Exporting reports for your accountant

Sidebar: Reports.

Who can export

Report exports — owners, and anyone with the Export reports permission. Managers have it by default.
Client and pet contact lists — the Client List and Pet List reports, and the Export button on the Clients and Pets pages. These need Export client & pet contact lists, because they hold phone numbers, emails and addresses. Managers have it by default.

An owner can take either permission away from a role under Team & Payroll, then Roles & Permissions.

If you cannot see an Export button, you do not have the permission. Ask an owner.

What to send

For a normal year end:

Profit & Loss Statement — where your accountant will start.
Revenue Summary — money collected for the period.
Tax Summary Report — tax collected.
Payments & Transactions — every payment behind the totals, with tips and refunds. Press Export all transactions for every line, or Daily summary for one row per day.
Accounts Receivable Aging — what was still owed at the end.

For a sales tax return, the Tax Summary is the one. For a quarterly check-in, Profit & Loss and Revenue Summary are usually enough.

Ask your accountant what they want before exporting everything. It saves a round trip.

How to export

Open the report.
Set the dates first. The export uses the dates on screen. Exporting before you set them gives a file for the wrong period, and the file will not warn you.
Press the Export button inside the report. It downloads a CSV file that opens in Excel or Google Sheets.

Print at the top of the report prints what is on screen.

Why the numbers will not match your bank

Three real differences:

Timing. Reports show when a sale was paid. Your bank shows when the money arrived. A card payment on the 31st lands in the next period.
Fees. Reports show what the customer paid. Your bank shows what arrived after card fees. The gap is the fee, and your accountant will record it as an expense.
Payouts are grouped. One bank deposit usually covers several days, so no single day will match.

None of these is a mistake. See Connecting payments and understanding payouts.

What is not in Alaga

Costs, unless you recorded them under Vendors. Rent, wages actually paid, insurance and utilities are not here.
Tax withholding on wages. Payroll shows gross and net before tax. See Time tracking and running payroll.
History from before you moved to Alaga may be incomplete, depending on what your old system could export.

Handling the files

Exports hold client names, contact details and money records. Send them through a secure method your accountant offers, not ordinary email. Do not leave them in a downloads folder on a shared computer.

Do it regularly

A quarterly export is much easier than a yearly one, and it catches problems — an unpaid invoice, a month of visits never checked out — while they can still be fixed.