Newby questions

insch

I am in the UK. I am evaluating Wave to see if it would work for me. I am a sole trader and will use the programme to create VAT returns and my annual tax returns. I work on a cash basis. Generally it is looking very good. However, I am a bit lost on a couple of things:

Firstly I can't see how to add an Expense category - I don't want all my expenses in 'Operating Expense' - I want to break them into 'General Admin', 'Travel & Subsistence', 'Legal & Prof' etc. In 'Chart of Accounts' I can see how to add an account within the current categories but not how to add a new account Expense category.

My second question is how to create a Sales Tax report. In 'Reports' this option is not listed.

Any advice? Thank you

peta

I cannot save a bank statement in any other format than adobe pdf.Any suggestions.

insch

@peta said:
I cannot save a bank statement in any other format than adobe pdf.Any suggestions.

Should this have been a comment to my post? Surely it would be better as its own posting? Could you delete it here and make a fresh posting.

AccountsPro

@insch

Those are all good questions!

How to add an Expense category

As far as I can tell, there is no option to create Expense Categories or sub-accounts in Wave. "Operating Expenses" is the section where most expenses are recorded.

I do have a suggestion for a workaround:

In the chart of accounts, add an expense account as your "main account" and then add the sub-accounts with similar names. You can also use the Account ID to help categorise:

Example:

L&P-000 LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
L&P-001 L&P - Legal document fees
L&P-002 L&P - Consultation Fees
L&P-003 L&P - Legal bodies subscriptions

Unfortunately, L&P-000 will have to remain empty, and it will not add up the "sub-accounts" below. You would have to extract the data onto a spreadsheet and edit it yourself to add the totals.

How to create a Sales Tax report

Actually, you can extract a Sales Tax report, follow these steps:

1. On the menu got to Reports
2. Scroll down to "Sales Tax" section
3. Edit the date range as needed and update the report.

You can also export the report.

Here are some articles that you might find useful:

Report and file
https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022070971-Report-and-file

Accrual vs. Cash-Basis Reporting
https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041245892-Accrual-vs-Cash-Basis-Reporting

I am sure if there is something further one of WaveApps staff will also add something here.

I hope that was of some help to you!

AccountsPro

@insch

I hope my suggestions below can help you.

Expense Categories

From what I can see WaveApps does not have that feature of creating Expense Categories
or Sub-Accounts yet.

Here is a workaround suggestion: add the Expense Category as an account and then create "sub-accounts" beneath it, and use the Account ID to help you identify each one. Example below:

L&P-CAT LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
L&P-001 Legal Fees
L&P-002 Subscriptions
L&P-002 Consultations

The first part is the Account ID example format.

In effect, it looks like the main account with sub-accounts, but the L&P-CAT will have no transactions and it won't add up the amounts in the accounts beneath it. You would have to extract the data to a spreadsheet and edit it.

Sales Tax Reports

I do see it listed under reports on my side - maybe its something in your settings? Or maybe you are looking under personal profile instead of the business profile if you have it set up that way?

AccountsPro

@peta - What other formats were you look to save it as?

If you would like a jpg or png format, then I have a workaround - you can view it as a customer, then take a screenshot and save it as jpg or png.

Hope that helps!

insch

@AccountsPro said:
@insch

I hope my suggestions below can help you.

Expense Categories

From what I can see WaveApps does not have that feature of creating Expense Categories
or Sub-Accounts yet.

Here is a workaround suggestion: add the Expense Category as an account and then create "sub-accounts" beneath it, and use the Account ID to help you identify each one. Example below:

L&P-CAT LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL
L&P-001 Legal Fees
L&P-002 Subscriptions
L&P-002 Consultations

The first part is the Account ID example format.

In effect, it looks like the main account with sub-accounts, but the L&P-CAT will have no transactions and it won't add up the amounts in the accounts beneath it. You would have to extract the data to a spreadsheet and edit it.

Sales Tax Reports

I do see it listed under reports on my side - maybe its something in your settings? Or maybe you are looking under personal profile instead of the business profile if you have it set up that way?

Thank you - that's really helpful. What I am looking for is a way of creating expense category totals that match those that I'll need to present to the tax man (HMRC) each year. Those categories are obviously defined by them and currently they don't match what Wave has a default. A lot of the categories Wave has are good and I could use them but ultimately the individual totals of each of those accounts would need to be bundled together into the appropriate categories I'd require for my tax return. I don't want to have to use spreadsheets. Another approach I guess would be that I ignore the expense accounts that Wave offers altogether and create my own accounts list matching the HMRC list?

Re. Sales Tax, yes I was in my personal profile. I wasn't aware that I had a business and personal profile but now I know!

Thanks again for your help

AccountsPro

Hi @insch

You are welcome.

Re: Expense Categories - yes, I don't think there is any way the itemized accounts that you want under a category in Wave yet. Your idea of creating your own custom accounts list may work for you for now.

Re: Sales Tax - so glad I could help you with that one.

Please let me know if you need further help - you can always PM message me if I am not responding in the forum.

Cheeers!

insch

Thank you for your help.