Hi there 
Can you please advise how I enter the setup costs for a new business in order to claim them as expenses…There are a number of PAID invoices to enter into the business which were purchased prior to the launch of the business, and the establishment of the business account and I am struggling to work out how to enter these so as to claim them later…The business is GST registered BTW…Do I enter the items as inventory???..TIA
Your questions are too broad to answer and the information you have provided is insufficient to guess at appropriate responses. Answers will depend on your form of organization, the design of your chart of accounts, who paid the expenses from what sources and when, what the expenses were for, and so on…
Start by reading Guides. This one may be useful, depending on your circumstances: Use expense claims | Manager. You may need to consult an accountant, as well, to determine your desired course of action. Members of the forum can help you use the tool provided by Manager, but you need a basic understanding of accounting and your objectives first.
Thanks for that! To elaborate, I am a sole trader, and personal funds were used to purchase: equipment, signage, raw materials etc for a small food production business. The setup costs were personally funded prior to the set up of the business, but I intend to claim these items as business expenses. So essentially there are no liabilities at this point, all purchases are small to $500, including screening of my home in order to meet food licence standards as the business is a home based business. The business operates at the markets, is cash/eftpos only and no invoicing by myself is required at this stage. Does this help?
For those pre-business expense payments, create an Expense Claim dated the first day of the business.
They can all be entered within the one Expense Claim, just add additional lines. For the Account use the one relevant to the expense - inventory, advertising (signage) etc.
Prior to the creation of the Expense Claim though, you must first go to Settings - Expense Claim Payer and set yourself up. This transaction will put a balance into the BS Liability account - Expense Claims.
If you intend repaying yourself at some point then leave the balance there and any reimbursement (Spend Money) would be posted to that account, however, if you intend to leave the funds in the business then via a Journal transfer the Expense Claims account balance to the BS Equity section as “Contributed Funds”
As a sole trader, especially read this Guide: Simplify equity accounting for sole traders / proprietors | Manager. If you decide to go that direction, use the account renamed from Retained earnings to Owner’s equity as the “Contributed Funds” equity account @Brucanna mentioned.
Also read these:
https://www.manager.io/guides/best-practices/customize-managers-capabilities
https://www.manager.io/guides/best-practices/simplify-manager
You will have no need, for example, to enable the Customers or Sales Invoices tabs.