Accounting

Run reports from the books, set budgets and record sales tax returns.

Accounting's reports read the double-entry books it keeps from your invoices, expenses, sales, bills and bank statements. Each report covers the dates you choose and exports as PDF or CSV, and each account in it links to its entries. A budget sets what each account should earn or spend in each month, and the Sales tax report shows what is owed for a period.

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Profit and Loss

Profit and Loss shows income, cost of goods sold, gross profit, expenses and net income between two dates.

Accrual or cash basis
On the Accrual basis, invoices and bills count when they are issued. On the Cash basis, they count when they are paid, so a payment of half an invoice counts half its income. Settings chooses the basis the report opens with, and the report can switch.
Compare with
Compare with adds a column for the Previous period, such as the quarter before, or for the Same dates last year.
Each month
Each month, under Compare with, shows each month of the dates in its own column, up to 24 months.

Balance Sheet, Cash flow and Trial balance

Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet shows assets, liabilities and equity at the end of a date. Compare with adds the End of the month before or the Same date last year.
Retained earnings
Income less expenses from earlier financial years is added to Retained earnings without a closing journal entry, and this financial year's is shown as Net income this year.
Cash flow
Cash flow shows where cash came from and went between two dates: net income, then the change in every other account, under operating, investing and financing activities. Cash is the bank, cash, Undeposited funds and Stripe balance accounts.
Trial balance
The Trial balance lists every account's balance on a date, with total debits and credits.

Receivables, payables, customers, suppliers and projects

Accounts receivable and payable
On a date you choose, Accounts receivable lists money owed to you on unpaid invoices and Accounts payable the money you owe on unpaid bills, grouped by how long past due they are.
Income by customer and Spending by supplier
Income by customer and Spending by supplier total income and expenses between two dates for each contact named on the entries, largest first, on the accrual basis. Entries with no contact are totalled under No contact, and a bank rule can name the contact for imported transactions.
Profit by project
Profit by project shows income, costs and profit for each Time Tracking project, on the accrual basis. Income comes from invoices billed from a project's time or expenses, and costs from its expenses and from bill lines given the project. Time worked is not counted as a cost.

Dates, financial years and export

Choose a range such as This quarter or Custom dates. A report of a position, such as the Balance Sheet, takes one date instead.

Financial years
This year and Last year are financial years, which start in the month chosen under Financial year starts in Settings. This quarter and Last quarter are the financial year's quarters.
Export PDF and Export CSV
Export PDF will download the report as it is shown, ready to print or send to an accountant or bank. Export CSV will download it for a spreadsheet.
Your accountant
An accountant you invite to the team opens the same reports in Accounting and can export them.

Budgets

Budgets has a budget for each financial year: what each income and expense account should earn or spend in each month.

  1. Enter the amounts

    Choose the year and enter the amounts. Same every month copies the first amount in a row into every month, and the Year column adds up the row.

  2. Or start from last year

    Start from last year's actual amounts will fill the form with what each account had in each month of the year before. Nothing is saved until you choose Save budget.

  3. Compare with what happened

    Budget against actual shows each account's actual amount beside its budget for the same dates, on the accrual basis, and the difference. A month only partly in the dates counts in proportion to its days.

Sales tax and returns

The Sales tax report shows the tax charged on invoices and Store orders by tax name, less tax on sales reversed in the period, such as on a voided invoice. Recoverable tax paid on bills, and on expenses with Tax on expenses on, is set against it, and the difference is the net for the period. Payments to the tax authority are shown separately. Check the rules where you file.

Magpie does not file returns. It records each return you file.

  1. Record return

    When you file a return, choose Record return under Returns filed, check the period, and enter the date you filed and an optional reference. Magpie will post an entry on the period's last day that sets the recoverable tax against the tax charged, so Sales tax payable holds what is owed.

  2. Pay the tax authority

    Add the payment from the bank against Sales tax payable, in Banking or as a journal entry.

  3. Close the period

    Close the books through the end of the period is on by default. With it on, no entry can then be dated in the period, so the figures you filed will not change.

Ask the assistant about the books

On Dashboard, team admins, and accountants who are members of the team, can ask the assistant about the books: “How much did we make last quarter?” or “Who owes us money?”

It answers with income, expenses and net income for the dates you name, the largest income and expense accounts, what each bank, card and cash account holds, and what is owed to and by the business.

Run your first report.

Create a Magpie account, open Accounting, choose the date your books start, then open Reports. Every report is on every plan, the free plan included.

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