Todah in five minutes

What Todah is, how money coming in and money going out are recorded, and which screen does what. Read this first if you have never used bookkeeping software.

Todah is a place to keep the money side of your business. You use it to send your clients a price (a quote), bill them for the work (an invoice), take their payment, record what you spend (bills and receipts), and check all of that against your bank. From those records Todah builds the reports you or your accountant need at tax time. You do not need to know accounting to use it: you enter the everyday things that happen, and Todah keeps the books from them.

Everything you enter lives in your workspace. A workspace is your business's own private space in Todah. Only the people you invite can see it.

Money coming in: quote, invoice, payment

1. A client asks what a job will cost. You create a quote (some people call it an estimate) in Quotes and send it. The quote lists the work, the price and the tax, and says how long the price is good for.
2. The client says yes. You convert the quote into an invoice with the Convert button, so you do not type it twice. You can also start an invoice from nothing in Invoices.
3. You send the invoice. Todah emails it to your client with a PDF copy attached. If you have set up card payments, the email has a Pay button so the client can pay by card.
4. The client pays. A card payment is recorded by itself. A cheque, cash or e-Transfer you record with Record Payment on the invoice. Part payments are fine: the invoice shows Partially Paid until the rest arrives.
5. If the due date passes and the invoice is still unpaid, it shows as Overdue. If you have turned them on, Todah sends polite reminder emails for you.

Money going out: bill, payment

1. A supplier sends you a bill (an invoice someone sends you), or you pay for something and get a receipt. You record it in Bills, either by typing it in with New Bill or by photographing it with Scan Bill or Receipt.
2. Each line of the bill gets a category, such as Materials or Insurance, so your reports can show where the money went.
3. When you pay the bill, you mark it paid with Mark Paid, which records the date, how you paid and how much, or you match it to the withdrawal in your bank lines, which marks it paid for you. If you pay only part of it, the bill shows Partially Paid until the rest is paid.

The bank ties it together

Your bank statement is the proof of what really happened. In Banking (owners and admins) you bring your bank lines into Todah, either by importing a statement file or, on the Business plan and above, by connecting your bank so the lines arrive by themselves. Then you match each line: a deposit to the invoice it paid, a withdrawal to the bill it paid. A line with no invoice or bill behind it can become a new bill, be recorded as income, or be marked as a transfer between your own accounts, money you put in or took out as the owner, a loan, or a card payout. When every line is accounted for, your books agree with your bank.

Reports answer the big questions

• Profit and Loss: what you earned, what you spent, and what is left.
• Sales Tax: how much GST, HST or other sales tax you charged, how much you paid on your own purchases, and what you owe the government.
• Balance Sheet and Trial Balance: what the business owns and owes, for your accountant.
• The Dashboard: who owes you money right now, and how much of it is late.

On Business and above, each report can be exported as an Excel, CSV or PDF file for your accountant. Anything that is not an invoice, a bill or a bank line, such as your opening balances or an adjustment from your accountant, goes in Journal Entries.

Which screen does what