How do I change the business type and/or currency?
The business type and currency cannot be changed after the business has been created.

Does BeanCounter use accrual or cash based accounting?
BeanCounter uses accrual based accounting by default. This is supported by the use of clients and merchants which generate transactions to accounts receivable and accounts payable. Cash based accounting may be implemented, however, if the client and merchant features are not used.

How do I show or hide the business summary view?
The summary view displays key financial numbers for your business. It is located on the bottom left of the window. To hide the view, click and drag the separator bar to the bottom of the window. To show the view, click and drag the separator bar towards the top of the window.

How do I sort the list of items on the left side of the business window?
First, select an item to make the list active. Next, select View -> Sort By to sort the items by name or manually. Note that items are automatically sorted manually if an item is dragged and dropped to a new location.

Accounts

How do I change the account type and/or currency?
The account type and currency cannot be changed after the account has been created.

How do I close an accounting period?
To close an accounting period, open the Business settings under the File menu. Select the Accounting tab and check the Closed checkbox next to the accounting period to close. This prevents any edits to transactions that are contained in the accounting period. If changes are later necessary, simply uncheck the closed checkbox to reopen the accounting period.

How do I customize an account's view?
Select an account and then View -> Columns or View -> Sort By. Select which columns to show for the account's view, the field to sort by, and which sort direction to use. To reorder the fields, simply drag and drop the field headers to a new location.

How do I add or preview a transaction attachment?
Photos, voice memos, and other files may be added to transactions as attachments. To add attachments, edit the transaction. The list of attachments appears in the attachments view at the bottom of the window. To add a new attachment, select an item from the menu at the bottom of the attachments table or drag a file from the Finder to the attachments view. Attachments may be reordered by dragging them to a new position in the list. To view an attachment, select the attachment and press the space bar or double-click the attachment.

How do I change the date format?
BeanCounter uses the system date format which is specified in the System Preferences application. The setting is located in the Language & Region pane under Advanced in the Dates tab.

How do I change the decimal separator to a comma or period?
BeanCounter uses the system decimal separator which is specified in the System Preferences application. The setting is located in the Language & Region pane under Advanced in the General tab.

Clients

Why can't I add a new project, task, task item, expense, invoice, or transaction?
Project, tasks, task items, expenses, invoices, and transactions may only be added if one parent item is currently selected. For example, a task may only be added if currently one client and one project is selected. If multiple projects are selected, a new task may not be added.

How do I create my own invoice layouts?
Invoice layout files are zipped XML (text) files. It can be easier to duplicate an existing layout file and make changes to it instead of starting from scratch. To do this, open the Preferences window and select the Layouts tab. Select an invoice and click the action button to export it. Rename the file with a zip extension and open the layout.xml file in a text editor. Use the layout format documentation to make changes to the file. Zip the modified file and give it a unique name (with the bclayout extension). Reimport the layout file into BeanCounter.

Merchants

Why can't I add a new bill or transaction?
Bills and transactions may only be added if one parent item is currently selected. For example, a bill may only be added if currently one merchant is selected. If multiple merchants are selected, a new bill may not be added.

Reports

How do I change the report type?
Report types cannot be changed after a report is created.

Manage

Why aren't the transaction totals updated when I update a currency exchange rate?
Updating currency exchange rates (or mileage) does not impact conversions for existing transactions. These are updated only when a transaction total is changed (the other values are automatically calculated using the new exchange or mileage rate). To update existing transaction converted totals, select the transaction and select Update Converted Totals from the Transaction menu.