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Set up your chart of accounts

Your bank accounts and your categories live on one screen. Keep the list short, name things the way your tax return does, and hide what you never use.

1. Open Chart of AccountsIn Books & Payroll, click Chart of Accounts in the left rail. Two chips at the top switch the list: "Balance sheet accounts" holds your bank accounts, credit cards, and loans; "Income & expense accounts" holds the categories you put on every check and deposit.
2. Add a bank account, card, or loanOn "Balance sheet accounts," click "+ Add account." Fill in the Account name and Type, the Institution if you like, and the Last 4 digits so statements are easy to tell apart, then click Save.
3. A credit card with several cardholdersAdd the main card first. Then add each cardholder's card with "Part of" set to the main card. Charges go on the card they were made with; the main card is the one you pay and reconcile, as one statement.
4. Add an income or expense categorySwitch to "Income & expense accounts" and click "+ Add account." Give it an Account name and set Kind to Expense or Income. A new farm's accounts come with their Schedule F lines. On a farm there is a Schedule F line box for any account you add: type the line number from the form and the Schedule F report adds the category up under that line.
5. Rename or change oneClick any account or category in the list to open it in the same form, change what you need, and Save. Renaming keeps every transaction that points at it.
6. Hide what you never useOn "Income & expense accounts," "Hide unused" lists every category that no transaction, bill, rule, or memorized entry points at, and "Hide these" takes them out of the pick-lists. Nothing is deleted.
7. Keep it shortAim for a list that matches the lines on your tax return and little more. A category per vendor is a trap: "Repairs & maintenance" with the vendor on each line tells you more than twenty tiny categories, and you can split one transaction across categories right in the register.
8. The other chipsThe same screen holds Opening balances (what each account was worth the day the books started), From QuickBooks (bring your QuickBooks Desktop lists across), Journal entries (a balanced debit-and-credit entry for the accountant's adjustments), Rules (categorize imported bank lines automatically), Users (who can sign in), and Preferences.