LOU Accounting
      Back to home
      1. LOU
      2. Accounting
      3. LOU Accounting

      How to Switch to LOU Accounting - LOU® - Powered by Evosus

      LIVE ON LOU This article is for Enterprise clients live on LOU pre-March 2023, or who went live without enabling LOU Accounting, and Pro clients upgrading to Enterprise and interested in enabling the full LOU Accounting suite of features.

       

      QuickBooks Online Users
      LOU Accounting is a fully integrated AR/AP accounting suite of features. As such, access to the LOU QuickBooks Online integration is not available when LOU Accounting is active. Before you go live on LOU Accounting consider that this will be a replacement of the QuickBooks Online integration and you will no longer need to keep QuickBooks Online active while using LOU Accounting. 


      Accounting is a huge part of your business. The LOU Accounting suite of features is a robust, fully integrated Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable suite of features.

      Are you:

      1. Live and transactional on LOU?
      2. On the Enterprise Plan?
      3. Ready to get started with a fully integrated accounting solution in LOU?


      Great! Keep reading.

       

      Rollback
      Before you start the process of going live on LOU Accounting, consider your needs carefully to make sure LOU Accounting is right for you. It is also very important that you perform a reconciliation of your books to ensure everything is balanced prior to going live on LOU Accounting so that you can go forward successfully. 

      LOU Accounting cannot be rolled back. Once you go live, you will not be able to revert back to LOU's AR Accounting. 






      Go to Accounting

      We want to make sure you’re able to take advantage of LOU Accounting without any disruption to your financials. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
       

      • You can keep transacting while setting up LOU Accounting.
        • Current AR transactions continue to write to the GL and do not change.
        • AP transactions will not write to the GL until you have enabled and gone live on LOU Accounting. After you go live on LOU Accounting, AP transactions will be written going forward. LOU will not go backwards and fill in AP transactions prior to going live on LOU Accounting. 
      • You can enable LOU Accounting any time because you can use Journal Entry to help capture important rolled up financial data that you want included in the current Fiscal Year.
        • Best practice: going live at the beginning of a month is ideal.
      • Your Accounting Period Cycle is defaulted to Calendar Months.
        • Changing to 4-4-5 requires notifying the IRS. Contact your LOU Account Manager for more information.
      • Your Account Method is Accrual.
        • Changing to Cash Basis requires notifying the IRS. Contact your LOU Account Manager for more information.

      You can learn more about the IRS requirements for Accounting Periods and Methods on the IRS’s official website.


      Here’s a brief outline of what you should expect:
       
      1. Contact your LOU Account Manager to get started.
        1. We’ll schedule a meeting to walk through the LOU Accounting features with you.
      2. Perform a Month End-style reconciliation immediately before you begin setup to ensure your current books are balanced in LOU and your accounting system. This will help mitigate introducing bad data to LOU.
      3. Gather the information you need to configure in LOU.
        1. Fiscal Year Start Date
        2. Accounting Periods Cycle preference (Calendar Months vs 4-4-5)
        3. AP Accounts for the Chart of Accounts
          1. Consider how this may change your settings in Control Accounts (previously known as Chart of Accounts Defaults)
        4. Payment Accounts
          1. Bank and credit card accounts you use to pay your bills/expenses.
      4. Optional Those of you who choose to use Group Security should configure permissions around the Accounting Features. 
      5. Enable LOU Accounting
        1. Go to Setup / Accounting / Enable LOU Accounting
      6. Configure Accounting Settings
        1. Configure your Fiscal Year and Accounting Periods
        2. Add/update the Accounts in your Chart of Accounts
        3. Update your Control Accounts
        4. Add Payment Accounts
        5. Enter your Accounts Payable Beginning Balances (Journal Entries )
      7. We’ll schedule another meeting to review settings and make sure everything is good to go.
        1. We’ll answer any questions you have and go over everything to make sure you’re in good shape.
      8. Click Confirm Go Live.


      Once we click that Confirm Go Live button, you’ll be live and transactional with the full LOU Account Feature! From that point, forward, LOU will track both your AR and AP account transactions.

      REMEMBER! LOU will not go backwards and add AP data to your historical data. Reports run for dates prior to your Accounting Go-Live date will only include AR data. However, the AP Beginning Balances you enter during the Accounting Onboarding process will allow LOU to correctly calculate and track balances.

       

       

      FASB and GAAP
      Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are essentially the accepted standards and practices defined for businesses in the United States. These topics, as they are known, are maintained by the Financial Accounting and Standards Board (FASB) which is recognized by the US Securities and Exchange Commission "as the designated accounting standards setter" for public companies and businesses. 

      There are mandatory practices in GAAP that accounting professionals and businesses must follow. When you have questions regarding standards and practices, you can research the Topics released for GAAP by the FASB here or discuss with your Accounting professional.