In the past, my accountant has had full access because for a long while I was using the Desktop version of Manager. I now use the Server version, but never got around to sorting this out.
I just want him to have only the access necessary to do end of year company returns for the UK.
Tab:
Summary - View - (Not sure if he needs this to
Bank Reconciliations - View (So he can see and audit that my bank balances match what Manager says)
Fixed Assets - all Permissions (I am not sure if he does anything in here for year end?)
Depreciation Entries - All Permissions - I think this is necessary
Journal Entries - All Permissions. He definitely uses this every year
Settings:
Lock date - All Permissions
Reports: - All Permissions for the following.
Profit and Loss
Balance Sheet
Statement of Changes in Equity (not sure if he needs this?) I don’t even know what this is.
Trial Balance
General Ledger Summary
General Ledger Transactions
Then all you need to do is have your accountant download a Desktop Version of Manager later then your Server Version and send them a backup which they play with.
If they make any adjustments, then they need to advise you so you can incorporate them back into the Server Version.
As you probably have a spare computer lying around you could set that up to mimic the accountants version setup and then on completion import THEIR backup as a new business and compare the Summary tab figures between the sent and returned backup files.
I am not sure if you have understood what I am trying to do?
One of the reasons (but not the only one) that I moved to the Server was specifically to get rid of the need to backup my database at the end of the year, email the accountant and then wait for a couple of weeks for him to do his work and then import it back again. I don’t want to have to email back and forth. Another benefit of using the server version is that I can ask him a quick question and he can login quickly and check whatever for me. I want him to use the Server version.
No, the actual purpose of my request is the following:
To make it easier for my accountant and his co-workers to use the program (as I am their only client that uses this software). By removing most of the tabs that they don’t need, it is easier for them to find all the information that they actually need to look at. They usually only logon once a year in general.
From a Cyber Security point of view, the less access they have, the less damage they could do if they got hacked or there was a disgruntled accountancy employee or something. Golden rule of IT, is never give people more access than they need to do their jobs. Most of the tabs, they will never need access to I am sure.
I have already created the user and set permissions. I am not asking how to create the user account nor how to set user permissions. I am asking what tabs an accountant generally needs to view to do end of year company return. So for example would he need access to Receipts tab and Payments Tab?
I am not familiar with the regulations in the UK, so I don’t know what information is included in those returns but I will assume it’s general business information returns. Also, I am not sure what your accountant does. Is it simple accounting, audit or tax.
Reports (Full access)
Trial balance
Profit & loss
Balance sheet
GL summary
Tax summary
Tax audit
Tax transactions
Customer summary
Receivables aging
Suppliers summary
Depreciation calculations
Tax calculations
As for GL transactions it’s kind of redundant especially since you can get better formated breakdowns if you drill down the TB or GL summary but it doesn’t hurt to keep it since some accountants may find it useful.
Tabs
Invoices (VCU), for any tax upwards adjustment
Credit Notes (VCU), for any tax downwards adjustment.
Fixed assets (VCU), maybe to derecognize some assets or recognize something new.
Depreciation/Amortization (VCU)
Journal entries, of course.
Regarding bank reconciliation, it’s not really needed unless your books don’t match your bank and no discrepancies are there in your reconciliation.
Settings
Lock date (Full)
Exchange rates (VCU)
This list is pretty similar to the one you already provided but each accountant has his own workflow so it should be better to ask your accountant what they need as @Tut already said.
I intend to ask him, nearer the time when he will do my end of year return (march). I just wanted to get a general overview of what accountants look at when doing end of year corporation tax returns, which is mainly what I hire him for. Obviously jurisdictions and laws differ, but the principles largely remain the same.
He doesn’t actually need access to Bank reconciliation for getting Manager to reconcile with my bank. As I import my bank transactions, it is always accurate. I probably should have mentioned that I use the bank reconciliation tab for “reconciling” Manager with my bank account each month so that I have a monthly transaction where I can save my downloaded pdf bank statement each month. That way I have demonstrated that what Manager says I have in my bank account mirrors what is showing on my bank statements. So it’s giving him access to my bank statements is what that is about.
Why would he need access to Customer and Supplier Summary? I don’t use Exchange rates so don’t need that. I will ask him about credit notes and invoices. Generally he uses Journal entries for any adjustment.
@dalacor, you are overlooking the most basic point. The question is not what tabs your accountant needs access to, but which you need. Your accountant will always need the same. For example, he may not need the Customer Summary report, but you cannot give him a version of your business with the Customers tab disabled, or you lose Accounts receivable and everything related. (And you could not do it anyway.) The Customer Summary report is a byproduct of enabling the Customers tab. That’s distinct from giving him permission to see the Customer Summary report itself.
To my way of thinking, the only relevant question is which transactions and reports he will require. Give him permissions for those, and the rest of this discussion goes away. For one of my businesses, as an example, my accountant needs only the P&L Statement to complete all tax filings (because the chart of accounts was originally designed to mirror the tax form). I don’t pay him to audit the business because it is not required by law. Other businesses have different needs because of different legal organization, leading to different auditing and filing needs. So those require sharing more information and broader access.
All that just reinforces my original response: “Only your accountant can tell you what he needs for your situation.”
I think checking the accounts reconcile is one of the things many accountants would do, it is one of the first things an auditor does.
In my opinion the accountants job would be faster if you gave them at least read access to all you see. It is much less efficient if your accountant has to guess what is happening when part of the data is hidden.
For cyber security I would
Make an off line backup prior to your accountant starting work on your records
Create at least one login for your accountant, but they may like having several for internal management.
Use the history tab to see what they have changed.
If foul play occurs, restore your offline backup and use another accountancy firm in future.
I would go one further step to what @Patch recommends:
Make it clear to your accountant that they are to pass recommendations to you, not change anything directly themselves.
That way, you learn about how they want things done, get smarter about accounting, and never lose control. And you are less likely to introduce the same problems in the following accounting period.
That is what I am trying to work out lol. But I am doing it at tab level then focusing further down.
Yes I will be asking him, never fear. I just wanted to get a general overview as I assume that accounting principles are largely the same world over with some differences obviously. But debits/credits, profit and loss, Balance sheet etc are pretty much universal nowadays.
I will present him with the changes that I have made and ask him to advise.
Sorry you misunderstood what I meant here. As I import all my transactions using bank import, the Bank reconciliation Tab is actually superfluous as there is nothing to reconcile. I don’t enter transactions manually anymore. The only and single reason for the use of Bank Reconciliation tab is to give me a place to put the monthly pdf bank statement that I download from my bank. One of the uses of this bank statement is that my accountant can easily see that my bank balance in Manager is exactly what my actual bank says it is. He can’t tell obviously whether I am deleting income etc in Manager! So my bank statement verifies that everything is actually balanced.
I am not really worried about Cyber Security as far as my accountant goes. If I had any real concerns I would not be using them. I am simply implementing what is standard practice in IT - to only give users the access level that they actually need to do their jobs! This is how I do IT for my clients as well.
My Manager accounts are always backed up daily anyway!
In theory that sounds good, but not practical for a number of reasons. I haven’t got time to do his job as well as mine! It would also send a message that I don’t trust him, which is not the case. It is not really about the accounting firm, but more about IT Security best practices Policies that I am trying to implement.
Anyway, it has become clear that it is a bit more complicated than I had first thought. So I will ask him to review the current permissions to see if he has sufficient access rights to do whatever he needs to do for year end.
then i would suggest you give your accountant full permission to view everything (permission to edit is your choice) because you do not want your accountant to miss any transaction just because you forgot to give them access. false reporting would create more problems with your authorities than privacy issues.
Yes that is an option as well. However as an IT Technician, I have learnt a long time ago the value of making computers as easy to use as possible and one way you achieve is to create a consistent look on each desktop (granted not applicable here) and secondly, you only show the end user just the things that they need to use. You remove everything unnecessary. It has paid dividends in my job as my networks are easy to use, simple, reliable etc.
So one of my focuses is to remove things that my accountant and his colleagues don’t need to see. The less they see, the easier it is to find what they are looking for. You remember they only usually access the system annually and I am their only client that uses this accounting program. So while they are very good accountants, they are not as familiar with this program as with others. So my aim is also to simplify.
Anyway, I will hand it over to my accountant to review now.
I understand your reasoning but disagree with your conclusion.
To restate your assumption: If all of your data entry is done as designed then there is no need for reconciliation as there is no error to find.
The problem with the logic as that is always the case with reconciliation. The reason you, I and my auditor all use the reconciliation records is as an overall check that in fact accurate data has been entered and maintained. Simple examples of which are
transactions can be manually entered but not matched by Manager’s bank import.
some receipts/payment are split over several accounts, with the associated risk of an operator error.
receipts and payments can be manually entered or deleted at any time by many operators and create errors.
starting balances can be wrong
program updates can produce unexpected results.
More than enough reasons for me and my accountant to open the reconciliation tab, see lots of green ticks and move on rapidly, saving time overall.
More generally I agree data exposure should match the knowledge level of the user. So a store man doesn’t need access to the businesses reconciliation, exchange rates or many other parts of the accounting software.
The problem with your suggestion is your account does know how to do accounting, does know the details of how other accounting programs do particular advanced functions, and is likely to spend time looking how to do such tasks in Manager. Hiding functionality will increase the time taken and the amount you are billed. You may benefit from your accountant hiding parts of your accounting program from you but it is unlikely you hiding parts of your accounting program from your accountant will be constructive.
But it is your business, your accountant and your money so your choice.
Yes I appreciate your points on the bank reconciliation tab. True. It would be more accurate to say that the purpose that I use the bank reconciliation tab is to have somewhere to save my bank statements.
You do not fully appreciate the point of access levels. It is irrelevant if the user in question has the expertise and knows what they are doing. The whole point of Cyber Security, GDPR etc is to limit what information people have to only what they actually need. His skill level is actually irrelevant.
I disagree with your argument that removing tabs or reports in manager would make it harder for him to do his job. If he has absolutely no need to view say the Budget profit and Loss reports (which he would never need to file a company return), why give his viewing/edit access? I think the way that Manager permissions are designed now by tab, view/edit and by access within the tabs such as specific reports makes it easy to remove information accountants do not need to see without hampering him in any way.
The program doesn’t change in how you find say the Balance Sheet Statement reports if you remove all the other reports. It is still in the same place. He won’t be hunting for anything as they will be in the same place as they always were! I will just be removing the information that he will confirm that he has no need to view.