Keeping track of your income, expenses, and sales taxes is critical to running your business. Dubsado's built-in bookkeeping tools help you stay on top of all three from one place.
Bookkeeping overview
Dubsado has four bookkeeping tools that work together: the Invoicing page, Transactions, Chart of Accounts, and Finance Reports. For many small businesses, these tools are enough on their own. If your accounting needs are more extensive, you can also connect Dubsado to QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Dubsado's built-in bookkeeping tools are designed for small business owners who don't need full accounting software. There's no accounts payable, no bank reconciliation, and no double-entry ledger. If your business has more complex accounting needs, connect Dubsado with QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Where to find each tool
Each bookkeeping tool lives in a slightly different place. Here's a quick reference for getting to each one.
Invoicing page -- Click Invoicing in the main navigation
Transactions -- Click Invoicing, then select Transactions
Chart of Accounts -- Open the Home page, click Finance Reports, then click Chart of Accounts
Finance Reports -- Open the Home page and click Finance Reports.
The Chart of Accounts is also reachable through global search. Search for Income & Expenses (or any word from that phrase) to surface it. Searching Chart of Accounts does not return results in global search.
Invoicing
The Invoicing page lists every invoice across every project in your workspace. Click any invoice in the list to preview it in a takeover panel.
You can also access invoices within a single project. Open the project and click the Invoicing tab to see only that project's invoices.
Overdue invoices appear under the Status column. An invoice can only show as overdue if it has a payment plan, since payment plans are what set the due dates for payment.
Transactions
The Transactions page is a log of every income and expense transaction in your workspace. You can reach it two ways:
Navigate to Invoicing ➔ Transactions to see every transaction across every project.
Open a project and go to Invoicing ➔ Transactions to see only that project's transactions.
Tabs at the top of the list filter transactions by type: All, Payments, Expenses, Refunds, and Uncollectible.
When a client pays an invoice through a connected payment processor, or when you manually apply a payment to an invoice, the income transaction is added to this list automatically.
To record a transaction yourself, click + New Transaction. The form handles every transaction type from one place: payments, expenses (including tax expenses), refunds, and tax payments. For step-by-step instructions on recording an expense, see Tracking your expenses.
To download a CSV of the filtered list, use the export control at the top of the Transactions list.
When Dubsado records an income transaction, it does not automatically subtract payment processing fees. To track those fees against your bookkeeping, record them as expenses.
Chart of Accounts
The Chart of Accounts page breaks your income and expenses down by category, including any tax categories you collect.
To get there, open the Home page, click Finance Reports, and then click Chart of Accounts. You can also search for Income & Expenses in global search.
The page is split into a Revenue section, an Expenses section, and a Net Profit total at the bottom. Use the date range picker at the top of the page to filter the breakdown to a specific period.
To add a new category, click + New category and choose the category type:
Revenue category for income tracking
Expense category for expense tracking
Tax category for sales taxes you collect
Click any existing category to open it for editing.
Click Export CSV to download a profit-and-loss style report for the selected date range.
When a payment is recorded on an invoice, Dubsado splits that payment evenly across the income categories of the line items on the invoice. When you close an invoice, the uncollectible balance is split across those same income categories.
For more detail on category management, see the articles on income categories and tracking your expenses.
Finance Reports
The Finance Reports page is your at-a-glance view of business performance over a selected date range. Open the Home page and click Finance Reports to get there.
At the top of the page, four KPI cards summarize the period you've selected:
Net profit
Net revenue
Expenses
Open invoices
Click the Open invoices card to jump to a filtered view of your open invoices on the Invoicing page.
Below the KPIs, a chart shows your revenue and expenses over time. Below the chart, a Chart of Accounts summary highlights your top revenue categories and top expense categories for the period.
Use the date range picker to set the reporting period for everything on the page.
FAQ
Does Dubsado replace full accounting software?
No. Dubsado's built-in bookkeeping tools are designed for small businesses that don't need full accounting software. There's no accounts payable, no bank reconciliation, and no double-entry ledger. If your business needs those, you can connect Dubsado with QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Why don't I see Finance Reports or Chart of Accounts in the main navigation?
Finance Reports and Chart of Accounts aren't pinned to the main navigation. Open the Home page and click Finance Reports to reach both pages. You can also use global search by searching for Income & Expenses (or any word from that phrase). Searching Chart of Accounts does not return results in global search.
Where did the Expense +, Income +, and Tax Payment + buttons go?
They've been combined into a single + New Transaction button on the Transactions page. The form lets you choose what kind of transaction you're recording: payment, expense, refund, or tax payment.