts

It is possible to group accounts into one container. This is useful if you want to hide individual account balances on a profit and loss statement. For example, you might want to reveal the total employee costs for your business, but not the individual costs for each employee. To do this, create a container account called "Employee costs", then for each real account, set its category as the container account.

You would normally go on to edit or create the accounts for customers and suppliers (and so on). Once all the accounts have been set up with opening balances, you can begin entering transactions such as transfers and invoices.

Note: If running the Cash Accounting VAT scheme, it is best to enter all the unpaid invoices rather than setting an opening balance. If an opening balance is set instead, the app cannot tell what proportion of the balance is VAT content and assumes the standard VAT rate applies to the balance. If it has access to the invoices, it will correctly apportion VAT content using the average amounts from the most recent unpaid invoices.

Entering Transactions

A transaction can be one of the following types:

* Transfer from one account to another
* Purchase from a supplier
* Sale to a customer

A transfer can be just a simple transfer of money between two bank accounts, for example a transfer from your main bank account to your savings account. Or it can be used to record an expense, such as when you might buy paper and pens (stationary) for the business. In this case you might not have a supplier account, and can simply record the purchase as a normal transfer from a bank account or credit card to the "Postage and stationary" account.

If the company uses a credit card, you will be entering purchases against the credit card account in the same way. When the credit card bill arrives, an amount is paid from the main cheque account to the credit card, perhaps by cheque or direct debit. The amount should be recorded as a transfer from the cheque account to the credit card account. You can then reconcile both the main cheque account and the credit card accounts with their paper statements.

Purchases

If you purchase items from a certain supplier regularly, and the supplier will accept your payment at a later date, you would usually add this supplier in Easy Books. This means you will record the purchase as separate from the payment. (See later for how to add purchase invoices).

One-Off Purchases (no supplier account)

If there is no supplier account, so you pay the amount due to your supplier at the same time as the purchase, or you are using simple cash accounting, the payment can be entered in one transaction. In this example, we have bought a mobile phone top up (pre-pay / pay as you go) using a credit card. The card is listed in the business's accounts, so we tap on the account, then the + button to add a new transaction.

In these accounts, we record mobile phone use against an expense account called “Telephone calls”. The app prompts for the amount inclusive of VAT this time, so we enter the total amount paid. If there is VAT that can be claimed back, this can be entered as before.

Note: The option to set VAT is only available if you have told Easy Books your business is VAT registered under Business Settings.

Save the Transaction

The save button is disabled if the transaction is not valid or cannot be saved. There are a few reasons why the save button might be disabled (greyed out).

* You haven't set any of the fields yet (so there is nothing new to be saved)
* The date isn't valid (try setting it to 'today')
* The to and from accounts are not set. For double entry, there should be two accounts
* The to and from accounts are the same. You can't create a transaction from one account to itself
* If there is an amount set as VAT, the VAT account must be set too

Toolbar Buttons

There are some buttons at the bottom of the screen, which are used to:

* Duplicate the current transaction
* Set up a regular transfer (every week, month and so on)
* Add a split (a new line on the same transaction)
* Generate sales invoice for email
* Delete transaction

For standing orders, you can set the transaction as a regular transfer. Easy Books creates the next transaction as a copy of the previous one when the next one becomes due. You can choose from the following periods:

* Every week, two weeks, four weeks, month, two months, three months (quarterly), or every year.

Splits

Split transactions are especially useful on sales and purchase invoices. For sales to a customer, you can divide the main transaction (the invoice) into multiple lines. You might use this to just itemise an invoice, or you might split the income into sales of goods plus another line for postage.

Likewise, for purchase invoices, you pick the supplier, then split the transaction into lots of lines, one for each type of expense. This is useful if you want to record the amount paid for postage separately from any goods you have bought.

All transactions and invoice lines can be split into multiple lines. They all share the same source account, but each linked account can be set independently. In addition, there is a "details" field, which you can use to keep extra information about the transfer. This is not presented on the transaction list screens or the financial reports. The details are used in the generation of sales invoices, where each detail line is presented on the invoice as a separate item.

Customer Invoicing

For sales invoices, the email button is turned on. Easy Books is capable of producing professional looking invoices in PDF format that can be emailed to yourself, or direct to your customers. For more information, see Customer Invoicing. It is also possible to send receipts, remittance advice slips, refunds and copies of supplier invoices.

Purchase Invoices

When an invoice is received from one of your regular suppliers, this should be entered into Easy Books as a purchase invoice. It is not necessary to do this for one-off purchases where payment is made immediately; this is used for suppliers you have an account with. To do this, tap on the Purchases icon on the main screen. The list of purchase invoices is displayed. To add a new one, tap on the + in the top navigation bar.

The entry screen shown allows you to set the details from the invoice. In the example screenshot, we have received an invoice for £29.79 (ex-vat) from our phone provider. We link the invoice to an expense account under Account 1, in this case we have an account in the "Indirect Expenses" category called “Telephone, Internet”.

The amount to enter should be the ex-VAT figure if you are accounting for VAT, otherwise it will be the total amount. Don't worry though; the app prompts for which it is automatically. You can also change the behaviour to force all amounts to be entered including or excluding in the app settings.

When you select a VAT account, the app calculates the amount of VAT it expects and compares this with the amount entered in the VAT box. If the amount is different, this may be a mistake so the VAT label is highlighted in red to warn you.

Tapping on the VAT amount box shows the entry screen for amounts. If there is a suggested VAT amount, this is displayed in a button as shown in the screenshot. If this is the correct amount, simply tap the button. If not, tap the value (in pence) followed by Done. There is no need to tap a decimal point; the amounts are all entered in pence.

When the purchase invoice is saved, the previous screen appears again. This time, the invoice we have entered appears in the list.

If you deal with the same group of suppliers regularly, you may find it easier to make a copy of a previous invoice line using the + button at the bottom of the entry screen. You then skip the selection of accounts, and can just change the date, and the amounts if necessary.

(Sales invoices are entered in the same way as purchase invoices. From the main screen, tap Sales).

Paying Your Suppliers

When a purchase invoice is received, typically the payment is due at some time later. So there are two lines per purchase (when the supplier account is used to enter an invoice).

In this example, we have already entered the purchase invoice from our supplier, Vodafone.

We later pay the outstanding invoice from the main “Cheque account”. To do this, tap on Accounts on the main screen, followed by the account the payment is being made from. The current list of transactions is displayed. Since we are recording a new payment from the account, tap the + button in the navigation bar just as when recording the invoice.

Note: You can also find the supplier account and enter the transaction there instead, linking it to the "Cheque account" in the same way. This example uses this method, but you can choose whichever you find easier.

With Account 1 showing the supplier (in this example), we select the "Cheque account" in Account 2 and the date the payment was made. The Debit and Credit button is used to set the direction of the payment and toggles between "Payments & Cr-Notes" and "Purchases". This time, there is no VAT to account for because this has been entered on the invoice. The app prompts you for the amount, hides the VAT options, and the label is changed to Incl-VAT as an aid.

The account for the supplier now shows two lines, one for the invoice received and the other for the outgoing payment from the cheque account. You can tell easily if there is an outstanding balance because the app keeps track of all balances on all the accounts.

Estimates

Creating estimates/quotations is simple in Easy Books. An estimate links a customer account with an income account, but does not affect your profit and loss figure, or the balances of customer accounts. You can use this feature to create estimates for customers, send them in PDF format, or you can print and post them.

To create a new estimate, tap on estimates in the side bar. Then select a customer from the list by tapping on the customer name. The screen shows a list of previous estimates created for the customer. To create a new estimate use the + button at the top of the screen. Choose the income account, the amount and the tax account. In the detail field, type the text you would like to show on the estimate. To add more than one item to the estimate, just add a split and continue with the next item. To send the estimate as a PDF, use the action button at the bottom of the screen and choose the Send Estimate option from the menu. You can edit the fields such as your address, company logo, customer address and estimate terms before you send it.

Creating a Sale

If a customer accepts your estimate and wants to go ahead with an order, you can easily create a sales invoice from the original estimate. To do this, find the estimate in the list, tap on it and choose Create Sale from the action menu as shown in the screenshot. This creates a new sale with the details copied across from the estimate. You can of course edit these if you need to before saving it. After you save the new sale, a tick appears next to the estimate in the list to show it has been sold. You can then navigate quickly to the sale by tapping on the estimate and choosing Go to Sale from the action button.

You can send the sales invoice to your customer in just the same way.

Note: If a customer account has sales or payments, the account cannot be deleted because it would affect the financial information in the accounts. But if there are no financial transactions you can delete a customer account. If a customer account is deleted, all estimates for the customer are deleted as well.

Sales Invoices

You create the sales invoice for your customers using the Sales Invoices icon. Adding a new sale is just like adding a transaction between any other accounts, the only differences being that Easy Books will filter the accounts to make it simple to find the one you're looking for. The main account is always a customer account, so you can pick from a list of customers, but also add one on the fly if you need to.

The invoice number is incremented for you each time by Easy Books, but of course you can change it if you use a different numbering scheme.

Select the "debit or credit" as either "Sales" or "Payments & Credit Notes". Usually this will be sales, so this is pre-selected for you. If you do need to refund a customer, enter it as a sales invoice, but just change the type to "Payments & Credit Notes". You can then product the credit note as a PDF if you want to and either print it yourself or email it to your customer.

Account 2 will be an income type of account, so Easy Books shows you only these to speed things up. In a similar way, the possible VAT accounts are shown too, with their defined rates against them. If you don't see the VAT account you need in the list, you can add a new VAT account from the accounts screen.

The details box is used to store a short description of the item you are selling. This is printed on the invoice to the customer, so you may use something like "15 hours labour charge", "10 Widgets", "Postage & Packing" and so on. You can easily add a split to the sale, giving you a new line on the invoice with its own amount and VAT amount.

Adding Items to the Invoice

If you want to add more lines to the same invoice, just add a split. To do this, tap the + button at the bottom. If the invoice is valid (i.e. it has a valid date, and linked accounts) you can add a new line. Just tap on Add Split and a new section appears for you to link another income account to the same customer sale.

Customer Invoicing

For new sales invoices entered using the Sales Invoices button, the email button is turned on once the record is valid and can be saved. Effectively this means as soon as it has a date together with two linked accounts. Easy Books is capable of producing professional looking invoices in PDF format that can be emailed to yourself, or direct to your customers. For more information, see Customer Invoicing.

Entering Payments Received from Your Customer

When your customer pays the invoice you have sent them, which may be some time later, you should enter a second transaction. This time, assuming the customer pays by cheque and you intend to pay this into the main "Cheque Account", simply create a transaction line between your bank account and the customer for the amount they have paid.

To enter the payment manually, go to the customers list by tapping on the Customers button. Then tap on the customer you are receiving the money from. The screen shows the history of all entries you have recorded against the customer, including the sales and should show the total amount the customer owes you on the last entry at the bottom of the list. Add a new entry for the customer by tapping on the + button at the top. Simply fill in the date the payment was received, the account you are paying the money into (or petty cash if you received cash), and set the "Debit or Credit" to Payments & Cr-Notes. The amount should be set to the amount you received from the customer.

There is a faster method of entering the payment too, which works well for the case when the customer pays a single invoice in full. To use this method, find the original sale, either from the Sales screen or from the list of sales in the Customer's account screen. Once you find it, use the small action button at the bottom to Receive payment. This fills in the details for the payment for you, although the first time you use it you will need to pick the account you are paying into. Set the payment date and check the amount, then tap Save.

If you want to enter the payments manually, you can still go through your list of sales to mark them as paid. This does not affect the books, it simply places the tick next to the sale so you can quickly see which ones you have marked in the list. To mark a sale as paid, just find it in the list first, tap on it and use the action button to Mark as paid.

Entering the payment reduces the balance on your customer account, and increases the balance on your bank account. Note that the income recorded after this is unchanged, because it has been entered already in the sale. To find out about the income statement, see the profit and loss report.

Customer Invoicing

Easy Books will generate an invoice in PDF format, which it will attach to an email for you to send to yourself for printing, or direct to your customers. If the sale is marked as a credit note, a full credit note is produced instead. The process is the same for iPhone and iPad versions, the screenshots show the iPad version as this feature really works so well on the larger screen.

You can set your own company logo or headed paper, the from-address, customer address, invoice number, reference (PO), date, payment terms, page footer and item lines. You can also change the name of your VAT scheme (useful if you use GST), and you can change title of the invoice too, so you can change the "Sales Invoice" to read "Tax Invoice" if you prefer.

Tapping on the action button from the Sales Invoice screen starts the process.

Your Address

If you haven't already set your business address, you will be taken to a screen to enter the information first. Enter the address as you would like it to appear on the invoice, using the return key to separate each line. You can also add your office phone number and/or email address at the bottom of the address.

Company Logo / Headed Paper

There is a space of 2cm height (0.8") by up to 17cm (6.7") wide at the top of the invoice. This space is reserved for your company logo. The image you provide is scaled to the height available, and aligned on the right of the page. The business address is indented 4cm from the right side of the logo, so the best size for a company logo is 4 x 2 cm, or about 400x200 pixels. You can of course produce a complete 17cm x 2cm image for the whole top of the page. You can lay out the logo in whatever position suites you, aligning something in the image to the address would mean putting it at 13cm from the left side. If the image is less than 4cm wide, the image is aligned with the left hand side of the address.

The image above shows the key dimensions for a good header image. The file is listed in the attachments section below, so you can download it as a template for your own image.

To set the logo in Easy Books, you pick from images stored on the iPad or iPhone. You can either produce the logo on the computer and sync with the device to transfer the image over, or if the image is available online, view it using Safari on the iPad and simply tap and hold on the image. You can save the image to your photo roll using this method.

You might like to use the simple heading image below to try this out before making your own logo.

Footer

The footer occupies the bottom 1cm of the page. It is usually given over to the company registered address, the registration number and VAT registration number.

Customer Address

This address is stored against the customer record, so you only need to enter it once for each customer.

Their Reference

If your customer uses Purchase Order numbers, or use a reference number for your account with them, you can enter this in Easy Books. This is printed on the invoice or credit note.

Terms

The payment terms occupy a space towards the bottom of the page. You would typically use this to assert your payment terms, such as "Payment is due 14 days from date of invoice". You can also include your bank details for your customer to make direct transfers, and a note that all amounts are in your chosen currency; for example "All amounts above are in US Dollars".

You can set your business standard terms (from version 3.6), which apply when there are no specific customer terms set. This helps reduce the amount of data to enter if you use the same terms for all (or most) customers. To do this, set the terms in the settings for your business rather than the customer.

Invoice Output

The invoice is produced in PDF format and displayed in the iPhone or iPad. To send the invoice as an email you must have purchased the "Customer Invoicing" extra, if not the app will take you to a screen where you can complete the purchase. The invoice lists each line item (up to a maximum of ten lines). If you enter more than ten lines, the app automatically combines the rest into one line for you.

You can view an example invoice produced by Easy Books by downloading the PDF below.

Statement Reconciliation

Easy Books allows transactions to be reconciled against a paper statement. This is typically done using the bank statement and the electronic copy together. Each transaction shown on the bank statement should have an entry in the app. By reconciling the statements, we can see easily if there are any missing transactions that need to be recorded. Tap on the Statements button on the main screen to bring up the list of accounts that use statements.

In this example, we have received a statement for the business bank account. Tapping on the account listed shows the list of statements already entered for that account. To add a new statement, tap on the + button. The date should be set to match the date of the statement.

The opening balance should be set for the first statement only and the app keeps track of this for subsequent statements. The app shows the list of transactions that do not yet appear on a statement, filtered by the statement date. Any transactions dated after the statement will not be available to move on to the statement. Tap on the "move up" button or drag the lines up by tapping and holding on the three lines at the end of the transaction line to add the transactions to the statement. (The screenshot shows an existing statement with lines already added to it). It is not necessary to keep the transactions in the same order as the paper statement, but it can help to do this because the app calculates the statement balance on each line and this can be used as an aid if there are any differences on the paper statement. It is recommended to reconcile all statements before consolidating profit and loss or filing a VAT return because this helps as a check to make sure all transactions have been entered into Easy Books.

Time Tracker

Easy Books will keep track of time you've worked for your customers. And not just you either; you can add any number of people as staff (or "workers"). For each, you can set the billable rates that you work at, for example "Normal" and "On-Call". As you enter time, you simply pick the rate and the app keeps track of the hours worked in each rate.

This is an add-on module for Easy Books, and not all businesses make money by charging out time by the hour. For those that don't, we wanted to make sure the user interface stays nice and simple. So you can turn the feature off completely in the add-ons screen. This removes the icon from the main screen, removes the report and all hides the settings specific to the Time Tracker.

Workers

The Workers list shows the people in your business that work for your customers. Each of these uses a different rate card for each customer, so you can charge out people's time at different rates.

To add a new worker, tap on the + button at the top of the screen. Or to edit the name of an existing worker, tap the arrow as highlighted in the screenshot.

If a member of staff leaves your business, you can hide them from normal view, or you can delete the old data. Hiding them from view will keep all the time entered available. Deleting is possible, but only if the worker is first marked as inactive. This is a safeguard against deleting the worker accidentally. If you delete the worker, all the time entries for them are deleted, but no financial entries are affected.

You can add and remove workers at any time. To go on to add time entries for a worker, just tap on the worker in the list. The Rate Cards screen for the worker is displayed as follows.

Rate Cards

After tapping on a particular worker, the list of rate cards defined for him/her is displayed. Rate cards are used to tell the app about each billable rate for each customer.

The list shows the number of un-billed hours worked for each customer.

To add a rate card to the list (for the selected worker), tap the + button at the top of the screen. To edit an existing rate card, tap the small arrow.

To view the list of time entries for a rate card, tap on the name of the customer.

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Online Backup & Sync

The Online Sync service provides Continuous Online Backup of your accounts. You can try the service out for two weeks, just register for an account.

If you have more than one device, the service will keep your business accounts in sync on all your Macs, iPhones and iPads

So you might find the service useful if...

* You want to enter sales away from the office, or
* You and a business partner both run Easy Books, or
* You have an iPad and an iPhone, or
* You forget to make regular backups

Online Sync is not essential for Easy Books to function, it is an optional extra. The standard backup and restore features are available for manually transferring data between devices and for creating backups.

Continuous Online Backup

You can use the service to provide peace of mind. If your iPad is stolen, lost, or damaged, you can restore your accounts to a new iPad easily. And it's impossible to forget to backup with the system running continuously in the background!

Keeping Devices in Sync

If you have an iPad and an iPhone, you might want to use Easy Books on both devices. No problem! You can backup from one and restore on the other, but there isn't an easy way to add information to both devices at the same time. This is the problem that Online Syncing aims to solve. Using the service, you can store a copy of your business data on our secure server. Other devices you own are able to access the business data. And from that point on, the system will keep track of all your devices and keep the accounts synchronised. Any changes you make, such as adding a new transaction, or reconciling a statement are passed to other devices.

How it Works

When you turn on syncing for a business, your data is copied and uploaded to our server. This first full upload is called the snapshot. Typically the upload will take about 10-15 seconds over a WiFi connection. After that, when you make a change to your business data, the changes are queued in the device for upload when the network connection is available. Only the changes are sent, and the upload happens in the background.

The server receives data from many devices, and queues the uploaded data for processing. It can take about a minute or two for the server to process your changes before they are made available to your other devices.

Your other devices check the server for new data when Easy Books is running. If new data is found, a message appears to let you know. You can then tap OK to sync the device, or tap Cancel to continue what you were doing. The syncing screen shows you when data is being downloaded and processed on the device.

You can also view the syncing history on the device, which will show you a list of each change that was uploaded or downloaded. Some changes can conflict with others, for example, you might create an account at the same time, with the same name, under the same category, on two devices. In this case, the history will show that there is a problem. You can then pick a device and send a new snapshot. This resolves the conflict and all your other devices will download the new snapshot.

Getting Started

To start using Online Syncing you'll need an account on our secure server. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for an account.

When you sign up, you will receive an email from the server containing your username and password. The password is chosen for you in an effort to make the system more secure, but you can re-visit your account and change your password at any time. The email also includes an attachment, which will open in Easy Books. This attached file contains your username and password and is used purely to make it easier to set up the iOS devices.

Online Syncing is provided as an optional extra for a fee. The pricing is displayed when you sign up, and also in the "My Account" area of the site. You can try the service free for two weeks to see if it works for you. If you decide not to continue with the service, you can turn off syncing on your devices. When you turn off syncing, your data is safe; it won't be deleted from the device.

Add a device

To add a device to your syncing account, just use the mail app on the device to find the email with the attached settings file. Tap on the attachment and you'll see an option to open it in Easy Books.

Easy Books will open and load the settings, which contain your username and password. It then attempts to log in to the server and shows the sync settings screen. If the login was successful, the screen updates to show a list of any newly available businesses on the server, and a list of businesses you have on your device. If this is the first time you have logged in, there will not be any businesses available on the server, you will only see the businesses you have on your iPad or iPhone.

From this screen you can view your account, which shows all the devices and businesses you have in the system as well as the current online syncing product you have purchased.

The first time you use the service, you'll want to upload a copy of your business accounts. To begin uploading a business from the device to the server, tap on the name of the business listed in the "Businesses on device" section. The sync screen for the business is shown, with a switch in the off position as described in the next section. Another way to reach this screen (once you are logged in) is to use the main Online Syncing icon for the currently selected business.

Add a business

The initial upload is called a snapshot, and contains all your accounts, transactions, invoices, hours worked and so on. Once the snapshot has been uploaded, it is processed by the server and will be available for syncing on your other devices.

To upload the snapshot for the current business, tap the Online Syncing icon on the main screen of the iPhone or listed in the main menu on the iPad. If you are not already logged in to the system on the device, you can tap the Sync Settings button in the upper right hand corner to log in. If you are logged in, you will be able to slide the ON/OFF switch into the ON position. This activates syncing for the business and the data will be uploaded to the server.

With the syncing option turned on, all changes you make to the accounts on the device are also sent to the server as you make them. If no network connection is available, the changes are stored up in the iPad and transmitted later. You can see whether the syncing is up to date by looking at the Online Syncing screen on the iPad. Everything is up to date if the message "Looking for updates" is flashing. Another indication is the syncing icon. If this is green with no popup messages, the data is up to date.

Adding another device

You don't have to have two devices to make use of Online Syncing. Even with one device, there is a big benefit. All your changes are sent to the server as you make them. This is equivalent to continuous online backup, and if you ever lose your iPad, you'll be able to restore your business accounts easily from the server.

If you have another device, or just want to restore the business onto the same device, the process is the same. Start by logging in with the device, either using the settings file, or manually. To sign in manually with your username and password, use the Settings > Sync settings screen. Once you have logged in, you will see the list of new businesses available on the server and the list of existing businesses you have available on the device. To copy the business from the server so that it appears on your device, just tap on the business name and turn on syncing with the switch, just as you did when uploading the snapshot.

What just changed?

An indicator may appear in the middle of the sync button, which changes to indicate the current state:

* Not present - Syncing is turned off for this business
* Yellow - There is no network connection (yet), or the business needs to sync.
* Green - All data is up to date (in sync).

When you have two or more devices using the service, they all contact the server every few seconds to see if there are any changes that need to be imported. If you make a change to the accounts on your iPhone, you should see a popup message appear, as shown in the screenshot.

If you are in the middle of something, you can safely ignore the popup message: it will appear again after a few minutes, or you can tap the Sync button when you are ready to sync.

Sync History

Tapping the Online Syncing button starts the process of downloading changes from the server to the device. Each change is processed after they have all downloaded. Typically the download only takes a second or two over WiFi.

After the changes have been made in the device, you can view the complete history of all changes that were made since the snapshot. A bullet point is used to show the new items.

Once the snapshot has changes made to it, you could upload a new snapshot from your device. This is normally needed only when dealing with any conflicting changes.

Conflicts

Conflicts do not normally happen, but there are certain things that cannot be merged, such as creating a new account on two devices under the same category and with the same name. When it comes to syncing, the change will be rejected by the device. There are other changes that are classed as potential conflicts, for more information, see Resolving Conflicts. If there are conflicts, you simply update all devices to match the current state of your current device by uploading a new snapshot.

Change Details

You can tap on any of the items in the list to find out more about the change that was made. For example, if a new transaction is added, you can see the date, amount(s) and the accounts involved.

Recurring Transactions

Any recurring transactions you have entered are handled slightly differently when syncing is turned on. In this case, the system needs to avoid duplicates, since each device is capable of adding the next transaction in the series as soon as it becomes due. So the recurring transactions are only added during the syncing. If new entries are due, the device will ask to sync first, then add the new transactions itself and upload them. Your other devices will then download the changes as normal.

Sales Invoices

The system is built to be able to cope with devices going off-line for long periods. Each device can store up the list of changes itself, and send these to the server when a network connection is available. If there is no connection, the device waits for one.

You should only add new entries (such as expenses, sales, etc.) once, even when all your devices are off-line. Do not add the same transaction in each device. This is because when they do get a connection, they will all try to add the entries you made, and there will be duplicates.

Sales Invoices may need a special mention because the device automatically creates the next invoice number in the sequence based on the most recent one you entered. So if you use invoice numbers in the format INV1103, Easy Books will create INV1104 automatically when you add a new sale. When syncing is turned on, it's a good idea to sync when the device asks you to, because this will update its list of previously used invoice numbers. But if the devices are all off-line, they have no way to know which invoice numbers have been issued, and can create the same invoice number. Don't worry; you can always just edit the invoice number later. But keep an eye on your invoice numbering if you see the sync icon turn yellow, because this indicates the system is not connected.

Dealing with Conflicts

There are a few things that cause conflicts.

Deletes

Deleting records on one device, then making changes to them on another before they have time to sync can cause these "does not exist" conflicts. These are not serious, because the record will be deleted on all devices when they sync, but they are a good warning that you made changes that were discarded.

Account does not exist

Caused by deleting an account on one device and...
* Saving the same account on another.
* Saving a new transaction linked to it on another.
* Saving a new statement for it on another.
* Saving a new rate card for it (if a customer account) on another.

Income account does not exist

Caused by deleting an income account on one device and saving a new rate card linked to in on another.

VAT account does not exist

Caused by deleting a VAT account on one device and...
* Saving a transaction linked to the VAT account on another.
* Saving a rate card linked to it on another.

Transaction does not exist

Caused by deleting a transaction on one device and...
* Saving it (or a linked transaction such as a payment for an invoice) on another.
* Adding it to a statement on another.

Statement does not exist

Caused by deleting a statement on one device and adding a transaction to it on another.

Worker-Customer combination does not exist

Caused by deleting the combination of worker and customer from one device and...
* Saving time against it on another.
* Saving a rate card for it on another.

Time Entry does not exist

Caused by deleting an hours entry on one device and saving it on another.

Rate Card does not exist

Caused by deleting a rate card for worker-customer combination on one device and saving it on another.

Worker does not exist

Caused by deleting a worker on one device and saving a new rate card for the worker on another.

Duplicates

These conflicts are more serious, as they indicate that a duplicate exists in the system. Each device only has one record (account, transaction, statement and so on), but the devices are out of sync.

* Created the same business setting in two places
* Created the same account in two places
* Reconciled the same transaction on the same statement
* Created the same statement in two places
* Created the same account in two places
* Created the same account setting in two places
* Created the same worker/customer combination in two places

How to resolve the conflict(s)

Resolving the conflicts is quite straightforward. When a conflict is shown, you can tap on the change in the history to view the details about the change, and why the change is in conflict. The message at the bottom of the popup will say what the problem is.

Easy Books is designed to reject changes that would cause problems, so even when you see conflicts, it just means the changes were ignored. The data in the device is safe, although you wont have the conflicting changes present in the device. Simply re-downloading from the server will not resolve the conflicts. This is because all the changes are stored on the server, including the changes that conflict with one another. Effectively the conflicts are two changes that cannot both be made in the device. The changes are processed in the order they were made, but local changes are always made straight away. So once you see a conflict in a device, it is likely you will see different conflicts (if any) in other devices.

It is important to deal with the conflicts. As an example, assume the conflict is that an account was created on two devices with the same category and name. At the server, these are two different accounts, and each account has a unique identity which all related information refers to. Only one of the accounts will exist on each device, and all changes that affect the other will not be made on it. Just ignoring the conflict and adding transactions, statements and so on will likely cause more conflicts, as the entries will be added to one account or the other, depending on which one is present in the device.

To resolve the conflict, you simply upload a new snapshot. This can be done from any of the devices, and once done, all outstanding changes other devices are discarded, and all devices are re-synchronised to the snapshot. In the example of adding the same account in two places, you may have made more changes linked to that account, such as adding transactions. You could pick the device that you had made the most changes, and use this to upload the snapshot.

The conflicts can be avoided very easily by only adding an entry once!

Corporation Tax

Easy Books provides the basis for working out how much corporation tax your business is liable for. Assuming the business settings are already set with the correct year end date, and that date has passed, we can run a Profit and loss report to get the operating profit.

We then need to work out the tax owing, and enter this and the payment(s) in Easy Books. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Calculating the tax your business owes can be simple, but it depends on your business and the tax rules that apply. In my own situation, I do this using the P&L report as a basis, adding back any depreciation, applying capital allowances and so on. Your accountant may handle your tax calculation for you, and supply you with the final figure for the tax owed. Once you have the figure, enter this dated on the last day of your tax period. This is a transfer between the Profit and Loss account (under Capital) and the Corporation tax due (under Creditor). Don't worry if your P&L account goes negative for now, the next step will transfer your total profit into this account.
2. Run the P&L report again, and this time use the option to Consolidate. This will close off the tax year, lock it. You will then only be able to add new entries dated after it. The overall profit is transferred to the Profit and Loss account, which should now show a positive balance (we hope).
3. When you eventually settle the tax bill, you probably pay by cheque or by transfer from your bank account. Assuming this, you should enter a new transaction from your bank account. Pick the date as the date you pay the tax, set the amount and pick Corporation tax due as the other account. If you pay an instalment, just use that amount. Easy Books will reduce the balance showing as owed on the Corporation tax due account and reduce the bank account balance. Most likely you'll pay the whole tax amount in one payment. In this case you'll expect to see the balance on Corporation tax due return to zero.

Reports

Easy Books produces financial reports for your business.

Each report is produced in HTML format for display, and CSV format for easier import into spreadsheets, or for sending to an accountant. The reports can be sent from the iPhone or iPad as an attachment on an email, or can be sent to other compatible apps such as Dropbox, Box.net, Evernote and Printer Sharing. The report can then be printed on your computer or imported into a spreadsheet.

As well as producing the reports, the app also allows you to consolidate the Profit and Loss, and perform the VAT return. These actions zero the account balances for the start of the new financial period. End of year profit is posted to the 'profit and loss' account, which you can then move into a 'retained earnings' account if you wish.

All reports can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode, and can be zoomed and panned using the same pinch or double-tap gestures used in Safari.

Use the links below to view more information about each report, including screenshots of the demo business and the reports produced.