Getting around · TaDa Books

TaDa Books is built around companies. Everything you see belongs to the company you are in, and switching companies switches everything at once.

The dashboard

Signing in opens the company you had open last, inside its menu, on your usual first screen. The first time (or when that company is no longer yours to open) you land on your dashboard instead. All companies, the first item of the menu, is always one click away: one card per company with the numbers that matter at a glance: its cash and its profit for the year side by side, how many entries its books hold and the date on the newest one ("newest Oct 20": the date written on the entry, not the day it was typed in; amber once it is more than a month old, a sign the books may be behind), and, at the bottom right, a yellow number: the bank and card transactions waiting for review (hover it to see what it counts, click it to open the account that has waited longest). Each card shows the company's full name only. Click a card to open that company's books. A wide screen fits five cards a row. The cards remember the order you arrange them in, on every computer you use.

Inside a company the same board is the menu's first item, All companies. It opens right there, with the menu still beside it, and the company you are in is the card with the blue ring and the tinted background. Every card opens on the screen you were on, so moving from one company's Banking to the next company's Banking is one click, and the ringed card takes you straight back. The Calendar, all companies button shows every company's dates in one month; each company's own calendar stays under Home.

The company switcher

Inside a company, its name sits at the top with an arrow beside it. Click it to jump between companies, or back to All companies.

The list shows the companies in the same dashboard group as the one you are in, in the order you arranged them - a chip at the top names the group. To reach a company in another group, use Switch group at the bottom of the list, or open All companies and click its card. If you have not made groups, everything is simply in one list.

Beside each company sits the same yellow number as on its card: the bank and card transactions waiting for review. Click the number to go straight to that company's review; click the name to open the company as usual. To hide the numbers, turn off Review numbers in the company menu in your profile menu under General settings (yours alone, on every computer).

The switcher is also where a company can be hidden (it disappears from every list but keeps all its data, and you can bring it back any time from the bottom of the All companies page) or deleted (only while it is truly empty; a company with any bookkeeping in it refuses and tells you what it holds).

Where the menu sits

Inside a company, the menu - Overview, Banking, Reports and the rest - sits down the left side as a menu you can fold to icons (the way TaDa Books opens unless you choose otherwise), or across the top as one row of buttons. Both hold the same ten items at most. Pick in your profile menu under General settings, Menu placement. The change is yours alone and follows you to every computer you sign in on.

The side menu frees the top of the screen for your data and puts the company switcher in its top corner; fold it with the small arrow on its edge when you want the width back for a wide register, and open it again the same way. Everything the top row offered is in the menu. Right under the company's name sit its two controls: Settings (this company's Company Settings) and New entry.

A new version is ready

When TaDa Books is updated while you have a tab open, the tab keeps running the version it was opened with. Most updates are small, and you will not hear about them: the next time you move to another page (the books home, another company), TaDa Books quietly loads the new version. Switching tabs or searching inside a page never reloads it, and neither does anything while something you typed is unsaved or a window is open.

When an update brings something you will notice, a small notice at the bottom says A new version is ready, with a line about what changed and a What's new link. Press Reload to switch, or the X to put it away - you will not see it again for that update, on any computer, and the new version loads quietly the next time you move to another page.

Now and then an update needs every open tab to reload before you carry on. The notice then says Save your work, then reload and stays until you do. Nothing you saved is affected; only the screen is refreshed.

What changed lately

What's new, in your profile menu under Support and at the bottom of the help center, lists every change that reached TaDa Books, newest first. A dot on your name at the top means something shipped since you last looked.

Store companies open here too

If your sign-in also has store companies, their cards appear on the dashboard in their own group, and opening one opens its books right here - the same Banking, Reports and documents as any other company. The store's day-to-day operations still run in its own back office; only the books live on this side. Hiding or deleting a store company is done from its own back office, not from here.

Inside the books

The books open on Overview. The menu has one item per area, and a click opens that area's screen; the area's other screens are tabs along the top of it, the way Banking has its own tabs. Each item reopens on the tab you used there last, so the screen you work in most is still one click. To jump straight to another screen, rest the mouse on an item in the side menu: its screens show in a small panel beside it.

Home: Overview, Calendar and Requests.
Banking: the bank feed, each account's register and reconciling.
Customers: the Customer list, Invoices, Estimates, Credit memos, Payments received, Time and Jobs.
Vendors: the Vendor list, Bills, Payments made, Vendor credits (plus Awaiting approval while bills wait for approval, and Expense claims when they are on), Purchase Orders and 1099s (every contractor you paid in the year, with their W-9 status).
Employees (only when the company has someone of the Employee type): the Employee list.
Transactions: every entry, the Journal, and Payments (money in and out, including checks that are not to a vendor, such as payroll or an owner draw).
Reports: every report, Budget vs Actual included.
Accounting: Chart of Accounts, Classes, Items, Contacts, Fixed Assets, Prepaids and accruals, and Budgets. On Contacts, the transaction count next to a name opens everything that contact is on; a date range there narrows the list, and the count and total follow the range.
Taxes: Tax, Sales Tax and Mileage.
Documents: the document vault.
Connections: All connections lists everything these books work with, one row each: your bank and cards, online invoice payments, payroll, QuickBooks and other programs in, QuickBooks Desktop out, Download everything (the whole company as spreadsheet files that open in Excel), your own software and AI, and the store when the company runs one. A chip on each row says where it stands (Connected, On, Not connected), Connect or Manage opens its setup right in the row, and the search box and category chips narrow the list. My connections shows only what this company has switched on. If you use Portfolio (under Bonus), a second section, Your own keys, for Portfolio, lists your Alpaca, Finnhub and Plaid keys with where each stands. They are yours, not the company's: the same in every company you open, and nobody else sees them. Manage opens the same key window Portfolio uses.

An item's number adds up the counts inside it (bills waiting for approval, requests waiting for you), so you see it from anywhere. Settings, at the bottom, holds the company profile, connections, the menu (hide an item or rename it) and access.

Customers, vendors and everyone else

Everyone your books deal with is one list of names, so a name exists once. Accounting > Contacts shows all of them. The Customer list and the Vendor list show each side:

A name shows under Customers when its type is a customer type (Customer, Tenant), and under Vendors when its type is a vendor type (Vendor, Contractor, Landlord).
It also shows on a side as soon as it is on that side's documents: an invoice, estimate, credit memo or payment for Customers; a bill, purchase order, vendor credit or bill payment for Vendors. So a name brought in from QuickBooks as "Other" lands where it was used.
Employees, tax agencies, owners and Other stay out of both lists until they are on such a document. They are always in Contacts.
The type filter follows the list. On the Vendor list it reads All vendor types and offers only the types found there; on the Customer list, All customer types. Contacts offers every type, grouped under Shows under Vendors, Shows under Customers and All contacts only. The number beside a type is how many names on that screen carry it.
New customer on the Customer list starts the name on the Customer type, New vendor on the Vendor type.
Manage types says, for each type, whether its names show under Customers, Vendors, both or neither. The built-in types include Owner (shareholders, partners, members: draws and distributions out, contributions in), and Other is always last.

The Class column says where a name's entries land. For a tenant that is the property; for a customer, its job; for a vendor, the location you buy for. It shows the class most of the name's entries carry, with every class and how many entries each has when you hover it, and a +2 when there are more. Sort by it to see everyone on one property together. It appears only in books that use classes.

Click a name to open its profile. It shows what the name owes you and what you owe it, its open invoices and bills (overdue ones in red), its income and spend over the last 12 months, and your notes about it. A vendor's profile also shows whether it gets a 1099, whether its tax ID is on file and where its W-9 request stands. The Next buttons start the usual document: New invoice or New bill opens with the name filled in, and Receive payment, Pay bills, Write check, Vendor credit and Purchase order open their screens. Every transaction lists everything the name is on, and Edit details (or a double-click on the row) opens the editor.

If your company tracks properties, the menu gains one more item, Properties, whose tabs are the Registry, Rent, Coming up, Statements and Manager changes. Like the others, it reopens on the tab you used last.

Every memo opens big. Each memo, note and line description has a small expand button in its corner. It opens the memo in a window you can move and resize, to read the whole text or write a long one. What you type goes straight into the field; Done (or Ctrl+Enter) keeps it, Cancel (or Esc) puts back what was there. Hovering a one-line memo that is cut off shows the whole text.

The search box on Transactions reads more than the memo. It looks through the memo, the reference or check number, the payee, each line's own note, the amount, and the class on the lines. So typing a property name shows only the entries that touch that property, and typing the name of a group ("Houses 4 Series") shows every property underneath it, because a class is matched by its full path.

Moving many lines at once: Reclassify. The Reclassify button on Transactions opens a window: pick the account and the dates, tick the lines that belong somewhere else (or tick them all), then choose Move to account, a Class (or No class), or both, and press Reclassify. Each entry changes on its own and its history records what moved where; the amounts and the bank side never change. Lines that must stay show a lock and say why: lines of invoices, bills and credit memos change in their own editors, entries posted automatically change at their source, reconciled and stock lines stay, and bank, cash and card accounts, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Undeposited Funds and Sales Tax Payable never move here. The list prints and downloads like any other. Opened from a list Books health found, Reclassify starts on the entries listed: their lines across all their accounts (the bank and card sides left out, since they never move), whatever their dates, each line naming its account.

Screens keep up with your changes. Whatever you change in a window (an entry, a bill, an invoice, a paperclip, a Books health fix), the screen you opened it from shows the change when you are back: a name's transactions, a class's or job's lines, an account's breakdown, the overview, the month-end checklist, Documents, Time and the Calendar included. No refresh needed.

Little things that add up

Every table can be searched, sorted by clicking a column, resized by dragging a column edge, and paged. Your page size and sort order are remembered per screen, and they follow your account to any computer.
Every report and table has a Print button and a Download menu (PDF, Excel, CSV).
A question mark beside a field means a hover explanation is there when you want it. The question mark in the top bar opens this help center from any screen.
Double clicking a row opens its editor almost everywhere.

On your phone

TaDa Books has two phone apps. Put either on your home screen, or both:

TaDa Books Scanner (the icon with a green camera): opens straight to the camera. Pick the company, take the picture, save. This is the one to have if you mostly add receipts.
TaDa Books app: everything below - cash, receipts, trips, approvals and a quick look-up.

Putting one on your phone. Open TaDa Books on the phone. A card offers both apps; tap Install on the one you want. (You can also find them in the menu under your name: Put TaDa Books on your phone.)

On Android, tap Install, then Chrome's own Install - two taps.
On an iPhone, the page shows the steps for the browser you are using: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, then Add. The name and icon are already filled in.
Opened a link inside WhatsApp, email or a QR reader? Those cannot install anything. The page says so and offers Copy link: open it in Chrome (or Safari on an iPhone) and the install step is there.
At a computer, the same menu item shows a QR code: point the phone's camera at it.

Prefer the full site on your phone? Tap Keep using the full site on the card. The full site fits a phone: the menu becomes a Menu button at the top, wide tables scroll inside their box, and windows open full screen. The phone app's Full TaDa Books link opens it too, with a Back to the TaDa Books app button to return.

The TaDa Books app has five tabs:

Trips: log a drive into a company's mileage log, valued at the IRS rate on the trip's date.
Cash: what is in every bank account and owed on every card, across all your companies, with the bank lines still waiting for review.
Snap: photograph a receipt and file it straight into a company's documents. With no signal it waits on the phone and is sent by itself when the signal is back; you can also send or throw away what is waiting.
Approve: correcting entries your accountant suggested. Approve posts the entry; Decline asks for a reason the accountant reads. Only the companies whose books you may change are listed.
Look up: what a customer owes, what you owe a vendor, an invoice or bill by its number, or an account's balance, across all your books.

With no signal the app still opens and shows the numbers from the last time it was open, and says so. Approving and looking up wait for a signal.

Notifications

Tap the bell at the top of the app and choose Turn on to have this phone tell you when:

your accountant suggests an entry for you to approve (if you may change those books, and not when you made the suggestion yourself),
a client request comes in, is answered, or gets a reminder,
a vendor signs the W-9 you asked them for.

Tapping a notification opens the right place. Send a test checks it works; Turn off stops it for this phone only. Each phone is turned on separately, and it is your phones, whichever of your logins you use.

On an iPhone, notifications only work once TaDa Books is on your home screen and opened from there. If the bell says notifications are blocked, allow them for TaDa Books in the phone's settings and come back. Notifications come even when the matching email is switched off.

A line can be $0

Every entry form takes a line of $0: checks, bank payments, card charges, deposits, transfers, bills, invoices, estimates and purchase orders. Keep a template that lists every line you ever use (every payroll tax, every property) and copy it each month; the lines with nothing this month stay at $0 and are kept for next time. A line still needs its category. A whole bill or invoice can come to $0 too (a free sample, a no-charge visit): it saves as Paid, since nothing is owed, and never shows as open. Below $0 it is a credit memo or a vendor credit instead.

Type the total first

On a check, a bank payment, a card charge or refund and a deposit, the total is a box you can type in: the amount on the check face, the card, the deposit ticket or the receipt. Leave it alone and it simply adds up the lines, the same as always.

Type the amount from the statement or receipt instead and the form works toward it. On an empty form the first line takes the whole total. A form with one line changes that line to match. Once you have several lines, each line you add starts with whatever is still unassigned, and the bar under the lines says $X left to assign (click it to add a line for the rest) or how far the lines are over. The entry saves once the lines add up to the total. Use the lines' total forgets the typed amount.

The typed total is a check for you, not something saved: what posts is always the lines. So a copied entry, or one you open again later, starts out adding up its lines. Copy last month's water bill, type this month's total, and the bar tells you how much to spread.

Beta features

A few features are marked Beta: an amber chip with a flask on their buttons and windows. They are new, checked against our own tests but not yet by outside users, so check their figures before you rely on them.

Most Beta features stay hidden until your company turns them on: open Company settings > Beta features and flip the switch beside the one you want. Hover its question mark first: it says what the feature does, where it appears, and what to check. Everyone working in this company's books then sees it, and its tile says where to find it. Switching it off hides it again; nothing you recorded with it changes or disappears. A few Beta rules run by themselves inside features you already use (credits on a month you already filed, cash-basis sales tax, tax on rent your manager collects); the page lists them so you know which figures to check. A feature marked Not yet comes on once it has passed its checks.

Keyboard shortcuts

The books come with a set of keys that work from any tab: keys that jump to a tab (Banking, Reports, Transactions and the rest), a key that opens the memorized transactions library (a memorized entry keeps each line's item and quantity, so replaying a purchase moves the stock too), one that opens the bank rules on the Banking tab, and Alt+N, which opens + New.

+ New entry starts anything. The New entry button under the company name, beside Settings (and Alt+N, from any screen), opens one launcher with every entry and document, grouped as Customers (invoice, sales receipt, receive payment, estimate, credit memo, time), Vendors (bill, pay bills, check, expense, vendor credit, purchase order) and Banking and other (deposit, transfer, card charge, card credit, journal entry). Type a few letters and press Enter: "chk" opens a check. Invoices, sales receipts, payments, bills and every banking entry open their editor at once; the others open their screen. It is not shown to someone who can only look at the books.

Entries that repeat. Any memorized check, bank payment, card charge, deposit, transfer or journal entry can post itself on a schedule: press the repeat arrows on its row in the memorized library and pick how often, the first date and when it ends. The Repeats column shows the next date, a pause button stops it without losing it, and Stop repeating turns it back into an ordinary template. Each one posts exactly as if you had saved it yourself, and the cash-flow forecast counts the ones still to come.

A minus moves an amount to the other column. In any Debit and Credit grid (a journal entry, a memorized template, a split, a tax workpaper adjustment), type a minus in front of an amount and leave the field: it moves to the other column as a positive amount. -30.48 typed under Debit becomes 30.48 under Credit.

Click the out-of-balance amount to fill it in. While a journal entry does not balance, the amount it is off by is a button, both in the totals under the lines and on the red chip at the bottom. Click in the line that should take the difference, then click the amount. An empty line gets it in the right column. A line that already has an amount changes by exactly the difference, so the entry balances, and the cursor goes back to that amount. With the cursor outside the lines, clicking it does nothing.

Click the small keyboard button at the right end of the tab strip to see every key. Each one can be changed: press Change on a row, then press Alt plus a letter or digit. Your keys are saved to your user, so they follow you to any computer you sign in from. Restore defaults puts everything back.