recording transaction

mzp

i would like to ask, because im new to wave apps, new to business, and got confuse to record my business transaction. im not too good in english too, pardon me.
1. to start my business i register account at bank, let say $ 1000. how to record it? i think it should be categorize at equity... but at what account? cash on hand or owner investment?
2. than i bring some more money to my business but not bank in it in the account i just register, how should i record it? i think it should be categorize at equity, but again at what account? cash on hand or owner investment?
3. i take some money from my business, from the bank account i register, so i have cash, so i can use for business purpose at anytime it should, so from what it look like, it appear at my bank statement i have draw money, but from business view i still dont use it... so should i record it at wave or not? if so, what category i should record it? because it just to have cash at hand.
i thinks that is all for the moment. actually i dont know where to click so i start new discussion. im sorry if that is not what i should do.

Alexia

Hi, @mzp.

Welcome to Wave! We're happy to have you!

The first thing you'll need to do is create an account on your Chart of Accounts page for your business' bank account. You can do this by following the instructions found here.

Once that's done, we can set up that starting balance. Here's how you do it.

• On the Transactions page, under Accounting, click Add Income.
• You can name that transaction whatever makes the most sense to you, let's call it Starting Balance for the purpose of this example.
• As the payment account, choose your newly created bank account. This represents which one of the business' payment accounts was changed. This transaction adds money to this account, so it's an income for your bank account.
• As the category, choose Owner's Investment/Drawings. This tells us where the money is coming from (or, if this was an expense, where it's going). In this case, it's coming from your personal account, which is covered by the Owner's Investment/Drawings category.
• Add the amount and save.

For your second question, if you deposit any sort of money from your own pocket to your business, you'd follow the same process. If you're just taking cash out from your personal account to use on business expenses, you can just make the account Cash on Hand instead of your bank account.

And for the third question, if you take out cash from your business account, for use on business transactions, you would create a transfer between your bank account, and the Cash on Hand account. Here's an article that will explain how to do this.

If you would like a guide on how to best use Wave for your business, we have one of those! You can find Fearless Accounting With Wave here.

mzp

i think i start to get hold of this. thank you for explanation.
i have another question.
1 if someone wrongly bank in money to my business account and of course he would ask for refund, because he did not buy anything, should i record this at wave? because the amount in is the same amount out. and it is not related to business... if i have to record it, how?
2 i found out the solution if someone pay more than what it should, and i refund the balance, by adding the expense (refund sent for invoice in wave)...but the problem is, if my customer pay the amount twice, let say he should pay $100, but he pay $100 twice, should i record it? because u cant add anymore payment after it completed.
that all for now. thanks.

Alexia

Super happy to help out, @mzp!

1. Yes. Basically, you want your Transactions page on Wave for your bank account to look exactly like your bank statement. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter that much, but more information is always better, so it's good practice to put in everything. If you ever bring your Wave reports to an accountant, they'll love you more for it.
2. You can actually add a payment larger than the amount of the invoice. Just click on that paid invoice, and find the "Edit Payment" button.

mzp

thanks @alexia. i have suggestion to wave company... at transaction, edit transaction detail... button delete should at least ask for confirmation before running it... i have mistakenly click the button delete, and now i have to recheck what invoice i have delete. it really a grave mistake. so if it could ask for confirmation, it would be better.

Alexia

Hi, @mzp.

Thank you for your feedback. Wave does ask for confirmation, but only when deleting transactions in bulk. I can see how it would be useful to have some sort of notification, especially for transactions linked to invoices. I'll make sure to pass the message along.

mzp

actually it happen when i try to scroll down... the delete button is too close to scroll... thats why click it by mistake... and and dont remember what transaction that being deleted... so i have to check all...

@alexia. i have another question. it is the 30 of november 2017 is the year end for my first year business account... but some transaction such as transfering dividend to the shareholder which was done after 30 november 2017... how to include this because it deduce my profit but it is done after the years end... how should i record this... i spent so much time learning account until i meet wave recently...

Alexia

Hi, @mzp.

It is not possible to make direct entries to your retained earnings in Wave, so you would not be able to close dividends to retained earnings in the conventional sense. In Wave, 'dividends' is kept as somewhat of a permanent account and will be netted against your retained earnings in the equity portion of your balance sheet. This is because years don't "close" in a traditional sense, in Wave. You can always pull up reports and edit data for previous years.

With that said, if you make this payment of dividends as a Journal Transaction rather than an expense, it won't be marked as an expense in your Profit and Loss reports.

mzp

thanks for your explanation @alexia .
1.i want to ask about reconciliation. is it a must to do reconciliation? of course i do have a bank statement, but the i dont have cash on hand statement... are there any harm to not to do so?

2. i have staff under me, and i want to set their payroll, but it cant in wave... because it limit to certain country, and im from malaysia. is there any way but to record it manually every time?

3. i have a problem viewing balance sheet in wave because i start my business by 1 december and year end is 30 november.... in wave balance sheet view by year end at 31 december...

Alexia

Hi, @mzp.

1. It's not absolutely necessary to do reconciliation, but it does help prevent a lot of small accounting errors. I do understand what you are saying for your Cash on Hands account, and that's a pretty reasonable argument.
2. No, you'll have to record it manually. We only offer Payroll services in Canada and the United States at this time. While we'd love to expand eventually, it isn't in our plans for now.
3. You can change your year's end date by clicking on Settings, on the menu on the left, and going to Date & Currency. That should help with your issue.

mzp

hi @Alexia
i havent explore the new wave... but i would like to suggest something... i install wave apps at my phone... and i can send receipt or invois to whatsapp or telegram... but i cant do that at my laptop... so i would like to suggest that wave make a link or something so i can send them when im using laptop... i would do great

Ryan_W

Hey @mzp,

You can do this with invoices (although not with receipts) directly from the desktop version of Wave! To send an invoice link, click into the invoice and click More Actions > Get Share Link. Then, you can copy and paste this link into any messaging platforms which support desktop push notifications.

mzp

@Ryan_W thanks ryan for your reply. i always appreciate it.
if some how i delete customer, is wave also delete all related to that customer including all invoices i issue to that name... or not?

mzp

in occation that i accidently create 2 customers, but it actually the same person, then i realize that after that... how to merge between this contact, so that all the invoice, payment and so on will merge too... i dont mean that 2 invoices merge into one, but 2 invoices are there related to the same person i merge

2. If i transfer some money from bank to have some on hand, so i can use it anytime for business purpose.... by creating a expense and chose (transfer to)... but if i want to tranfer the money on hand to bank, should i create (income) and lable it as (transfer to)? how should i record it at wave

JordanD

@mzp Great question! If you have created a duplicate customer, I would start by changing the customer name to something that differentiates on from another (i.e. John Smith 1 and John Smith 2). Then, any invoices that are assigned to John Smith 2 should be edited to be assigned to John Smith 1 instead. This will mean that John Smith 2 is no longer assigned to any invoices. You should then be able to delete the John Smith 2 contact.

In terms of your second question, whenever you are moving funds out of an account, this will always be an expense to that account. When you would like to show the funds moving into another account, you should be selecting to "Transfer to" option.

mzp

thanks @JordanFromWave
why my account receivable became negative? and how to fix it? i think i have been very careful in recording every transaction... what is the common mistake there is?

JamieD

Hi @mzp . It could be that there are some outstanding/overdue invoices (or ones that have been paid for already) that have credits/discounts on them that are higher than the amount that was actually owed to you. I will love to take a look into this a bit further, however, could you please send a screenshot of your Accounts Receivable transactions list? You will want to verify and make sure that everything is balancing correctly on your transactions page, as well as your invoices.

mzp

i'm sorry, i don't know the exact word for this. it was a customer that did not pay, and it would be impossible to collect. how to record the transaction? if i delete the invoice, it would remove the record, if i don't delete the invoice, it would seem that the collect is still possible.... but it is not possible...

Samd

Hi @mzp - that's perfect actually! So in this case you'd want to be writing off this invoice as a loss of sales/income?

We have a guide available here: Dealing with Bad Debt. The article title definitely makes it sound scarier than it actually is.

In essence, you'll want to generate an Undeposited Funds (or whatever name you'd like) under Accounting > Chart of Accounts, and then Other Bank Account. Then head over to Sales > Invoices, and record a payment into the Undeposited Funds account for the value of the invoice.

Then generate a new expense account under Operating Expenses called 'Bad Debt' (or written off invoices, losses on sales/services, etc). Then back to Accounting > Transactions, where you'll record an expense out of 'Undeposited Funds' for the value of the invoice, and then categorize as 'Bad Debt'. I hope this helps!

mzp

thanks @Samd ... it helps a lot. i have been wondering for such a long time.... thanks for the answer.

i have wrote off the invoice you explain... but if some how the customer come back and pay the amount, how should i record it? as a new invoice, or should i deleted the bad debt record and record the payment back or the is other way doing it?

AlexL

Hi @mzp . As you'd technically be receiving payment on the invoice and it would no longer be bad debt, I'd delete the recorded bad debt and record the payment to your invoice.

mzp

thanks alex.... i've been eager to ask.... when i need to find invois assign to mr A for example, but i forgot his name but his country... but i cant search because the search only focuses on customer name, and his invoice number... is there anything i can do... because sometime, customer ask to change the name to his organisastion, so the payment will directly go that way... but it will trouble me to find his invoice because i forgot where he is, although i know his name... i will find it eventually, but scrolling one by one

Myron

Hi @mzp , that is a really interesting use case that you have described. I'd love to hear your insight into what search tools you would like to see to make your workflow easier

mzp

@Myron said:
Hi @mzp , that is a really interesting use case that you have described. I'd love to hear your insight into what search tools you would like to see to make your workflow easier

thanks @myron. when you add a customer to an invoice, you write his name and his other contact info, his company, his address, etc, then when you have to find his invoice but you failed to remember his name, maybe you remember his other contact info but not his name... i would like if i can search by his other contact info.

I have another question. Is there anyway to hide product or service which no longer available? i want to delete it, but worried it would delete the past invoice with that product, so i kept it there but there will be too many

ConnorM

Hey @mzp! Unfortunately, it is not present at possible to search customers by alternative contact information, nor is it possible to hide products or services which are no longer available. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news here!