Quick Start

•Use the Setup section to enter the company information.

•Leave the Chart of Accounts as is.  After a month or two you can "fine tune" it for your reporting needs.

•Enter beginning balances (see below).

•Follow the "Normal Usage" information (see below).

Quick Check

•The Quick Check function is used to save and print a check for a vendor without having to enter an invoice, mark the invoice for payment, then print the check.

•Access the Quick Check screen by pressing <Ctl-Q>, or by clicking the Quick Check button on the Invoice entry screen or Review Transactions screen.

Data Retention

•Any information entered while testing Medlin does not have to be reentered when you become a licensed/registered user.

•Transactions are retained up to four years.

•It is a good idea to use a regular rotation of backups AND to be sure you have printed reports covering all entries.

Entering Beginning Balances

•Open the Transaction / Journal Entry section

•Post one entry to each account that has a balance.  When you are finished, the Posting Total should be 0.00 - showing you are in balance.

•Print a General Ledger Report and make sure the year to date information is correct.  Make corrections as needed, until the report is correct.

Normal Usage

For the purposes of this documentation, it will be assumed you take advantage of the check printing capabilities of this software and you keep books on a monthly cycle.  (You do not have to use Medlin to print checks to use this software for record keeping purposes.  The software does not "care" how often you do your accounting, whether it be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or once a year.)

During the Month:

Receiving and Paying Invoices (bills)

If you pay when received - Use the Quick Check function (see above) to print a check and save the information for reports.

If you pay bills later in the month, or only when due - Use the Invoices screen to enter your invoices.  If it is a new payee, enter the Payee information on the Payee screen.  When ready to pay one or more invoices, use the Pay Invoices screen.

Entering Bank Deposits - Enter your bank deposits on the Checks and Deposits screen.  Remember, your bank is not (generally) giving you the deposit, so a deposit entry is a negative entry to one of your income accounts.

End of the Month

Import Payroll - You can import every payroll run, or at the end of the month, before printing reports.

Journal Entries - Post any Journal Entries, such as inventory adjustments, depreciation figures, and bank service charges.  Remember, entries made on the Journal Entry screen MUST be "double entry", both the credit and debit must be entered.  If you are using Medlin Accounts Receivable, be sure to import the new charges and payments before starting a new month in Medlin Accounts Receivable.

Bank Reconciliation - Use the Bank Reconciliation screen to balance your bank account.

Print Reports - Preview the reports.  Make any needed changes to the transactions until the reports show the desired information.  We suggest you print a Transaction Listing, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and General Ledger every month.

Accounting Month - Starting/Ending a Year

Medlin Accounting uses the transaction dates to prepare reports.  You do not need to start or end an accounting period/month, nor start or end an accounting year.  In other words, "just keep making entries."