Do I have to use Bank Accounts?

I’m a small business owner with several different bank and PayPal accounts in different currencies. The bank accounts would cost too much to set up as separate business accounts so I use my personal bank accounts for business. Most of the transactions are private, however I do not wish to have to record each and every one of my private, personal transaction as Drawings. Is there any way I can keep my accounts WITHOUT using the Bank Accounts section in Manager.io? Thanks

In your case, you shouldn’t be using Bank Accounts tab at all.

First, you should create yourself under Capital Accounts tab.

Then when spending money on behalf of the business, record the expense under Expense Claims tab. As a payer, you will be selecting your name (which is taken from Capital Accounts)

Capital Accounts is basically used to track how much the business owes to you as you keep spending on behalf of the business.

As for receiving money on behalf of the business, well, there is no module for that. I’d add such a module, just don’t know what to call it. In the meantime, you could create dummy cash account under Cash Accounts tab which can be used to receive money. Just make sure to regularly spend all the money in cash account and categorize spend money transaction under Capital AccountsYour nameDrawings. This way cash account won’t be increasing in balance indefinitely. What you are basically doing is pretending that any money received is received by the business first but then immediately withdrawn from business to pay you.

Perfect, thanks! From 1st Jan until 31st July I’ve been recording business transactions in the Bank Accounts tab. Is there a way I can quickly get rid of these / reverse everything in the Bank Accounts so that I can re-do everything from the Cash Accounts instead? Thanks for your help.

Sorry to ask again, but is there a way I can quickly get rid of these / reverse everything in the Bank Accounts so that I can re-do everything from the Cash Accounts instead? Thanks

You can’t do everything in a go, you will have to open each entry and click on edit and change the ‘paid from’ or ‘Received in’ bank account and use a cash account you have created.

Bank accounts are just like cash accounts, so if you have entered a lot of transactions and cant edit each and everyone of them, you can just ignore and keep paying and receiving from that account. The only thing that makes the bank account different from the cash account is the reconciliation function, uncleared and cleared function and the importing of statement, you just have to ignore them. (If it an SME or a big business I suggest you edit everything like i suggested in the paragraph above but if it your own small business and it a personal thing then you can go ahead)

@Abeiku is correct about how Manager would function if you listed your cash transactions under a bank account. One thing that might influence your decision, however, would be the potential for a tax audit. If someone official starts looking into your books, you might find it easier to show them standard financial reports with traditional names, rather than explaining that the application you use has different functions for different types of accounts and you were trying to save time. The auditor might start to wonder where else you did things in “unique” ways.

My same comment would apply to your first post back in July. Every accountant I’ve known STRONGLY encourages separating personal and business accounts. Both @Abeiku and @lubos have pointed out things you can do. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should do them.

The advantage of correcting past entries to show that they all involved a cash account is that you then have no contradictory bank statements to try to sort out, no matter what the circumstances. Of course, dealing in cash raises its own questions in the minds of authorities. :wink:

Yeah it is always a better idea to do the right thing.
Just edit all the entries and direct them into the created cash account