Invoices are not created in MyCorbu. Rather MyCorbu helps you record and track your invoices. Invoices are entered as a series of transactions, one per active Project-Phase. And they make use of the Fees feature to facilitate this.
. Take a look at the HELP article to get an overview of how this feature can work for you. . https://www.mycorbu.com/help/invoices You can now copy expenses rather than making a totally new entry.
In the main table of transactions on the Bookkeeping page, you will notice a column labeled ‘Copy’. For Expense Type transactions only, clicking the ‘double page’ icon will open the details of that expense transaction. To copy the record, click ‘submit’. A new transaction is added with today’s date. For recurring expenses this ‘copy routine’ saves clicks and ensures consistency. Reimbursable Expenses, Mileage and Income Types of transactions are too-connected to other things for this to work successfully, so you are shown a message if you try one of these.. When adding transactions into MyCorbu Books, you have the opportunity to reduce your record keeping.
. I recommend entering bills as soon as they are received. This eliminates the need to keep a separate file of bills that are payable. The bill itself can be scanned and attached to the bill entry by uploading it while making the entry. See https://www.mycorbu.com/help/transactions for a deeper look. . You can easily record the due date during the same entry. Then once or twice a month, open the Payables report to see what bills you have, total amount due, and which need paying. Note the 'Mark Paid' column on the right, just click 'mark' when paid. . Paying bills can really be simple if you use your checking account's 'bill paying' feature. Each bill just takes a date, an amount, and a click to send. No checks. No addressing envelops. No stamps. . When logging in invoices, you can attach a copy in the same way so that you can easily see exactly what was sent. The minimum number of Categories is more appropriate for small firms. No one has time to manage or analyze more.
. Add more detail later if it would really help. . The whole purpose is, first, to tell you something useful, and, second, to help prepare taxes. The ultimate minimum list of Categories is just the Schedule C categories that apply to you. . Your time is better spent analyzing Billable Ratios. If you are using the Bookkeeping features, you know about Categories. Now you can set a monthly budget for each Category in the Categories Table. Go to Bookkeeping > Tools > Categories.
. Enter a budget for each Category using positive numbers for income and negative numbers for expenses. . The table automatically shows the previous month’s total for each Category for easy comparison to your budget. . Menu buttons for quick access from the Admin page and from the Expense Report page have been added for convenience. Whether it is your custom to send Statements or not, there inevitably arises a situation where a reminder is in order.
. To quickly create a Statement, go to Bookkeeping > Receivables. Then use the Search box to isolate a client, a project or an invoice. . You can ‘print’ a PDF in most browsers so that you have an attachment with all the breakdown (even aging) for a simple email statement. Most architectural firms must use cash accounting for tax purposes. Only what you receive or paid is counted.
. The downside of cash accounting is that you don’t know how you are doing until later so it is a poor choice for management. . Accrual accounting counts income when you invoice it and expenses when you get the bill. This is what you need to manage. . MyCorbu lets you choose which you want. If you want accrual, there are Receivables and Payables tables to assist in converting Accrual to Cash. One of the benefits of architectural bookkeeping is getting instant feedback from your data.
The table of Project-Phase Budgets on the Projects page always shows you how many hours and dollars have been logged. If you have set a design budget, you know what percent complete the Project-Phase deliverables should be. Similarly, by opening the Project Financial Status Reports from the Bookkeeping page, you can see in one line per project how income and expenses look. Click the Details link at the end of the line to dig deeper into the time and money attributed to the Project. Paying bills is tedious, but this hint can help. With MyCorbu it is so easy to log bills as they arrive, that I recommend it. And having them logged means that you can eliminate whatever process you have for managing timely payments.
Here is what I recommend. On the day that the bill arrives, make an Expense transaction entry on the MyCorbu Books page with these differences: do not check ‘Yes’ for ‘Paid?’; set a Due Date (optional); and attach a scan of the bill by clicking ‘Choose File’ (also optional). Now you are always ready to take the last step in paying bills. When that day arrives, navigate in MyCorbu to ‘Payables’ in one tab of your browser and your banks “bill paying” app in another. Use the Payables report to guide you. As you schedule payments with your bank, mark them ‘Paid’ in MyCorbu. This process will make paying bills less of a project. It also puts the information about bills at your fingertips anytime you want to check it. An alternative way of using credit cards with MyCorbu is to make an Expense transaction whenever you charge something and mark it NOT paid.
When you make a credit card payment each month, do one of two things. If you pay off the entire balance every month, go to your Payables report and mark each item on this month’s statement as PAID. If the credit card is not paid every month, go to your Payables report and mark only items you are paying as PAID. Always pay off at least the interest that is due. If this doesn’t meet the minimum payment (or you can afford more) also pay for one or more items, and mark them PAID. Remember to make a new Expense transaction for the interest. This method creates a little complexity, but your records are always up to date. The simplest way of using credit cards with MyCorbu is to make an Expense transaction whenever you charge something and mark it paid. Then pay off the credit card every month.
If the credit card is not paid every month, this method creates complexity. For your tax return you will have to determine which of the expenses that you have charged have actually been paid. This complexity can be improved upon by always making partial payments equal to the interest plus the cost of one or more items. This is still messy, but not as much. The date of an invoice is only useful as a point of reference. Usually the date assigned is the date it was prepared or sent.
I think it is more helpful to your bookkeeping to date invoices with the last day of the period that it covers. That approach puts your time expense and the associated income in the same timeframe. The date is now meaningful and it may spur your client to make payment just a little sooner. While working on Invoicing for MyCorbu, I stumbled upon a really handy invoice numbering system.
Here is a link to a description. Add A File To A TransactionWhen Bookkeeping launches in the next week or so there will be a feature that hasn't been mentioned before now - FILES. You may add a file to your expense or income transactions by simply uploading it. This will allow you to keep your bills and invoices right with your transactions for easy reference. Determining Proj. Fin. StatusMyCorbu's Bookkeeping feature allows you to determine the financial status of your projects with just a couple of clicks. A new blog post describes where the results can be found in the upgraded version. WORKFLOWThe new Transactions feature, which I have been calling 'BOOKS', is going to work well with everything that has been released so far. For instance, when you enter mileage, now it will add transactions to your BOOKS automatically. This Workflow description gives you a good overview of how BOOKS will work. HELP with Reimb. Exp.The Reimbursable Expenses HELP article stresses the need to SETUP Reimb Exp properly, and introduces two new tables to assist with Reimbursable Expense tasks. Managing reimbursement of staff and managing invoicing for Reimb Exp are each aided by their own table to simplify the task. A new HELP article was published showing how to use the Payroll Preparation table. Click the link in the color box above or here to read more. Just ten clicks and you have your payroll data. Table Added To Aid Payroll PrepA new table has been added to aid with preparation of payroll. See Projects Page, Design Time Cost menu, button labeled "$ Payroll Prep". The table is grouped by staff member and shows totals for hours and for labor cost. Set two filters to isolate the timeframe of the payroll period.
Using The Mileage FeatureThe Mileage feature that is part of the TIME upgrade has a HELP article explaining how it works. Remember to set up your mileage rates before adding mileage entries. |
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