If you only want to use your software to fulfill basic accounting requirements (such as report tax payable or produce a year-end balance sheet), you may only need to do an initial bank reconciliation for each of your bank accounts. Reconciling accounts helps ensure the integrity of the information you record in your company file (see ‘Do an initial bank reconciliation’).

If you want to track the money that you owe vendors or that are owed by customers, you will need to use the Purchases and Sales command centers.

Before you can use these command centers, you need to complete the sales and purchases setup tasks in this section.

If you want to track the on-hand quantity and value of items you buy and sell, you need to create records to store the details of your items. You do this using the Inventory command center.

Also, when you buy and sell an item, you will need to record details about each transaction (such as who you purchased the items from, how many you purchased, and the price). You do this using the Sales and Purchases command centers. Hence, you need to complete the sales and purchases setup tasks in this section.

If you have just started your business, you may have very little information about your future customers, vendors, employees, and items that you buy or sell. You can add these details later when you have more information.

However, if you intend using the advanced features of your software (such as recording invoices or tracking departmental profit), you should read through the setup tasks to see which features you might use and the tasks you need to complete to start using them.

If your business was operating prior to your conversion month, it is likely that transactions that occurred prior to your conversion month still affect your business.

For example, a customer may owe you money for sales you made prior to your conversion month, or you may have outstanding bills to pay. You will need to enter these historical details in your company file.