Exporting reports for your accountant

Sidebar: Reports.

Only owners can export

The export button does not appear for managers or staff. That is deliberate — an export is your whole client and financial history in one file, and it should leave the building on the owner's decision.

If you cannot see an export button, check whether you are signed in as an owner. That is the answer nearly every time.

What to send

For a normal year end:

• Profit & Loss Statement — the headline your accountant will start from.
• Revenue Summary for the period.
• Tax Summary Report — tax collected, broken out.
• Payments & Transactions — the detail behind the totals, including refunds.
• Accounts Receivable Aging — what was still owed at the period end.

For a VAT or 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 which they want before exporting all of them. They will have a preference and it saves a round trip.

Set the date range first

Set the period on the report, then export. The export follows what is on screen, so exporting before setting the dates gives you a file covering the wrong period — and it is not obvious from the file that it is wrong.

Why the numbers will not match your bank

This causes more confusion than anything else at year end. Three real differences:

• Timing. Reports show trading when it happened; your bank shows money when it arrived. A card payment on the 31st lands in your account in the next period.
• Fees. Reports show what the customer paid. Your bank shows what arrived after processing fees were deducted. The gap is the fee, and your accountant will want it recorded as an expense.
• Payouts are batched. One deposit typically covers several days, so no single day will ever match.

None of these is an error. Explain them to your accountant once and they will not ask again — and see Connecting payments and understanding payouts for the detail.

What is not in Alaga

• Costs, unless you recorded them under Vendors. Rent, wages actually paid, insurance and utilities are not here.
• Financial history from before you moved to Alaga. Migrations bring clients, pets and appointments, not past invoices. Prior years stay with your old provider or your accountant.

Handling the files

Exports contain client names, contact details and financial records. Treat them accordingly: send through whatever secure method your accountant offers rather than ordinary email, and do not leave them in a downloads folder on a shared machine.

Doing it regularly

A quarterly export is much less painful than an annual one, and it catches problems — an unpaid invoice, a month of un-completed appointments — while they can still be fixed.