Accounting

Accounting adds your invoices, payments, expenses and sales to the books.

Records from Invoicing, Expenses, Store, Forms and Supporters, and the fees and payouts from Stripe, are added to the books as journal entries, each linked to the record it came from. When a record changes, Magpie reverses its entry and posts the new amounts. Anything else is recorded in Accounting with a bill, an imported bank statement or a journal entry.

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Invoices and expenses

Invoices: An issued invoice adds its total to Accounts receivable, as money owed to you. The amount before tax goes to Services income, or to Sales for an invoice for a Store order, and its tax to Sales tax payable.
Invoice payments: Each payment is added on the date it was received and takes its amount out of Accounts receivable: a bank transfer into Bank, cash into Cash, and an online payment into Stripe balance (the money Stripe holds until it pays out). A card or cheque payment waits in Undeposited funds until its deposit to the bank is recorded. Refunds do the opposite.
Expenses: An expense goes to the expense account named after its category, and comes from Credit card, Cash or Bank by how it was paid.
Tax on expenses: With Tax on expenses on in Settings, the tax on an expense goes to Sales tax recoverable and counts in the Sales tax report.
Reimbursable expenses: A reimbursable expense is owed in Reimbursements owed until it is marked reimbursed, then paid from Bank.
Customers and projects: Entries name the customer, supplier and Time Tracking project of their record, so Income by customer, Spending by supplier and Profit by project include them.

Store, Forms, Supporters and Stripe

Money taken through Stripe is added to Stripe balance at the full amount paid, before fees.

Store orders: A paid order's total goes to Stripe balance, or to Undeposited funds for an order recorded by hand and paid outside Stripe. It is split between Sales, Shipping income and Sales tax payable, and a discount goes to Refunds and discounts.
Store refunds: A refund goes to Refunds and discounts, and its share of the order's tax comes off Sales tax payable.
Cost of goods sold: For items with a cost per item, each sale moves that cost from Inventory to Cost of goods sold.
Gift cards and store credit: Gift cards sold and store credit are owed to customers in Customer credits until they are spent. A card's share of an order comes out of Customer credits.
Form and Supporter payments: Form payments go to Form payments income and Supporter payments to Supporter income, both through Stripe balance, and their refunds to Refunds and discounts.
Stripe fees: Stripe's fees, including Magpie's fee, come off Stripe balance and go to Payment processing fees.
Stripe payouts: A paid payout moves money from Stripe balance to Bank. When the payout appears on an imported bank statement, match it to that entry instead of adding it again.

When records are added

Records are added the next time an Accounting page is opened, and only those dated on or after the day the books start; what the business had and owed before then goes in the opening balances. With a start date in the past, the records since then will be added too.

Depreciation of fixed assets is added when each month ends, as one entry dated its last day.

When a record changes

An entry added from another area changes only through its record. The entry's page links to the record, and Journal Entries can list only the entries from one source, such as Invoice, Expense or Stripe payout.

New amounts: When an invoice, payment, expense or order changes, Magpie will reverse its entry and post one with the new amounts.
Void and removed records: A void invoice, or a payment or expense that was removed, has its entry reversed.
Closed periods: A record dated in a closed period is added on the first day after it, with a note of its own date, so the closed period's reports do not change.

Records in another currency

The books are kept in one currency. An invoice, expense or sale in another currency is listed under Needs an amount on the overview until you enter what it was worth in the books' currency, such as the amount that reached your bank; then it is added, each line converted in the same proportion.

When a payment of such an invoice was worth more or less than the amount entered for the invoice, the difference goes to Exchange gains and losses.

Choosing the accounts records use

Accounting Settings shows the account each kind of record goes to. Choose another, and the entries already added will be reversed and posted again to it.

Invoice payments: Each payment method can go to an account of its own; online payments always go to Stripe balance.
Stripe payouts: Paid out to is the bank account Stripe pays into.
Expense categories: Each category can post to another expense account, or to Equipment for things the business keeps, which are then added to Fixed Assets.
Expense payment methods: Each method can pay from another account, such as a second card.

Not added to the books

A record that cannot be added, for example because the account it posts to was archived, is listed under Not added to the books on the overview, with the reason. Once the cause is fixed, it will be added the next time Accounting is opened.

Add your invoices and sales to the books.

Create a Magpie account, open Accounting and choose the date your books start. Records from that date on will be added when you open Accounting.

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