FAQs

For Starters, we want to confirm the answer to the basic question.  "Is this all really free, anonymously?".  Yes. All Education and Software on this website is really free to access anonymously with no user accounts. You would have to be good with self-learning and fairly determined to figure out how all this goes together without an individual coach, but it is all out there for that purpose and we are adding more regularly.  As of 9/6/2022, We are in the process of formalizing some curriculum for "Train the Trainer" programs. Hopefully there will be far more individuals willing to offer individualized support in the future.  

Other Questions...

1. ​​How do you all make money?
2. What is the most common Stimulant for serious interest in ZAP? ​( Sneak Peak:  It's Embezzlement. ) ​​
3. I use Quickbooks for _____ , is ZAP a viable alternative?

The third questioned was posed by an HOA member. As it turns out, his organization recently experienced an Embezzlement, but that wasn't obvious from the initial line of questioning.  Embezzlement or concerns related to it seem to be the number one driver that forces  people to question their use of Quickbooks and any Professionals or non Professionals who are handling that software or others for them. 

Our solutions were built to deter and prevent Embezzlement. That concept has been at the core of our development goals since the late 1990s. 

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1) How do you all make money?

​Everyone involved in this currently has other occupational income. None of us is actively involved in the current Banking, Finance, Accounting, Public Education, Higher Education, or Software industry.  Most of us are Self Employed, some are employed on a w2, and others are retired. 

• We have no investors at this time. 
  
• We've never pooled any money for investments into this offering. 
  
• We have no formal office(s) for ZAP specific work at his time. 
  
• Our total overhead is 1) An annual Domain Name Registration fee of $20. 2)  Webhosting  ($12 per month)  3) A Google Workspace Account with a single user ($12/month) and 4) most of us pitch in for some cat food for the local ferals ($24/month).   So our total annual outlay is under $500 per year and almost half is for cat food.  

What we are offering is awesome. It just is, although it may take some folks a while to come to that conclusion while others never do.

Taking donations seems like a very logical and reasonable idea to to those who try it out, learn from it and spin positive. Those are the folks who generally understand a pay it forward model and they are obviously in first place for our target audience. 

Unfortunately, taking donations raises hairs for others who are generally skeptical of everything, including our claim to support feral cats without any additional ulterior motive.

• In their eyes, if we accept donations and self managed licensing fees, we are said to be "commercially motivated". One guy even said "See, you are selling something..."
• In their eyes, if we don't take donations, we are said to be in a Secret Society, part of the CIA, part of the Banking Cabal, part of the secret push for Gov't controlled crypto currency or part of one if hundreds of other mafias.
  

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It's truly impossible to please everyone, especially when a majority came her specifically NOT to see through the trees.

If we can please 30% of the folks out there, that's a great goal. In truth if that's all we can please, we've done something wrong, but it is what it is. 

We discuss this also on our  Contributions Page, which currently does NOT allow for donations or self managed licensing payments. Given we feel we expose some educational and software industry conspiracy, we've opted to fight off the conspiracy theorist skeptics to allow those who are less inclined to try out something new. 

Please see the "Contributions Page" for a bit more on this topic AND Please see the "Contributions Page" for proper instructions on using and sharing all our tools in a for=profit or free, but organized manner.  We demand proper credit when you use it and we demand disclosures when you modify it. That's all. Your contribution will be word of mouth advertising for our non-revenue venture, and someone will still claim that's inaprorpriate.  

​As of now we are also planning on avoiding the "paid sponsors", "large donors" and "grants" options that might otherwise look attractive.  This may change but this is our current goal too. 

Q:   "Then why are you doing it?"

A:   "We feel our retirement years are going to stink royally if younger generations are left without appropriate commercial, financial and accounting literacy education. That's what got us into this mess and the only way out of it is a reversal of those problems with the youth.  What was a bad bag is now coming apart at the seems and this is our contribution towards repair thread." 

2) What is the most common stimulant for serious interest in ZAP Accounting Software?

Embezzlement seems to be the number one driver that forces  people to question their use of Quickbooks.

Quickbooks is complex and unwieldy. It can be extremely difficult to check your own work, much less that of someone else.  The Balance Sheet is a reporting tool that is required to help ensure data integrity and it's estimated 95% or more of users likely can't or don't use it properly.  

Our solution was built to deter and prevent Embezzlement. That concept has been at the core of our development goals since the 1990s. Our cross checking systems are exceptional and our Balance Sheet represents a paradigm shift for digital accounting transparency. 

3)  I use Quickbooks for _____ , is ZAP a viable alternative?

This dialogue transpired in a twitter backroom in September 2022. It has been modified slightly for readability and privacy. 

Potential New User:  "Hey,  I had look at your book keeping software a while back and while not schooled in such thing I was intrigued…  Wondering, is that something that could be used for a HOA and keeping road maintenance accounts? I’m on a residential board and quick books is a POS… Pondering…

ZAP Rep:  Hey -- YES. QB is a huge POS.  Unfortunately only those who have actually tried to use it seriously realize that, but that's still millions of potential new users!!  YES, it would be a great fit for HOA for bookkeeping for tax/financial accounting (for creating an income statement, presenting profit/loss information and a baseline for budgeting needs).  Depending on the level of detail desired for the road maintenance, that may be able to be tracked in the bookkeeping template but more than likely a small secondary software template is better for that.  We have two groups of intro education material that may or may not have been out when you looked. Nobody likes to read these days, but it really helps provide a proper framework for dialogue and understanding  

1. Accounting Studio Magic 101 Curriculum - Go to ZAP Software Website > Education menu > Accounting Studio Magic > ASM 101 . It's 5 digital slide decks that should be an easy skim.  The important part to grasp is what a formal  Bookkeeping Software Solution is in a formal sense, and what its supposed to do.  By learning that you will learn what a formal Bookkeeping Software Solution "shouldn't do", and where the separation is between that and other digital software systems. In our example literature we talk about a Bookkeeping System and a Sales System.  In your situation, in addition to having a separate sales system for tracking HOA details (if in fact they are more than a simple flat rate fee), you may also have a road maintenance journal. The concept for all additional "modules" and no additional modules should have a need to ever be connected to the "Bookkeeping Module" for optimal data management. (believe it or not).  
   
   
2. Bookkeeping Template Written User's Guide - We have a new "users guide" for the bookkeeping template that was just finished (9/5/2022). It's in draft form but public. It's only been seen by my Mom so far. She was the 1st proof reader and Guinea Pig last week for the new document. It went okay.  That link was just posted:  ZAP Software Website > software > box 5 > bookkeeping template. Then look for the link to the User's Guide. It should be near the top under Education. On that page you'll notice ASM 101 is also mentioned and the link to the Users Guide should be right under that one. 

If you or anyone else on your HOA is interested, those two docs are the place to start for education and orientation.  We are trying to avoid "custom consulting" at this point as we're trying to get to a place where we can do "Train the Trainer" programs. After those are in place and some folks have been trained, In a situation like yours,  we'd have a book of people we could then suggest for setup and customization support. 

That said, if you or someone in your group is fairly to very familiar with the pain QB inflicts AND familiar with google sheets/google drive,  I'd be glad to consider trying to support you all with getting a system up and running in parallel of what you have to do a side by side comparison. 

Potential New User:  Sweet!, I will bring it up at the next meeting!  Also, might there be an option for online billing for the residence…?  That sounds so great, I will push it and see what’s we can get…  Thanks So much!  ​~see where we can get*

ZAP Rep:  When you say online billing, am assuming you mean online payment processing?  if so, short answer is YES and NO depending on perspective, 

We have a lot of experience with electronic payments. We have a relationship with a guy who's been in the merchant services business for 20+ yrs originating Merchant Accounts, BUT we (ZAP)  handle things "semi automated" not fully automated and we do not currently offer any solutions that allow for the emailing of invoices/receipts/bills with a link to pay for those that then updates your billing system automatically.  You can include links for payment for 3rd party systems, but then you would need to update the payment journal in your billing system manually.  Daily, weekly, and/or monthly transaction count will really dictate if the separate payment processing option with manual payment journal entries might be a good fit. 

Saying this again slightly differently for clarity.  Sending out bills and notices happens with one of the templates we create other than your Bookkeeping Template. Those bills and notices can have links and info in them that tell a person where or how to make electronic payments but as of now we don't offer any systems that then "auto updates" once a payment is made. When payments are made via a third party system, the sales system or billing system or other managerial accounting system that is being used to send out payment notices has to be manually updated to show a receivable has been reduced. 

Below is a summary for a little more resolution. 

In general, think of any small business system as follows:

1. Bookkeeping Software - Universal for all small business and good for personal accounting too.  It typically does less than what ppl are trying to do with Quickbooks, FreshBooks and other and that's a good thing. This is for "Tax Accounting and Financial Accounting" needs only. It produces an "income statement" for assessing profit/loss. It has an automated Balance Sheet that has more trouble shooting capabilities and more transparency than anything in the marketplace for those that want or need that. It has some budgeting functionality and that is all.  Everything done in this system is done in arrears from Bank Statements. There is no billing functionality. It offers a secondary categorization system that "could be used" for the simplest of drill down payment tracking but it should only be used if those needs are extremely sparse. 
2. "Other Modules" - Other modules might be Invoicing systems, Advanced Booking systems, or Point of Sale Systems. These are collectively referred to by us as "Sales Systems".  In your case, your HOA billing system could be thought of as an Invoicing System.  These other modules don't have to include payments processing. There could also be a road maintenance tracking system, etc.  These are all "Managerial Accounting/Cost Accounting" systems. Some will have billing or invoicing associated and some will not. 
3. Online Payments - In current software offerings, online payments would typically be integrated into the sales systems found in our "other modules" category.  With our systems you would need a separate, third party service for electronic payment processing. With systems that are ideal to work in conjunction with our systems, the payor would then be entering the amount they are paying as conveyed from their digital invoice.  The disadvantage with our systems is that someone will need to manually update a payments journal. It's really not bad if the transaction count  is low and the system owners are willing to do it.  Things are far "simpler" this way and far less things can "break". You also can constantly shop for better transaction processing services without ever having to give up your free-for-life billing system.  That is a huge benefit.  For electronic processing, we encourage ppl to use Square or PayPal for CC processing for less than 10k a month.  Over 10k a month, a personal merchant account is ideal and YES, we have a contact for that that we've been working with since the early 2000s. We also have access to a electronic check processing gateway from the same provider. That is often used for Rental Properties. 

Understanding the proper "Strategy" for using proper and Healthy "Bookkeeping Software", understanding where it should functionality leave off, and understanding where other modules that can be built should pick up is THE BIG DEAL. 

Even if you decided you all need a billing system that also enables monetary collection and automatic payment updates, if you can realize that that can be fully separate from your Bookkeeping System, we may provide a ton of relief.  You may be able to use our Bookkeeping Template for Universal Bookkeeping needs and some other billing and payment system just for that purpose.  If you liked Quickbooks invoicing and payments but don't like their bookkeeping, you could in fact keep it just for invoicing and payments and dump their Bookkeeping system functionality.  

The Accounting Studio Magic Curriculum we recommended (ASM 101) goes into this exact information in more detail.  The Bookkeeping User's Guide then should help you get a feel for the data flow in the Bookkeeping Template to see if it's of interest. 

LMK if you have any questions. 

Potential New User:  Excellent!!!  That’s a good amount of info I can present…I appreciate it for sure!  Thank You

ZAP Rep:  As much as QB sucks, when an alternative is presented that isn't "turnkey" (and none of them are), many ppl default back to the devil they know.  It may take a few attempts. It also may take someone else on the board or in community  to implement it for themselves in their own small business or for personal use who can then assist the board with setting up a parallel system.   What you have asked is the exact type of question that everyone needs to ask

I'm going to ask a few preliminary questions below just for my own curiosity, then LMK how it goes...
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1. How many ppl / homes in HOA?  
2.  What percent currently pay with a check (vs credit card via electronic payment)
3. Are dues "complex" or simple ?  ie > everyone has some shared fees but many have individual fees vs everyone has the same fees. NOTE: I've done two different water billing systems for small wells in California, they would make for excellent prototypes. One is complex with shared and individual fees. the other is just same fee for everyone).
4. How often are dues paid? (monthly, annual, ad hoc)  [I forgot to ask this originally, added back in here later]
5. Who cares for the finances? An elected person that changes every ___ yrs or a dedicated person? What is their level of accounting understanding / computer competency?  

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What everyone like you all really has is typically a "double need".  

1. Bookkeeping - You need someone to help setup and learn how to use a "standard" bookkeeping template.  All the info to do it is online, with video's and now a written users guide, but it really is much better (and faster)  if someone is holding hands until the setup is complete and proficiency built. That is typically an hour or few for initial setup and then some ongoing coaching that varies based on computer and accounting competency. As little as an hour or two and as much as 10 over a period of time. 
2. Other Modules - Someone with some basic database design background who also understands our system of building "customer" DIY Software templates for all needs outside of the bookkeeping template. If we have a template already built that's close to needs modifying it can be 2 to 10 hours of work, but it does require a special skill set. We have some documents online related to this stuff, but it's not enough for a novice to figure it out yet.  Those are at: https://diy-software-club.weebly.com

Potential New User:  
1 - 120 homes
2 - we have always done check or cash. Some folks have been moving up for Covid and want modernization
3 - flat fee for all
4 - elected person length depends, we had one last 20 years, then the last one embezzled more than $10k … we do not expect the same problems from the current one. 

​One more quick question, is there an online portal for other member to look/monitor, but not necessarily change… after the embezzlement, people want transparency…

ZAP Rep:  ​Ahh very interesting and good info.

I forgot to ask one other question... how often are payments made?  Annually , monthly, ad hoc?  Hopefully annually...

1) Checks and Txn Count - If you all are use to collecting with checks, someone was manually updating the payment journal anyway, so our system should not represent any burden. The only change in burden is for those seeking to pay with credit cards and that should not represent any major change in burden if a processing system is selected that keeps things simple. Preferably one where the payer can specify the amount they are paying, so separate payment requests need not be sent out by your HOA in addition to the digital invoices. 

2) Embezzlement - this is what often stimulates strong desire for change away from QB.  Very common.  The problem is related to their Balance Sheet functionality. It does NOT work well even with the best care. The Balance Sheet provides a crosscheck but is not used by 95% of the non professional users b/c too complex.  With a proper one of those in place, the only way to embezzle is easier to review/manage as it's more about just looking at who got paid for services and ensuring none of the cash payments or checks got hijacked.

YES. WE offer an amazing set of reports and cross checks that are "visual". They track the system to the penny in real time at all times.  That was 'the goal' when building this and much of it stemmed from the problems you encountered. 

YES. Big feature of our system is the google sharing functionality.  Our system could be shared in view only mode or editing mode with other individuals.  In theory the entire system could be shared with everyone in the community, publicly or semi-publicly, but I wouldn't suggest that without a clear strategy and thoughts about the level of public info you want to share. There could be other sharing options that provide real time reports on parts of the system but that has not been pursued yet.

Potential New User:  
Awesome,,, Thank you!  Great info to bring forth!  Thanks for the time man!

ZAP Rep:  ​Remind me to tell you the story about the first carpenter teacher I had.  That Guy saved my a-s.  He had a 4th grade education and was generally illiterate.  He had been working since he was 12. Got married and had successful construction co at age 19. He went to his local bank one day and the account was empty.  He went home to find out his wife, who was more educated than he was,  had been keeping two sets of books. Turns out she was cheating on him with the local Sherriff too, so that made prosecuting her very difficult in a small town. Needless to say, they broke up and it destroyed his Small Business. He never trusted others with his money again, and that limited his professional options. There's more to this story that's fascinating, but that's a good part of it that's interesting too.  After that experience I became more sensitive to the connections between Embezzlement and Small Business Accounting. It seemed someone who could create a "more Embezzlement Proof System" for bookkeeping and accounting might be on to something good. That embezzlement story was conveyed to me in the late 1990s. It only took 25 years to create a better system, and it wasn't doable until a lot of other people in technology made a myriad of advances that could be combined in an entirely different way than was available back then.