Invoices, payments and sales in the books

Records from Magpie's other areas are added to the books when an Accounting page is opened. Only records dated on or after the day the books start are added.

What is added

• Invoices, when issued: the total is owed to you in Accounts receivable, the amount before tax is Services income (Sales for an invoice for a Store order), and tax goes to Sales tax payable.
• Invoice payments, on the date received: the money moves out of Accounts receivable. A bank transfer goes to Bank, cash to Cash, an online payment to Stripe balance, and a card, cheque or other payment to Undeposited funds until you record its deposit (Import and review bank transactions). Refunds do the opposite.
• Expenses that are not drafts: the amount goes to an expense account and comes from the account the payment method pays from. With Tax on expenses on in Settings, the tax entered on an expense goes to Sales tax recoverable instead of the expense account. A reimbursable expense is owed in Reimbursements owed until it is marked reimbursed, when it is paid from Bank or the account chosen in Settings.
• Store orders, when paid: the 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. The cost of items with a cost per item moves from Inventory to Cost of goods sold. A refund goes to Refunds and discounts, with its share of the tax taken off Sales tax payable.
• Store gift cards: 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 payments to Form payments income and Supporter payments to Supporter income, both through Stripe balance, and their refunds.
• Stripe fees, including Magpie's fee, come off Stripe balance into Payment processing fees. A paid Stripe payout moves money from Stripe balance to Bank, or to the account chosen in Settings.
• Depreciation of fixed assets, each month; see Depreciate fixed assets.

When a record changes, Magpie reverses its entry and posts the new amounts. A void invoice or a removed payment or expense has its entry reversed. These entries cannot be reversed by hand; change the record instead. Each one links to the record it came from, and Journal Entries can show just the entries from one area.

A record dated in a closed period is added on the first day after it, with a note of its own date.

If a record cannot be added, for example because its account was archived, it is listed under Not added to the books on the overview with the reason. Fix the cause; it will be added the next time Accounting is opened.

Records in another currency

A record in a currency other than the books' is listed under Needs an amount on the Accounting overview. Enter what it was worth in the books' currency, such as the amount that reached your bank, and choose Add. Each line of the entry is converted in the same proportion. If the record changes later, it is listed again until a new amount is entered.

A payment of an invoice in another currency takes out of Accounts receivable the share of the invoice it pays, at the amount entered for the invoice. When the payment was worth more or less than that, the difference goes to Exchange gains and losses: a gain reduces it and a loss adds to it. Until the invoice has its amount, the payment takes out what it was worth, and it is added again with the difference once the invoice's amount is entered.

Choose the accounts records use

In Settings, choose a different account for any of these; entries already added will be reversed and posted again to that account:

• Invoice payments: each payment method's money goes to Bank for a bank transfer, Cash for cash, or Undeposited funds for a card, cheque or other payment. Online payments always go to Stripe balance.
• Stripe payouts: Paid out to is Bank.
• Expense categories: each posts to the expense account with the same name, or to Other expenses. A category for things the business keeps, such as computers, can post to Equipment instead; then add them to Fixed Assets.
• Expense payment methods: each pays from Credit card for a card, Cash for cash, or Bank for the rest. Reimbursements paid from is Bank.

Tax on expenses, in the same Settings, chooses whether tax entered on an expense is recoverable. Changing it posts expenses already added again.

For a record that is missing or wrong in the books, Contact support.