Work Through a Client Book

A client book is the firm's operating workspace for one company's accounting. Select the client from the firm workspace, then use its sidebar to move among Banking, accounting records, collaboration, reconciliation, journals, reports, and settings.

Before you start

Confirm that you selected the correct client and period. Read access supports review; write access is required for accounting changes. An inactive client is read-only, and a closed period prevents ledger changes inside its date range. See Roles and Permissions.

1. Orient to the book

Start in Banking and compare the listed source accounts with the chart of accounts. Bank and credit-card accounts appear by default, while other asset or liability accounts can be shown deliberately. An account can be connected or manually maintained. Hiding it from Banking does not delete its ledger history.

Use Customize Sidebar when a feature is missing. Fixed Assets, Integrations, AJE, Trial Balance, Account-Vendor, Custom Reports, Cash Flow, and Income Tax Summary are among the areas hidden by default. General Ledger is shown with the primary financial reports.

2. Establish source coverage

For each account and period, decide whether activity comes from a bank connection, uploaded statement, check file, or manual entry. Avoid overlapping sources until you have checked duplicates. The Add Data guide explains what each Add transactions option creates.

Use Shared Files for requested receipts, invoices, and supporting documents. Processing a file or fetching a feed does not necessarily post its rows to the ledger.

3. Review transactions

Work through Uncategorized activity in coherent batches. Use the right outcome for each row:

• post when it needs a new ledger entry;
• match when the entry already exists;
• transfer for movement between the client's accounts;
• ask the client when purpose or evidence is missing;
• exclude only when the transaction should remain outside the books.

Follow Transaction Review for side effects and correction paths. Use Rules and AI only after you understand a repeat pattern and can review its proposed result.

4. Maintain supporting records

Keep vendors, customers, employees, classes, locations, projects, and accounts clean enough for consistent coding. Review A/R & A/P and Fixed Assets when the client uses those records.

Use Client Work and Shared Files to preserve unanswered questions and evidence instead of guessing.

5. Reconcile, adjust, and report

Complete Reconciliation against the source statements. Resolve the difference to one cent or less before saving the final report.

Review Journal Entries, adjusting entries, and Recurring Journals. Then run the required financial reports and assemble Client Reports when a package is needed.

6. Close and hand off

Use Book Close only after review. Closing prevents ledger edits; it does not create a journal, reconcile an account, or certify the reports.

Before handing off, leave the next reviewer with:

• the period and accounts covered;
• remaining uncategorized or excluded exceptions;
• unresolved reconciliation draft differences and follow-up owners;
• open client work and missing documents;
• adjustments, recurring items, and integration issues;
• the report package delivered and the exact closed range.