Compare with your current QuickBooks company

When you move your books from your current QuickBooks sync (Amaka, for most Loyverse stores) to Swann Retail, your accountant can check Swann Retail’s posting in a separate audit company first: a second QuickBooks company set up for the check, so your real books are never touched. The comparison spreadsheet puts the two side by side: what Swann Retail posted to the audit company, and what your current sync posted to your live company, for the same days and the same accounts.

You download it from Swann Retail and send it to your accountant. They need no Swann Retail login: everything they need is in the file.

Before you start

• You need to be the business owner, with the QuickBooks add-on.
• Swann Retail must be connected to the audit company, not to your live company. The comparison reads only the audit company. While Swann Retail is still connected to your live company, the download is refused, so it can never read or refresh the sign-in to your real books.

Download the spreadsheet

1. Open the QuickBooks page in Swann Retail.
2. Find the Compare with your current QuickBooks company card.
3. Choose the First day and the Last day. It starts on the last seven closed days.
   • Up to 31 days in one spreadsheet. For a longer stretch, download one per month.
   • Closed days only: the last day can be yesterday at the latest, because today is still open. Days follow your store’s own calendar, wherever you are when you download.
4. Select Download comparison. The spreadsheet’s name carries its first and last day, so each one is easy to tell apart.
5. Send the file to your accountant.

If it won’t download

What you see	What it means	What to do
Swann is not connected to QuickBooks.	Swann Retail has no working connection to QuickBooks.	Connect Swann Retail to the audit company, then try again.
Swann is still connected to your current QuickBooks company.	Swann Retail is connected to your live company. The comparison reads only the audit company, so it is refused before your live company’s sign-in is touched.	Connect Swann Retail to the audit company, then try again.
Swann can only build the comparison while it is connected to the audit company.	Swann Retail is connected to a company that isn’t the audit company.	Connect Swann Retail to the audit company, then try again.
The audit company’s QuickBooks sign-in has expired, and only the store owner can renew it.	The QuickBooks sign-in for the audit company has expired, and only the store owner can renew it.	Ask the store owner to download the comparison themselves.
Choose up to 31 days that are already closed.	The dates cover more than 31 days, or reach today.	Pick a shorter stretch that ends yesterday or earlier.
QuickBooks sent back too much for one file.	QuickBooks cut its report short because the stretch held too much.	Choose fewer days and try again.
QuickBooks sent back a report Swann could not read.	The audit company’s report was missing a column the comparison needs, so no spreadsheet was built.	Trying the same days again won’t help. Contact support.
QuickBooks is syncing right now.	A QuickBooks sync is running for your business.	Wait for it to finish, then try again.
Could not build the comparison.	Something else went wrong.	Try again in a moment.

What’s in the spreadsheet

The spreadsheet has six sheets.

Sheet	What it holds
Read me	The audit company’s name, the dates, how to fill in the live side, how many rows matched, were explained or were not explained, and what each kind of difference means.
By day	One row per day: Swann Retail’s debits, the live company’s debits, the amount not explained, and the day’s status.
By day and account	The main sheet. One row per day and account: Swann Retail’s amount, the live amount, the difference, the known differences, what explains them, what is left over, and the status.
Swann posted	Every entry Swann Retail posted to the audit company in those days (its documents numbered SWANN-…).
Live company	Empty, with its column headings. Your accountant pastes the live company’s report here.
Not compared	Anything else in the audit company for those days, totalled per account, so nothing disappears without a trace.

Amounts are in dollars, with debits positive and credits negative.

Fill in the live side (for your accountant)

The spreadsheet arrives with Swann Retail’s side filled in. The live side is one report from the live company:

1. In the live company, open Reports and run Transaction Detail by Account for the same dates, on the Accrual basis, filtered to the customer Loyverse, with the columns Date, Transaction Type, Num, Name, Account, Debit and Credit.
2. Export it to Excel.
3. Paste its rows into the Live company sheet, under the headings, in exactly this column order: Date, Transaction type, Num, Name, Account, Debit, Credit.
4. Keep the dates as real dates, not text.

The By day and By day and account sheets then fill in by themselves. The live company’s report never comes back into Swann Retail: it stays in the spreadsheet.

Note

Rows are matched on the date and the account name, so an account must be spelled the same in both companies. An account that only the live company used has no row of its own on By day and account, though its amounts still count in the live debits on By day. If a day’s two debit totals differ while every account row matches, look for an account like that.

Reading the status

Each row on By day and account ends in one of three statuses, and each day on By day takes the worst of its accounts:

• Matches: Swann Retail and the live company booked the same amount to that account on that day.
• Explained: they differ, and the known differences below cover the whole difference.
• Not explained: something is left over. These are the rows to look at; each one is something to fix in Swann Retail before you switch over.

What each difference means

Swann Retail works these out for each day and fills them in as known differences:

• Loyverse sales Swann Retail does not send: sales rung up in Loyverse rather than in Swann Retail. Your current sync books them; Swann Retail deliberately doesn’t, so the audit company is light by exactly these amounts. Not an error.
• Deposits: Swann Retail holds a customer deposit as money owed to the customer until the order is completed; your current sync books it as a sale on the day it’s paid. The totals agree over the life of the order; the days differ.
• Before the Swann Retail to Loyverse link: before Swann Retail started sending its sales to Loyverse, some of them never reached your current sync, so it never booked them. Only appears for days that early.
• Not posted by Swann Retail yet: Swann Retail held the day back on purpose (a product with no QuickBooks match, a missing cost, or a day that hasn’t closed). The row names it; fix it in Fixing what won’t post.
• Cost of goods: QuickBooks records cost of goods for stock items on Swann Retail’s entries. If your current sync’s entries don’t, that account will always differ.

These three are described in the spreadsheet but not worked out for you, so they show as Not explained until your accountant rules them out by eye:

• Rounding: cash rounding that your current sync books and Swann Retail doesn’t. A few cents a day at most.
• Different document type: Swann Retail can post one sales receipt per sale where your current sync posts one invoice per day. The sales accounts still compare directly; the payment side won’t line up account by account.
• A day apart: the same amount booked on neighbouring days, usually a sale near midnight, or one finished after the day was booked.

Good to know

• Building the spreadsheet only reads. Nothing is posted, and nothing changes in either QuickBooks company.
• Swann Retail never reads your live company. Your accountant brings that side in by pasting it.
• Once you’ve switched over, keep tying days out with Reconciling your books. To run Swann Retail beside your current sync without posting twice, see Tie out before you switch over.