Licensees > Public Video Set 2

( Time needed for this page is approximately 55 minutes )

In Pre-Licensing Video Set 1 you should have learned a lot of interesting info that has the potential to greatly simplify your tax accounting. 

1. ​You learned that aligning your Chart of Accounts with the tax form you will need to report on simplifies things a lot. 
   
2. You learned about how an IRS Auditor might use your checking account statements as a first swing at an audit. 
   
3. You  also got your first glimpse at the Statements Tab of ZAP Accounting Software.  The Statements Tab with the automatic reconciliation process built in is an incredibly powerful, yet simple tool for simplifying your accounting. 

In Public Video Set 2 we are going to spend more time introducing you to ZAP Accounting Software Part A in much more detail.

1. We will start with an overview of every tab in the workbook.
   
2. Then we are going to show you what using the software will look like on a monthly or quarterly basis, in detail. 
   
3. Then we are going to do a month's worth of bookkeeping for a checking account  in under 5 minutes.
   
4. Finally we are going to discuss Privacy and Security.  In the Privacy and Security Video we are going to show you an amazingly powerful programming module connected to these files, and we are going to educate you on the privacy characteristics you'll need to be mindful of when those are in play in any google software templates from us or others. 

This Video Set 2 below currently includes:

1. The Extended Introduction to the ZAP Accounting Software, Part A (11:11)
2. The Monthly/Quarterly/Semi-Annual Bookkeeping process  (3:29, 3:50, 6:13, 3:41)
3. The Monthly/Quarterly/Semi-Annual Bookkeeping process at full speed and in under 5 minutes (5:58)  
4. Data Privacy and Security (12:59)

VIDEOS IN ITEMS 2 AND 3 ARE YOUR PRIMARY REFERENCE VIDEOS FOR USING THE SOFTWARE, AND THEY ARE SITTING OUT HERE IN PLAIN VIEW FOR ALL TO SEE SO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING UP FOR FROM A REGULAR USE PERSPECTIVE!!

​If you are in a real hurry (which is never good when doing accounting)  jump to video 3 and then watch the others -- and at this point, if you haven't read the home page in detail and started with Pre-Licensing Video Set 1, we suggest doing that before going any further. The home page helps frame a lot of the use and application scope, and that's good to know before spending time diving into the details. 

1) ​The Extended Introduction to ZAP Accounting Software Part A

ZAP Accounting Software is a collection of Google Sheet file templates.

Part A includes the Chart of Accounts, Checking and Credit Card Ledgers, a Transaction Reporting tool, the Income Statement, Statement Reconciliation functionality, Balance Sheet preparation, and a budgeting module for those interested.

Part A comes in two versions:  1) Positive and Negative Values and a more traditional 2) Debits and Credits Version.

With the Positive and Negative Values version you never have to hear the terms "debit and credit" .  We expect most will select this version for their bookkeeping.

​This video is 11 minutes long.   We quickly cover every Tab in Part A. ​This video is designed to acquaint you with Part A such that the short videos below about the regular book keeping routine are viewed in fuller context. ​

​Tip:  After clicking play, click the icon in the bottom right (it looks like a box) to pop the video out to full screen. It will be blurry initially but that will clear up.

2) The Monthly/Quarterly/Semi-Annual Bookkeeping process

The videos below detail the bookkeeping process for one month for a checking account.  These videos were created while doing monthly bookkeeping for a real company.   The entire process without commentary can be done in under 5 minutes.

Step 1 - Enter Statement Data into the Software  view (3:29)
​Step 2 - Download Bank Transactions and Paste into Raw Transaction Tab view (3:50) 
Step 3 - a) Copy and paste formatted transactions from Raw Transactions Tab Checking/Credit Card Ledgers, b) confirm data reconciles with statement data, and c) assign accounts/categories to the transactions ​view (6:13)   
​Step 4 - View Income Statements and other reports view (3:41) ​

The videos above are your instructional use videos and they give a great feel for what it takes to use the software to do monthly (or quarterly or semi-annual) bookkeeping for a single checking account. 

• Credit card accounts can be just as simple or a little more complex depending on the banking institution and a few other variables, but you've got the idea now. 
• The initial configuration time for this particular file with just these two accounts is about 20 minutes for someone with experience. That time would not include helping the user get the first set of data into the software and it would take longer if there was dialogue with someone watching that process.  

That's it. That's what it looks like to use this software for bookkeeping and tax accounting.

3) The Monthly/Quarterly/Semi-Annual Bookkeeping process at full speed and in under 5 minutes

​This  instructional video for ZAP Part A is in fact the summary video for the instructional videos in the section below.  

This video has been moved above those help  people gain a faster appreciation for Part A of the software.

This video highlights:

1. The statement data recording process
2. The transaction data download and semi-automated data import process
3. The aggregated reconciliation process and 
4. The transaction categorization process. 

All of this work will be done in just under 5 minutes...

4) ​Data Privacy and Security

If the gSheet template developer uses the built in scripting module in google sheets for functionality, as we did for some optional user interface functionality not required for accounting, the first time a script is triggered from that module, a very SCARY message comes up. ​

The video below serves 3 purposes.  1) It shows you the actions that will trigger the scary message 2) It shows you how to provide authorization to the scary message and 3) It provides very technical information related to the programming module and the triggers for the message.  I do not expect most non-technical people to follow or get the technical explanation, but you need to understand the information related to purposes 1 and 2 well.  If you start to fade out when it gets to the very technical stuff, just exit the video. 

Please watch this video for in depth details related to the optional functionality found on the DIY-1 menu and the SCARY MESSAGE you will get if/when you try to use one of these items for the first time. 

• This video covers Google Sheets privacy information and it exposes the good and bad aspects of the Scripting Module which we use for some very cool, non-required functionality and which is used in far more detail in other Google Sheets Templates we hope to roll out in the future....
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If you choose to use this on Google Drive and in Google Sheets...
 ​In our opinion, Google has one of the best IT Security infrastructures on the planet, and having your data in your own Google Drive, separate from the accounting data silos where data is stored for millions of others, is by far the best place for your accounting data. ​

• We have chosen to include these DIY-1 menu items and other powerful, optional functionality like data generation for bookeeping simulation because we feel educating users is far better than leaving out some powerful, optional functionality for faulty fear based reasons.
• Ultimately, if you don't feel comfy with the access message caused when you try to use one of the DIY-1 menu items  just don't use those optional tools. You won't be missing out on much as all core accounting functionality is unaffected. 
• Please note, if you choose not to grant authorization to the scripting module when you try to use one of the DIY-1 menu items, as described in the video, the optional transaction generator functionality for data modelling also will not function because it relies on a  javascript component in the scripting module.
• MS Excel Users and/or Open Office Users ​ --  if you use these templates in MS Excel or another open office solution, they should work fine because we used basic spreadsheet functions for all required accounting work. Also note, the DIY-1 menu will not show up at all because the google script module gets stripped out when the Google Sheet is downloaded as an MS Excel or open document format.

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Click here to proceed to Pre-Licensing Video Set 3 ...