Finding your way around

The sidebar

Pages are grouped into sections. What you see is narrowed three ways: by what Accmerio has enabled for the company, by what the owner has chosen to show for everybody (Settings › Sidebar › Company menu), and by what your role allows. Within that, you arrange your own menu: see Your own menu below.

The arrow at the bottom of the sidebar collapses it to icons. On a phone, the Menu button opens it.

Calculator. Just above your account at the bottom of the sidebar, Calculator opens a calculator over whatever page you are on. It has four tabs. Calculator works a sum exactly, without rounding errors, with brackets and percent as a desk calculator reads it (200 + 10% is 220); type on the keyboard too, with Enter for = and Delete to clear, or paste a sum. Accounting tools adds VAT to an amount or takes it out, works out margin and markup or the price for one, a discount, a percentage or the change between two figures, a loan's monthly instalment, and the days between two dates. Converter converts between currencies at the European Central Bank's reference rates, the date they are from shown under the answer; it is for reference only, and invoices, bills and payments are still recorded in the company's currency. History keeps what you worked out, in this browser, until you sign out; Use puts an answer back in the calculator. Every answer has Copy, which copies the figure alone, ready to paste into an amount. Nothing in the calculator is posted to the books.

Quick actions. On a computer, rest the pointer on a sidebar item for a second and a small panel opens beside it with what that page's own buttons start, and nothing from the pages around it — on Invoices, New invoice, Receive payment and New proforma invoice; on Customers, New customer. It works in every area: in Transportation (New job, Take an enquiry, Add a vehicle, Record a fine, Give an advance), in Procurement (New enquiry, Raise a supplier LPO, Count), in Agency (Add client company) and, once Document Generation is added, New document under Document Templates. Choose one and the page opens with that form already open, exactly as if you had pressed its button. Only what your role lets you do is listed. Move to another item and the panel moves with you; move away or press Esc and it closes. From the keyboard, press the Right arrow on a sidebar item to open it, the Up and Down arrows to move, and Left arrow or Esc to go back. A page with nothing to start, such as a report, has no panel. The same actions head the page's menu, below.

Your own menu

While the sidebar is open, right-click a page or a section's name, or press the ⋯ that appears beside it, to open its menu. On a keyboard, press the menu key or Shift+F10 on a page. What you change here is yours alone: nobody else's menu changes, what anybody may open is unchanged, and it stays with you in this company wherever you sign in.

• A page's menu: its quick actions first, then Open in new tab, Star, Move within its section, and Hide from menu.
• A section's menu: Star section, Reorder pages…, Reorder sections…, Show hidden, and Hide section.

Starred. A starred page, or a whole starred section with its pages, moves to Starred at the top of the sidebar and is not shown again further down. Up to ten can be starred. Searching with Find a page… finds a starred page under Starred. Right-click Starred to put it in order (Reorder Starred…) or clear it. Starring a section takes the stars off its own pages, since the section brings them with it.

Hidden. Hide from menu takes a page out of your sidebar, and Hide section a whole section; a message offers Undo. A hidden page still opens from a link, and Find a page… still finds it, faded. To bring one back, right-click any section's name and choose Show hidden: hidden pages return faded, and their menu offers Make visible again. Stop showing hidden, or Done at the top of the sidebar, puts them away again. Settings › Sidebar › Your menu lists everything you hid and starred, with Show and Remove. A hidden page cannot be starred, and hiding a starred one takes its star away. The dashboard, Settings, each area's setup page and everything under Guides & support are always shown.

Order. Move within a section (from a page's menu) or Reorder pages… (from a section's) puts that section's pages in your order; Reorder sections… does the same for the sections. Pages only move within their own section. In the window that opens, drag a row by its handle, press the arrows beside it, or type the position it should have in the box that shows where it is now, then press Save. Shipped order goes back to the order Accmerio ships; Back to the shipped menu under Settings › Sidebar › Your menu undoes everything for one area at once.

Each area keeps its own. Accounting, Transportation, Agency and Retail each have their own stars, hidden pages and order: starring Jobs in Transportation stars nothing in Accounting. With the sidebar folded to icons, starred pages stay at the top, and the menus are not offered.

Below 1024 pixels wide, the Menu button hides while the on-screen keyboard is open, and a form's Save bar sits above it. Tab rows wider than the screen scroll sideways, and in Transportation they open with the chosen tab in view. The calendar is at the right-hand end of every date and time box.

Switching company

The box at the top of the sidebar shows the company you are working in and your role there. Press it to see Your companies and switch. Everything on screen — every figure, list and setting — belongs to the company shown. Add a Branch appears here when you own a company and its plan allows more branches (see Branches and group companies).

If the server is slow or briefly failing while a company opens, Accmerio asks again by itself a few times. Meanwhile the company switcher says Opening your company… rather than Choose a company, and after a failure, or a few seconds, Transportation's pages say This is taking longer than it should with Try again.

Your account

The circle with your initial at the bottom of the sidebar opens your account menu: My profile for your name, photo, mobile number, timezone and password (see My profile), Security, Household view if you also use AccountHouse for a household, Install app where your browser offers it, and Sign out. Signing out ends your session in both apps.

Installing Accmerio on a phone or computer

Accmerio can be installed like an app, so it opens from your home screen or taskbar in its own window without the address bar. It is the same workspace, the same sign-in and the same company data — only the window changes.

• Chrome, Edge and most Android browsers — open your account menu and choose Install app. The item is only there when the browser can install it, and disappears once it is installed.
• iPhone and iPad — open Accmerio in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen. Safari has no install button of its own, so this is the only way.

An installed Accmerio still needs a connection: the books are read from the server every time, so nothing is kept on the device except the app's own pages and pictures. With no network it says you are offline rather than showing figures that may have moved. Signing out clears what it kept.

The ⓘ on every page

Beside every page title is an ⓘ. It opens a short explanation of what the page is for, what its buttons do to the books, and how to undo a mistake. The chapter for that page in this guide is the full version.

Searchable pickers

Most fields that choose something — an account, a customer, a supplier, an item, a bank account, an asset category, a payment method — are searchable. Click the field and start typing.

• The search matches names, codes, emails, phone numbers, tax registration numbers and categories. Typing “cost” finds every cost-of-sales account; typing “1590” finds accumulated depreciation.
• Matching words are highlighted. Use the arrow keys and Enter to choose without the mouse; Esc closes the list without closing the form.
• Accounts are grouped under Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income and Expenses, and within each by category, in the order the statements use. The chosen account always shows its category, for example “1520 · Computer Equipment (Fixed asset)”.
• If nothing matches, the last row offers Create — a new account, customer, supplier, item, bank account, category or payment method. It opens that record's own form over the one you are filling in, and when you save, the new record is selected. Nothing you had typed is lost.
• In Transportation, choosing a vehicle, driver, job or supplier works the same way over the whole company: type in the field — a plate, a make, a name, a number, a job's reference, customer, place or day, a supplier's name or code. The list says Showing 25 of 312 — type to narrow, and Show more brings more. The one already chosen always shows.

Sorting and searching lists

Every list of records — journals, the general ledger and statements, receipts and payments, invoices, bills, credit and debit notes, transfers, cheques, equity entries, fixed assets, bank statement lines and the Modification Register — opens Newest first. So do the connectors' lists: Procurement's orders, supplier LPOs, deliveries and supplier quotes, and Transportation's enquiries, fines, charges, advances, settlements, cash to bank, work orders, contracts and costs.

• Sort changes the order: Newest first, Oldest first, Largest amount first, Smallest amount first, and, where records have numbers, Number, highest first or Number, lowest first. The cheque register opens Due soonest first instead, because that is what it is for, and so do a few working lists in Transportation (Jobs, outsourced work still to see to).
• A directory opens in its own order instead: Customers, Suppliers and Procurement's Stock by name, Items by code, vehicles by asset number, drivers by number. Its Sort adds Name, A to Z and Name, Z to A, and its newest and oldest mean Newest added first and Oldest added first. Customers and Suppliers can also be sorted by balance — what each owes or is owed — if you may see the aged listings.
• An amount you may not see is never offered: somebody who cannot see what customers are charged, or what suppliers are paid, gets no amount order on those lists, and their search does not match those figures.
• Search takes words — a number, a name, a reference, a memo — or an amount. Type 1250, 1,250.00 or AED 1,250 to find records of exactly that amount, whether the ledger holds it as a debit or a credit.
• A statement sorted newest first starts with the Closing balance and ends with the Opening balance. Each line keeps the balance the account really had after it, however it is sorted or searched; a download prints the lines in the order on screen.
• The Chart of Accounts has its own Search: type part of a code, a name, a role or a balance.

The lock banner

If the books are locked up to a date, a banner at the top of the workspace says so. Entries on or before that date are refused unless your role can close periods. See Periods and the lock date.

When the company's term ends

Every company is on a contract with AccountHouse. When its term ends and the contract has a grace period, an amber banner says so on every page: the books are read-only — everyone can still sign in, read everything and download what they need, and nothing that changes the books is saved. The banner says how many days are left before the workspace closes.

When the grace period ends too, the workspace closes: its pages say so instead, and only Support, the guide and your profile open. Nothing is deleted. Renewing the contract opens the company exactly as it was; ask through Support, which stays open for this. A company an accounting agency set up runs on the agency's contract and follows its term.

Only the company's contract decides this. Your own AccountHouse sign-in may carry a term of its own, for the household apps — a trial from the link you registered with, for example. When that term ends, the household apps say so, but you still sign in to Accmerio and work in every company whose contract is running.