Checkbook Ledger Data

NOTE-- These manual pages cover our older MacNail construction accounting software, which we retired in 2000. It has been replaced by Goldenseal, which is an integrated business management program that includes general accounting, job costing, payroll and project billing, plus construction cost estimating, contract writing and simple scheduling. Goldenseal does not require Excel, but it is otherwise very similar to MacNail.

Deposits

The MacNail construction accounting software uses the Deposit column for money coming into your bank account.

If the desired transaction is a deposit to the account, choose *Ledger Item from the EDIT menu and click on Deposit to insert a deposit line. This will allow you to enter the deposit without throwing off the check number sequence. Then type in the amount of the deposit.

If the item is a payout, leave this cell blank.

If you refund part of a previous payment that has already been entered as a deposit, enter the refund as a negative deposit instead of as a payout. That way it will be subtracted from your gross income, rather than being treated as an expense.

If you receive money from a supplier that is a refund on a particular item, enter it as a negative payout instead of as a deposit. That way it will be job costed as a reduction to the previous expense, rather than being considered as income.

Pay Outs

Enter the payout amount. For deposits, leave this cell blank. For refund payments, see the previous section.
NOTE: If a payout is not by check or if you want to have one check cover two different jobs, see page 74 on splitting payments.

For items in the Ledger that are not being used for job costing, you can leave this column blank.
For items that will be job costed from the Ledger, type in a construction code that matches the cost codes for that particular job.

If you are using different category systems for different jobs (for example, CSI and MacNail), be careful to use the correct category codes for each project.

NOTE: MacNail uses 30 letter codes (A to Z, plus AA to DD). The older MacNail system used 28 letter codes (A to Z, plus AA and BB. CC and RR were used rather than C and R). CSI uses 16 number codes (1 to 16).
Note that the codes AL and CO are 'reserved' for allowances and change orders respectively.

For office overhead items, type in the Schedule C codes from the office cost control worksheet. These are all two-letter codes matching office overhead expense categories.

For small projects, type in a project code number from the Other Cost Control sheet (see page 127).