Step 4 - The Accounting System 6 Box Model

Orientation > Step 4 - The Accounting System & the 6 Box Model

Welcome to ZAP Accounting Software.

This website is your portal for Small Business and Personal Accounting Education and Google Sheets based Accounting Modules designed with you in mind. No strings attached.

Our Education and 'Software' offerings save you time and money while reducing confusion, headache and stress related to financial management and cloud technology.

All of our education is free, and all of our Google Sheets Bookkeeping templates are free with no ties back to us at all, making this a very new type of 'software' proposition indeed. These are all stand alone google sheet templates, so in that sense they aren't software at all, but what they do is way beyond software worthy.

In order to design an optimal Accounting System for your needs, you need to understand the Small Business Accounting System landscape in a simpler way. The focus on Small Business works for all because everyone, including those on w2's and those yet to work at all, can be modeled as a Small Business Person in their our own commercial play.

We use two visual models to provide a basic cognitive structure for Accounting Systems. The Three Slice Pie Model morphs into the Five Box Model just below, and with these tools you'll be on your way!

Small Business Accounting System - 3 Slice Pie Model

There are three possible financial flows through a Small Business Accounting system. The first doesn't appear to touch accounting sub systems. That's a cash business, like small time drug dealing, for example. The second includes partial contact with accounting systems. This results in partially auditable accounting records, but it would be impossible to paint a full financial picture from those records. The third flow is a continuous flow that is always in contact with accounting sub systems in some way. This type of system is generally reconcilable in some form at all times. !! You have to know the rules before you can learn how to break them properly with privacy !!

The 3 Slice Pie morphs into the 6 Box Model for greater resolution into Systems, Processes, and Software Modules.
Note the separation between Managerial/Cost and Tax/Financial Accounting.

Managerial Accounting, also referred to as Cost Accounting is for yourself. Do it any way you'd like. Tax Accounting, also referred to as Fianancial Accounting, is done for others and it needs to be done with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in play.

For most, the place to start with Education and Software is TAX ACCOUNTING and the Bookkeeping System because it is nearly IDENTICAL for all users. The confusing part for many is thinking that it belongs in the front, top or middle of their Accounting System process. In the chart above, it's BOX 5. At the bottom and it's there for a reason. Furthermore, notice its separation from the other accounting modules. Tax/Financial Accounting is done in "arrears", which means it's done "after the fact". That's why it's at the bottom of the Chart.

Now is also a good time to try to start to unwind a marketing concept from Intuit that is unhealthy.

Most have been mislead to believe that combining their Tax/Financial Accounting Systems with their Managerial/Cost Accounting Systems was in their own best interest. Worse yet, many have been encouraged to do Managerial Accounting with the false belief you could just "tease out" the Tax Accounting, when in fact that just creates mental knots and stress which are no benefit to you.

And as a reinforcement for something we mentioned prior which many with experience will question initially, in a Digital Age, debits and credits aren't required by the user to do proper bookkeeping either. They provide minor benefits behind the scenes but those can be learned after the fact.That's also been a massive misdirection for Small Business people that we will undo with our Educational Process.

Bookkeeping and Accounting is only addition and subtraction. It's not difficult. You and/or those before you were very mislead.

This website and these tools are designed to clarify and simplify things in a way that reduces your confusion, stress and costs while increasing your efficiency and confidence in your own financial understanding while boosting your technical prowess.

Your Needs...

Everyone is unique. Few have truly unique accounting needs.

Box #1 -- Sales System

Everyone needs a Sales System, be that a piece of paper and pencil, a carbon copy receipt book, a snazzy cloud based Point of Sale System, or something in between. Some will need an Invoicing System for a Sales System. It will be a Booking System for others. Some need full automation, others will stop comfortably with a partial digital system. A few will stick with paper and pencil because they can or because of advantages gleaned from simplicity. For individuals working on w2s, your sales are your wages, so you will track those via your pay stub.

Box #2 -- Advanced Accounting Systems/Modules

Not everyone will need these. Some will be built into Sales Systems, others will be separate.

Box #3, #4 -- Payment Inflows and Outflows

Everyone needs a proper plan for managing the movement of money in and out of their accounts to maximize all available opportunities while minimizing penalties and stress for mistakes. This plan may or may not include a lot of technology.

Box #5 -- Bookkeeping System

Everyone needs a Bookkeeping System be it a shoe box, paper and pencil, a simple spread sheet, a cloud based single entry accounting solution or a double entry bookkeeping software solution of some sort. A double entry bookkeeping system is suggested for most, but until now, the only cloud based double entry system known to most is that Beast called Quickbooks, which is an absolute nightmare in its current and prior form. Our newly developed, free, Google Sheets based Double Entry Bookkeeping template is the White Unicorn many have been patiently waiting for for decades.

Full Outline of Accounting System Subsystems

The detailed list below gives an expanded view of Accounting Systems and Sub-Systems that various different users may need. No single user needs more than a few of these for any individual business. Most only need one or a few.

With that understanding you might understand why learning Accounting is confusing. Without talking about industry specific or application specific context, there is a ton to learn. When talking specifics relevant to you, there is often very little to learn.

We have working spreadsheet templates and suggested procedural and technology flows for many of the items listed below.

Some of our templates, like our Bookkeeping Module, are incredibly well built out and highly evolved in ways that few have seen publicly to date. Others are simple and functional. Others are just suggestive at this point.

If we don't already have one of the items below built, building a basic version based on one of our other templates shouldn't be too hard, as each file contributes to an elevated starting point for another.

Please note, as of Today, our Bookkeeping Module Software and Education is free along with some supporting tools. Sales Systems and Advanced Modules are not offered at this time and they may or may not have a required fees. If the support for our basic work is strong enough the advanced systems will be FREE.

For redundancy, note the location of the Bookkeeping Modules (last) and the small footprint of it when put in context of the entire Accounting System Model. Learning this chunk of bookkeeping is actually quite easy once you learn its very specific role in the greater system.

It's Time to Bend Time!

ZAP Accounting Software was designed to increase your accounting prowess and enable you create a functional Small Business Accounting System that works for you. An initiation omitted is now rectified for many to see.

The books are easy reads. They fill in a tremendous amount of blanks while undoing cognitive knots that are well woven into our educational and commercial matrix.

Then, select the Google Sheet templates closest to your needs.

Play with them. Learn to appreciate function over form first. Learn to like them and the transparency they provide. Tweak them as needed. Build a solution which works for you with the lowest introductory and long term cost. Look for functional resonance before beauty. Seek solutions that align with Best Practices and fundamental processes first, not as an after thought. Then make a donation based on your derived benefits.

If after learning this way you want sexier, flashier software, go shopping for it after you've got your new found education and your needs well defined via our Templates. With this as a head start, you will have confidence in what you are looking for, and you will be comfortable knowing you will always have a great, functional fallback position should you ever leave it or need it.

With the function over form first approach, you have an Accounting and Technology base camp much further up the mountain from your current base camp. With this approach, you know what you really need before you go shopping for a prettier solution that may not exist. With this approach, you remain free from sexy but shallow software traps while approaching the summit of your desires.

A 220 Club Initiative

This website and these offerings are just one of many resources brought to you as part of a 220 Club initiative.

The image to the right shows ZAP Accounting Modules collectively as just a single box in part of a larger flow chart that represents an ERP System for an Acupuncture Office. (ERP - "Enterprise Resource Planning). And as it turns out, that ERP System is just the bottom right hand corner of an even larger flow chart below!

We have the ability to assist with much more than your Accounting needs. That's just a great place to start!

There's a lot more under this umbrella than most can
consume in a year or two of nibbles!

Welcome to a Land of Plenty.

Thanks for finishing the Orientation Process.

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for our Global Computing Community.

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