The HOPE Accounting System provides monthly Income Statements and Balance Sheets for your business and can do so for multiple stores or units. In order to assure the accuracy of these reports, all of the store's transactions and expenses for the month must be entered into HOPE. Since HOPE automatically makes transaction entries for all cash register transactions, you will only need to enter your operating expenses and a few other miscellaneous transaction entries (such as depreciation inventory and payables).
There are two important files used by HOPE for the accounting:
You may make manual transaction entries at any time during the month (and as often as you wish). These entries remain in the Transaction File. At the end of the month, when you run the End-of-Period report, HOPE automatically makes the Transaction entries for all cash register transactions.
When you have entered all transaction entries for the month, run a trial balance. If your accounts balance, you may then "post." Posting is the process by which HOPE takes each transaction entry and updates the account it affects in the Chart of Accounts accordingly. When you post, you will receive an audit trail containing all transactions for the month that were posted to each account. You may then print your Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement (you must post before printing these reports because they obtain their information from the Chart of Accounts, which is updated for the month by posting).