I'll begin by setting up my own company in Postbooks. First step is to set up some of the  customizations available. Notice that I am taking out of my way functions that I do not need such as separate companies; manufacturing, inventory, and purchasin functions. I choose to use profit centers (cumbersome for my small operation) to help non-profits see how the account numbers can suit their needs. For a non-profit I would have subaccounts.1
Under System, Set Up Modules, Accounting I chose not to have a company segment, to have profit centers and not to have subaccounts. Then I set up five profit centers, Accounting, Account, Profit Center Numbers, 01 - Software & Support, 02 - Town & Schools, 03 - Tax Returns, 04 - Bus. & Computer Support, 05 - Accounting Support. Under System, Master Information, DepartmentsI changed the default MFG Manufacturing to CON Consulting and added SVC Services and left ADM Administration.  
Under Accounting, Account, Chart of Accounts New - I added an account 1010 for Greenfield Savings Checking. I then went to Accounting, Master Information, Bank Accounts and set up a bank account attaching it to account 1010.  
In order to bill people for goods & services I need to create "items". I added HR - HOUR to the units of measure Products, Master Information, Units of Measure My work will be billed either by the hour or each which is in the list as EA. I deleted Case and Pallet. Under Class Codes I left the defaults, Component, Outside Process, Sold Items, Sub Assembly; thinking I will probably never need Sub Assembly. I added Inside Process and On Site Process. I left Standard under Product Categories and added Special, skipped Freight Classes, and under List Characteristics I left Feedback from Customer; deleted Item Color Change and Lot Test Results.

I went to System, Preferences, Menu and turned off the Inventory, Manufacturing and Purchasing menus. I changed the default list behavior to list numbers first and left everything else unchanged under preferences. 

Now I will take a break and work out my chart of accounts. I'll use a spreadsheet program and write down all of the categories I can think of. Where possible and where no data will be lost broad categories can be used. For example, I have an account "Communication" that I will use for my cell phone, my internet service, and my web sites expenses. [Which reminds me that I have an additional profit center, 06 - internet services.] A sort of this category by vendor would give the detail information if needed. 

Chart of accounts entry is pretty straight forward. Accounting, Accounts, Chart of Accounts, - new  - the procedure starts with choosing the Profit Center from a drop down. Then the four-digit number is entered, the title, the account type and sub type. Each revenue and expense account will be entered for all profit centers. Most entries will begin by being entered to Profit Center 00 - General and will later be divided out among the  other Profit Centers. For example - 5010, Advertising, Expense, EXP - Expenses. For Revenue I used one account, Revenue 4000, and repeated it each Profit Center. 
5010   Advertising   5060   Bank Fees   5100   Bus. Use of Home, est.   5160   Communication   5200   Contract Labor   5260   Equipment   5300   Insurance   5360   Mileage   5400   Office Supplies   5460   Software   5500   Support Fees Paid   5560   Travel & Entertainment  

Data loading is a real option when going from one system to another. The cvs (comma separated values) format is readily available for export files and may be converted to an sql file that can be imported into the database. The cvs format can be read into a spreadsheet to which adjustments may be made to be able to export into Postbooks sql format which may be imported into your database. This would generate a data conversion charge.1

Coming up....  entering information, keeping up with activity. In order to give a more complete picture of the functionality in Postbooks I will be imagining the activity for my company. None of the activity is real. None of the characters are real. The data is pure fiction and is chosen to create examples of the various options available to the Postbooks user.

1 Where services for the function are offered it is noted that a charge will be generated from the application of the services.

2/23/2010

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