FreedomBooksFeatures
If you've done the books in a desktop accounting program, most of this will look familiar. Each everyday job has its own screen, and the reports are built from what you enter on those screens.
Customers and sales
Start with an estimate if the customer wants a quote, or go straight to an invoice. When their check arrives, record the payment against the invoice. Payments wait in undeposited funds until you make the deposit, so a deposit of three checks in FreedomBooks lines up with the single deposit on your bank statement.
A sale paid on the spot gets a sales receipt. Returns and overcharges are handled with credit memos and refunds. When a customer pays up front before the job starts, you record it as a customer deposit and apply it later.
Vendors and bills
Enter bills as they come in, with their due dates, and pay them when you're ready. One payment can cover a single bill or a whole stack from the same vendor. The bill calendar shows what's due and when.
Checks are for anything you pay straight from the bank without a bill. Transfers move money between your own accounts, for example from savings to checking before payroll.
Sales tax
Set up each tax rate with the agency you pay it to. When a city rate and a county rate stack, put them in a group and the group charges the sum. Customers and items each have a taxable setting, and a line is taxed only when both are taxable, so a resale customer buying taxable goods isn't charged. Their resale number stays on their record.
The bank
Reconcile each account against its statement, ticking off what cleared until the difference is zero.
If you don't want to type in bank transactions, the optional bank feeds plugin brings them in through SimpleFIN. Rules you write suggest matches and categories. You accept each transaction before it records a check, deposit or transfer in your books.
Reports
- Profit and loss
- Balance sheet
- General ledger
- Trial balance
Run any of them on a cash basis (money counted when it actually moved) or an accrual basis (counted when you invoiced or got billed). If you aren't sure which one you need, your accountant will have an opinion.
Coming next
AI bank transaction matching and expense tracking for jobs aren't in the first release. The plan is for ChatGPT to suggest bank matches with a reason for you to approve, and turn job receipts into billable expenses you add to the customer's invoice. Job profit will compare what the job billed with what it cost. See what's planned for your ChatGPT connection.
Keeping the books honest
Every transaction posts in balance. Posted transactions are never deleted. If something was wrong, you void it or reverse it, and the original stays on record. An audit history keeps track of the changes.
Companies, files and backups
You can keep several companies in one copy of FreedomBooks and switch between them, which helps if you own two businesses or do the books for a relative's shop on the side. Each company is its own encrypted file on your computer.
Backups can be encrypted with a passphrase, and FreedomBooks checks a backup when it restores one, so you find out about a bad copy before you rely on it.
With the email plugin you can send invoices from Gmail, Microsoft 365 or any SMTP mail server. Customers get them from your address.