To all our faithful users, we are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused on Tuesday 31st August 2010. Believe me, there is no one more frustrated than the team at Clear Books and Fubra right now. Our reputation and our business is dependent on providing a fantastic service and we fell short of the mark on Tuesday.

All The Books Are Down

On my return from a relaxing bank holiday weekend, the one brief smile I allowed myself was when someone tweeted:

@spyou unfortunately @clearbooks is down too. so I can’t invoice the people I know not on #facebook. All the #books are down.

Not only was Clear Books down, but so was FaceBook. No matter the size and clout, all web services are susceptible to unexpected downtime.

Admittedly our downtime was longer and where we monumentally went wrong was not having a satisfactory recovery procedure. We thought we did, but we didn’t. It took too long to implement and due to a number of complications, we had to recover data from Saturday.

It was unfortunate that the server failed, but we should expect servers to fail and be prepared accordingly.

Judge Us On How We respond

Please judge us on how we respond to this incident and the steps we take to significantly improve the recovery procedure. This is what we will be doing:

• To regain your confidence we will start documenting regular recovery drills and announcing the results.
• To be completely transparent about our recovery procedure we will set up a thread on Get Satisfaction to outline and discuss our intended setup.

Thank you for your continued support and once again, sorry!

Tim Fouracre

—- Update 2 September 2010 —-

Action Plan

Whereas previously we were using a dual redundancy system (RAID + off site backups on Amazon) we will be putting into place a 5 level redundancy system:

1) RAID on all servers
2) Master / Slave replication – slave will replicate in realtime from master
3) Cold spare database server – will provide a full set of spare parts in the event of a failure of master / slave
4) On site daily backups (dedicated box in our main DC for faster restore in the event of problem with 1 & 2)
5) Off site daily backups (on Amazon EC2 / S3)

For transparency and to show evidence that our new recovery procedures are in place and working we will publish reports of recovery drills in which we replicate a server failure. Additionally, for your peace of mind, we will improve the tools that let you get hold of your own data:

1) We will implement a tool that sends you your backed up data on a regular basis. There will also be the ability to resurrect your own backups so that you can use these as restore points.
2) We will improve our CSV export tools so that you can export the entire Clear Books system to CSV and then import these back into Clear Books.

Help Article

FreshBooks Import Tool Guide

Steps

1. Login and set up your FreshBooks API access.

2. Add your FreshBooks API url and key to your ClearBooks account.

3. Import your Freshbooks Invoices or Clients.

1. Login and set up your Freshbooks API access.

1.1 Login to FreshBooks

1.2 Navigate to the API details page by clicking ‘My Account’ and then ‘FreshBooks API’ .

1.3 Enable  the FreshBooks API for your account and copy your  FreshBooks API url and API token(key) from the FreshBooks API page.

2. Add your FreshBooks API url and key to your ClearBooks account.

2.1  Login to ClearBooks and navigate to Settings->Organisation-> Setup

2.2 Paste your  FreshBooks API url and API token(key) from the FreshBooks API page into the respective fields circled below.

3. Import your FreshBooks Invoices or Clients.

3.1 Navigate to Tools->Import and click the link ‘Import from FreshBooks’.

3.2 To import invoices, enter a Start date and/or End Date for importing FreshBooks invoices. Only valid invoices will be imported to ClearBooks.

3.3 To import clients, you can either select to import all FreshBooks clients or enter a specific client, using their username and email address to identify them, to be imported into your ClearBooks account.

If you have any difficulties in following this guide. Please email support@clearbooks.co.uk or make a post on GetSatisfaction through clicking the top right Support button in your account.

Help Article

Paypal Import Tool Guide

Steps

1. Login and set up your Paypal account

2. Setup a Paypal internet payment bank account in your Clear Books account

3. Import your Paypal transactions

This tool automatically imports transactions and entities from your Paypal merchant account (i.e. this will not work for personal Paypal accounts).

Steps:

1. Login and set up your Paypal account

1.1 Login to your Paypal business account.

1.2 Navigate to the Profile page.

1.3 Click on the API Access link.

1.4 Click on Grant API permission.

1.5 Complete the form as shown below and then click Submit.

2. Setup a Paypal internet payment bank account in your Clear Books account

2.1 After you are logged into Clear Books navigate to Money ->Banking and click on the New Account button.

2.2 Click the plus icon next to Internet payments to create a Paypal account in Clear Books.

2.3 Configure the bank account as shown below. Select payment provider as Paypal, bank group to New Bank, set the default currency to your Paypal account’s currency. IMPORTANT the Email Account must be set to the email address of the Paypal account you intend to import from. Once this has been done hit the Confirm Changes button and navigate to Money->Banking.

3. Import your Paypal transactions

3.1 Click the Import link for your Paypal account.

3.2 Notice that there is an Import directly from Paypal section.  There is a short help area next to the Import directly from Paypal section that describes what the checkboxes are for.

3.3 If this is your initial import then you must set a start date for your import. You can do so manually or using the popup calendar that appears when you select the field. When ready, click the Import button.

3.4 On successful import you are redirected to the management page for that particular import set.

3.5 If the selected transaction from the import set has a Paypal fee attached to it then the fee will get automatically explained, as show below.

Congratulations setup is complete.

Notes

A limitation of the Paypal API means that this tool does not match the original description for a currency conversion which has occurred in your paypal account. e.g. if you have a GBP Paypal account and make a payment in USD, then the description of the Paypal transaction will be “Conversion from USD to GBP” rather than the original description ‘Purchase of xyz’.

We are looking to do further testimonials covering a range of organisation types and industries. If you are a user of Clear Books and interested in participating then please contact support@clearbooks.co.uk outlining:

1. Organisation Name
2. Organisation Type (Limited Company, Charity, Sole Trader)
3. Industry
4. Number of Employees
5. Location

Here are some mistakes that I have noticed in the first few CVs:

• Leaving out degree classification (the first thing I scan for).
• Basic grammatical mistakes such as the difference between “where” and “were” and the use of “have” and “has”.
• Leaving out date of birth (which puts achievements in context).
• When using bullet point lists inconsistent use of full stops e.g.
  • bullet 1
  • bullet 2.
  • bullet 3
• Randomly capitalising words in the middle of sentences that should not be capitalised.
• Strange ordering of academic subjects (either order alphabetically or by grade, but not randomly).

A CV is a one page opportunity for a candidate to sell themselves. There are no excuses for missing information, grammatical mistakes or inconsistent presentation no matter how minor the details.

VAT Return

Our VAT return report has changed. We now break down how each box of the VAT return is calculated by itemising the constituent transactions. The system also has a new input box called ‘VAT Treatment’. This only affects users invoicing internationally and has been introduced to better handle VAT.

Mass Update

When explaining your imported bank statement use the Mass Update button to update all similar transactions in one go. This will speed up the time it takes to explain your imported bank statement.

Dividend Vouchers

We have introduced automatic dividend vouchers for limited companies.

CIS Online Filing

Following on from our online VAT filing, our first few CIS returns have been successfully submitted online from Clear Books to HMRC.

User Backups

We have disabled our emailed user backups for a number of reasons. Of course we still continue to store backups of your data internally, but in terms of an emailed personal backup we will be implementing a new process in the future.

iPhone App

Progress continues with the iPhone app and we hope to have something to show next month.

Company News

This month we have taken on three new developers so a big welcome to Alpha, Ed and Matt.

If you use twitter then please give us a prompt and tweet…

We use @clearbooks accounting software and it is brilliant

…or some other superlative and we will add you to our new Clear Books users list so that we can keep track of all our users on twitter and interact with you better.

You suggest the ideas and we implement them

Three highly voted ideas were implemented this month. The bank reconciliation tool and the ability to send remittance advice to suppliers have both been implemented as a direct response to you voting these ideas up in Get Satisfaction. We have also redone our aged debtors and creditors reports, which had been requested by our accounting partners. So if you have an idea that you would like to see implemented in Clear Books please vote it up on Get Satisfaction.

We have some good news on the development front too which should see more ideas come to fruition. As of 5th July our dedicated development team will be four people strong.

We can win an award with your help!

Thanks again to all of you who have completed the Software Satisfaction Survey to give us a shot at an industry award. If you haven’t yet you still have until the 14th July to make your vote count. You can take the survey here.

Construction Industry Scheme

Our CIS reporting feature is now live with the ability to send your CIS return online to HMRC from within Clear Books. If you need help with the CIS feature take a look at our Online CIS Filing Help Article. As far as we know we are the first and only online accounting system to support online filing of CIS returns to HMRC.

Some of the other things we have been working on…

• Unit prices can now be hidden on invoices
• Date & time shown on printed PDF reports
• Pro forma invoices are available
• VAT101 EC sales report added

Company news

You may have seen in a recent blog post that we have broken through the 500 milestone. In fact in June alone we are on target for a record month of 100 new subscribers. This is fantastic! We are really pleased to be gaining traction so thank you for your support!

Help Article

Setting up opening balances

Links
Getting Started

Steps

1. Navigate Settings > Getting Started

Bank Account Balances

Enter the opening balance for each bank account

Debtors

Enter opening debtor balance

Creditors

Enter opening creditors balance

Other Balances

Enter positive or negative amounts for each account on balance sheet

If you need to make an alteration to any of the opening balances they are all controlled from the Getting Started tab.

Step 1.

Navigate Settings > Getting Started.

Bank Account Balances

Enter the balance from accounting year start date for each bank account here. To save the new balance click Update.

Opening Bank Balances

Debtors

Enter opening debtors balance. To add an opening debtor you need to create an invoice for the entity that owes the company money. Add one invoice after the other to build up a snapshot of the opening debtors.

Opening Debtors Balance

Creditors

Enter opening creditors balance. As with Opening Debtors you need to add an invoice except that it is for an entity that the company owes money too.

Opening Creditors Balance

Other Balances

Enter positive or negative amounts for accounts on balance sheet. The Account Names will vary depending on the Account Codes setup on the system. Depending on the account code you will either have the option to debit or credit that account’s balance. To save changes to the Opening Balance Sheet click Update.

Opening Balance Sheet

Help Article

Editing and viewing paid invoices

Links

Paid Invoices

Steps

1. Navigate Sales > Invoices >Paid Invoices

2. Filter invoices by date or contact

3. Click on the  invoice number of invoice to be edited or viewed

4. Click Edit

5. Amend invoice details and click Update

You can only edit the Project, Credit Terms, Summary, Details and Account fields on a paid invoice.

Step 1.

Navigate Sales > Invoices >Paid Invoices to view all paid invoices in the system.

Paid Invoices

Step 2.

If you have a large selection of paid invoices you can filter them by Contact, Project or Date.

Step 3.

Click on the  invoice number of the invoice to be edited or viewed.

Invoice Number

Step 4.

If you want to edit the invoice click the Edit button.

Edit Button

Step 5.

There are only certain sections of a paid invoice that can be amended. You can only edit the Project, Credit Terms, Summary, Details and Account fields on a paid invoice.

Paid Invoice With Un-Editable Fields Blanked Out

Once you have made changes to the invoice click Update.

]]> http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/blog/2010/07/13/editing-and-viewing-paid-invoices/feed/ 0 http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/blog/2010/07/13/setting-up-vat-rates/ http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/blog/2010/07/13/setting-up-vat-rates/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:20:14 +0000 Nick http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/?p=5142

Help Article

Setting up VAT rates

Links

Manage VAT Scheme

Steps

1. Navigate Settings > Organisation > Manage VAT Scheme

2. Complete or enter details of new VAT Scheme

3. Click Update or Add

Deleting A VAT Scheme

Click the Delete Icon

To change the VAT rates within Clear Books or set up a new VAT Scheme you will need to go to the Manage VAT Schemes Page. Only VAT registered companies (setup under organisation settings) can switch between VAT rates.

Step 1.

Navigate Settings > Organisation > Manage VAT Scheme.

VAT Section Of Settings

Step 2.

On the VAT Schemes page you can either update a current VAT scheme or setup a new one.

You cannot edit a VAT scheme. To change the VAT scheme for a year the current VAT scheme must be deleted; this would be necessary if a company became VAT registered mid way through a financial year.

VAT Schemes Page

What The Fields Mean

VAT Scheme Options:

Choose either VAT Registered, Not VAT Registered, Flat Rate Scheme and Custom GST Scheme.

VAT Accounting Options:

Invoice Accounting:

Also known as accruals means that VAT is calculated on when the invoice is issued.

Cash Accounting:

VAT is calculated on a transaction once payment has been received.

Step 3.

After selecting the VAT Scheme, VAT Accounting, Date From, Date To and VAT Rate click Add.

Deleting A VAT Scheme

To delete a VAT scheme you will need to click on the delete button (shown below) to the right of the VAT period you wish to delete.

The confirmation message VAT scheme removed will appear.