Export Setup
STX allows you to create an export file that may be imported into QuickBooks for Mac or Windows. The imported file will create a general journal entry in QuickBooks that summarizes the accounting information for STX for whatever period of days you select.
QuickBooks uses account names for the import, so it is critical that you get your accounts set up properly in STX.
It is important to note that some of the default account names must not be renamed;
Received on Account, Gift Certificate Purchase, Product Taxes, Service Taxes, Product Discounts, Product Refunds, Service Discounts
and
Service Refunds
.
All other accounts may be renamed and new accounts may be named as needed, however all account names must be unique.
STX does not export
Payment Type Fees
because most credit card processors debit these fees once a month.
QuickBooks has a limit of 30 characters for an account name, which presents a challenge in getting the account names identical. For instance, let’s assume that your accountant has you set up to import gift certificates/cards purchased and redeemed into a single current liability account.
When STX combines 2 accounts, it also combines the names as in
Gift Certificate Purchase / Gift Certificate Redemption,
which exceeds the 30 character limit. QuickBooks will truncate the account name to 30 characters upon import, however this can create a confusing name in your financial reports.
For example, we renamed
Gift Certificate Redemption
to
Redemption
. This allows the account name in QuickBooks to be
Gift Certificate Purchase / Red
.
Please inform your accountant that the accounts receivable account must be classified as
Other Current Asset
and the sales tax payable account must be classified as
Other Current Liability
. The default accounts receivable and sales tax payable accounts in QuickBooks are linked to customers and vendors and require additional information not available to STX.
You may add as many new income and expense accounts as desired. These can be used to break out product and retail sales or to record cash income and expenses into or out of your cash drawer and recorded as
Cash In / Out
under
Transactions
.
Last, but not least, are the account numbers that must be entered in the right column for each active account. Since QuickBooks does not use these account numbers in the importing of journal entries, you can number them any way you please.
The numbers are used to determine the order in which accounts are exported and also allow for the combining of 2 or more STX accounts, such as
Product Taxes / Service Taxes
into a single QuickBooks account. To combine multiple STX accounts into a single QuickBooks account, you give them the same account number. For example, we use 2 digit numbers to keep it simple, but still allow the flexibility to order and combine accounts.
Once you have your STX accounts named and numbered, you need to set up Payment Types, Product Groups, and Service Groups to select the proper accounts.
Many accountants combine the payment types
Cash, Check, MasterCard, Visa, Discover
and
American Express
to be exported to the
Bank Account
. Others, like in our example, separate out the credit cards to be exported to a pending account, in this case
Credit Card Charges
, to reflect the fact they are not actually deposited into the bank until a few days later.
All payment types, both active and inactive, must have an account assigned in order for the export to work properly. The reason we include inactive accounts is so you won’t forget this important step if the payment type is activated in the future.
Product and service sales are often imported into a single product or single service sales account in QuickBooks. After all, you can always get detailed breakdowns by running STX sales reports.
For example, however, the accountant wanted to report salon and spa sales separately in the profit and loss statement generated by QuickBooks. To this end, we renamed the default
Product Sales
to
Salon Product Sales
and created a new
Spa Product Sales
account. We also renamed the default
Service Sales
to
Salon Service Sales
and created a new
Spa Service Sales
account.
Please note that we even assigned an account to
Time Booked Off
. While not necessary, it is good to be consistent. You should also assign accounts to any inactive product or services groups so you won’t forget this important step if the groups are activated in the future.
There is one final caveat concerning accounts in STX. If you are using QuickBooks, you must not select
Tips Left in Drawer
to record tips on the
Payments
tab of
Client Visit
transactions. These tips are not included in the exported file, rendering it out of balance, which will prevent it from being imported into QuickBooks. If you are actually depositing these tips, record them as
Tips Paid Out
, run the tips report to determine the correct amount and edit your journal entry in QuickBooks after it has been imported.
Creating the QuickBooks Export File
It is important to properly balance and close out each day in STX to make sure your exported file will be in balance. If your
Total Sheet
is out of balance, your exported file will most likely be out of balance as well. The
Total
of the
By Payment Type
section should equal the
Grand Total
of the
Summary
section.
Also, make sure there is
$0.00
recorded for
Tips Left in Drawer
and
Unpaid Balances
in the
Summary
section. One additional item that may cause the exported file to be out of balance is a tip amount entered on the
Payments
tab of
Client Visit
transactions when
No Tip
is selected.
Go to
Reports
,
Transactions
and select
Export QuickBooks
. Enter the
Start Date
and
End Date
of the reporting period and click
Export...
Name the file and save to the
Desktop
or other location of your choosing.
You may then attach the file to an email to your accountant or move it to another computer if your QuickBooks application is not on the same computer as STX.