It may be a bit of a cliché, but 2018 seems to have vanished in the blink of an eye. It seems only a few weeks ago that we were battening down for winter, and now the summer holidays are almost here (at least in this part of the world). Thank you for your support and ideas over 2018, and the MoneyWorks Team wish you all a happy and safe holiday, and a successful 2019.
In this newsletter:
- Holiday Hours
- Making Tax Digital – UK
- Accounting for Prescribed Goods – Singapore
- Using Jobs for Funds Tracking
- Upcoming Training Courses
- MoneyWorks 8.1.5
- Mojave/High Sierra
- Tips du Jour
Holiday Hours
The MoneyWorks main office will be closing for the holidays from 5:00pm December 21st until 9:00am January 7th. Although there will be no phone support over this period, email support will still be available through the support@cognito.co.nz address. Normal administration services will resume on January 14th.
If emailing for support, please be sure to include details of the MoneyWorks version you are using (e.g. MoneyWorks Gold 8.1.4), and the operating system version that you are using. Outline what the problem is, and, if you are getting an error message of some sort, tell us exactly what it says. Brevity might be the soul of wit, but it will significantly hinder any help we can provide.
Another support resource that you can (and should) be using is the MoneyWorks Community Forum (accessible under Help>Community in MoneyWorks), where you can ask and answer questions about MoneyWorks. Google also knows a lot about MoneyWorks (it is getting smarter!), so queries like “writing off invoices in MoneyWorks” or “closing a period in MoneyWorks” will give a lot of useful information.
Making Tax Digital – UK
Making Tax Digital (or MTD) is the UK Government initiative to make VAT processing easier by allowing accounting packages to directly file the VAT return with HMRC, obviating the current requirement to rekey the numbers into the HMRC website. This is slated for introduction starting April 1st 2019. We expect to have an update to MoneyWorks 8 available for MTD before April.
Accounting for Prescribed Goods – Singapore
From January 1st, new requirements for the GST handling on “prescribed goods” are being introduced in Singapore. MoneyWorks 8.1.4 has been approved by the IRAS as being compliant for this new system (older versions are not, and should not be used). For information on prescribed goods please see the IRAS website. Details on how to configure MoneyWorks to handle prescribed goods are outlined in the MoneyWorks Manual. If you need assistance with this, please contact Ledgerworks, the MoneyWorks distributors in Singapore, at support@ledgerworks.asia
Using Jobs for Funds Tracking
It is not uncommon for not for profits (such as sporting clubs, schools, charities) to get some sort of grant from a parent or government body, and need to monitor or report on how the funds were allocated.
Tracking and reporting on this is easy if you use “Job Tagging” in MoneyWorks (and even Cashbook supports this). Basically just tag the line of affected transactions with a code for each grant that you need to manage. Then use the Job Allocation report, which is new in MoneyWorks 8.1.5, to view a summary of the job and its “profitability”. You can also use this technique for tracking events such as the pony club “One Day Event”, or the Bowling Club Fundraiser, and determine exactly how much was raised (and spent) on the event.
For more details see Tracking Grants and Events in MoneyWorks.
Upcoming Training Courses
What better way to start the year than with a MoneyWorks training course — after all, you don’t know what you don’t know! The first courses are 2019 are scheduled for Auckland on February 20th and 21st. For more details, or to book your place, see cognito.co.nz/support/training/
In addition to these formal courses, we offer short, targeted on-line training. For example, if you want to find out more about how job costing can work for you, what scripts can do, how to change an invoice layout, or are unsure of how multi-currency works, then a time can be arranged to show you. For details please contact admin@cognito.co.nz
MoneyWorks 8.1.5
The current version of MoneyWorks is 8.1.5, which was released earlier this month. If you are using an earlier version please update, as this not only adds some new features, but also addresses a number of issues discovered in previous versions. For a list of changes please see the change notes.
Mojave/High Sierra Compatibility
Just a reminder that MoneyWorks 7 and earlier are not compatible with the new file system in MacOS High Sierra and Mojave. If you want to use these new OSes you must upgrade to MoneyWorks 8. To upgrade, go to our upgrade page and enter your existing MoneyWorks serial number (which you can find under Help>Enter Serial).
Tips du Jour
Multiple enquiry windows
Did you know that you can have multiple account enquiry windows open at once? To open a new enquiry window, simply hold down the Option key (on the Mac) or the Shift key (on Windows) and choose Account Enquiry from the Enquiries menu (or the Reports menu, if you are using Cashbook). This applies to all the enquiry windows, not just accounts.
Write-off
At the end of the fiscal year, which is approaching for many users, it is often necessary to write off bad debts (i.e. invoices that you have issued that are not going to get paid). The first step in the process is to ensure that you have a “Bad debts” expense account to use. Then, simply highlight the invoice(s) to write-off in the Receivables list, and choose Adjustments>Write-off from the Command menu. For more information on end of year procedures, please see this forum topic: What should I do at the End of Financial Year?.
Got a MoneyWorks Tip to share?
Please send it into us at admin@cognito.co.nz