Linking Basic Beancounting spreadsheets?

[JagBbeach]

I am new to Excel (and this forum) & want to make my own General Ledger,
Monthy Synopsis, Trial Balances, Financial Statements etc. for a new
business.

I am reading _Basic_Beancounting_ by T. James Cook and wish to use
Excel efficiently. (Just learned how to group tabs to make multiple
identical forms. Works great and saves a pile of time!)

Now I want to take the debit & credit totals from each account column
in the monthly synopsis sheet and link them (automatically post) them
to the appropriate column in their individual running totals of each
General Ledger Account.

The problem is (well there are many and please don't tell me
to get _Quick_Books_, I do not learn anything that way.)

Every month I enter my receipts (debit & credits) on the synopsis sheet
( one page for all the monthly activity) in their account columns and I
have a cell with a formula that totals each column. So far so good.

Now I have to get that total into the NEXT AVAILABLE ROW of the
appropriate column in the General Ledger account that keeps a record of
the running monthly totals. The GL also has other adjustment entries so
the row number is variable and Excel needs to know which the next blank
row is. Do you follow so far?

Once that is done, the entry has to stay in the GL when I copy the
synopsis sheet to a new file name and clean the original sheet to start
a new month.

Posting manually to the General Ledger of each month results is a
nightmare of columns, tabs, debits, credits, totals, and dates.
And so much room for error.

I noticed a comment that few people know how to use Excel efficiently
so I want to control when I post the synopsis totals after they have
been balanced.

I bet there is a way to add the current date and reference ID into the
GL row at the same time. ( The Beancounting book shows this post into
the GL with the current date and a "Syn" reference code.) That would be
awesome!

So, that's the deal. What sort of statement or formula would do that,
and only when I give the command to post? This may not be beginner
stuff but I am sure Simply Accounting can do it?

Are you up to the challenge? (or maybe this is routine for you).

Thanks from JagBbeach. I live in Toronto, Canada.

 

[Gary''s Student]

Checkout some existing business templates:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011800981033.aspx

and you can both learn and get a working tool quickly.

 

[Kevin Lehrbass]

Hi JagBbeach,

It's definitely possible to do this in Excel. You'll need to talk with an
Excel Consultant (people dedicated to creating advanced spreadsheets) to iron
out your exact needs.

If usually helps to meet face to face with someone as trying to explain this
via email can be challenging.

There are several Excel Consultants in the Toronto area including myself,
Debra D.(www.contextures.com), and others (try doing a Google search "Excel
Consultants Toronto"

All the best!