MoneyWorks Manual
Getting Started
This chapter covers how to set up MoneyWorks, and, at fourteen pages of riveting prose, is somewhat longer than we would really like. Don’t be fooled by this: setting up is not necessarily difficult. We’ve tried to cover every contingency and possibility, and for the more accounting-inclined, talk about the underlying philosophy as well. If you are just the average punter (especially if you are a Cashbook user), you can probably ignore most of this.
But nor do we want to lull you into a false sense of security. It is important to get the setup as correct as possible. Mistakes made here can come back to haunt you later—get the starting bank balance wrong for example, and your bank reconciliations will be a little tricky1.
Of course if you are starting a new company the setup is much easier: there is no “baggage” that needs to be recorded; no historic balances or outstanding transactions. However most people are not in that situation.
So before you start, it is important that you are well organised. In particular, you need to have the correct information available. For Cashbook users this is normally just a bank statement or two; for others you ought to also have the details of any outstanding transactions (these are explained a bit later on).
Tip: If you are new to MoneyWorks and haven’t done so already, work through the Tutorial before you attempt to set up. That way you will be able to find your way about in MoneyWorks, create transactions and so forth. Consider this more of an edict than a tip.
Tip: If you are setting up your file based on an existing MoneyWorks one, use the Save a Clone as command.
1 Something like an incorrect opening bank balance can be corrected later on, so is not a disaster. But better (and much easier) to get it right at the outset. ↩