Ridgefront Accounting

Where to find it: the dark blue bar at the very top of every screen. On the right it says Business, with a box showing the business name, and a + Add a business button next to it. On the left, the ☰ button (three lines) opens your account menu — it shows the email you are signed in as, your account, Help, and Sign out.

What this screen does: it picks which business you are working in. Your four businesses each have their own books inside this one app — Lilly's Janitorial, That's A Wrap and More Catering, Ridgefront Tech, and That's A Wrap and More shop sales. Their money, inventory, mileage, and bank accounts never mix. Switching takes one tap — you never open a different app and you never sign in again.

1. Look at the top of the screen. The business name in the box is the business you are working in right now.
2. If it is not the business you want, tap the box. A short list of your businesses opens.
3. Tap the business you want.
4. Check the name again. The whole screen now shows only that business — its money, its inventory, its mileage. The name next to every heading on the page changes to match.
5. Now do your work. Everything you enter until you switch again belongs to this business.

Example: you just finished a catering job and the client paid you. Before you type the payment in, look at the top. If it says Lilly's Janitorial, tap the box and pick That's A Wrap and More Catering first. Then enter the payment.

Next: First-time setup →

Where to find it: the business box at the top, the Bank files tab, the Money in & out tab, and the Inventory tab. Do these steps once, in this order, before you enter everyday money. It is what makes the daily work fast later.

1. Add your four businesses. The app already starts with them: Lilly's Janitorial, That's A Wrap and More Catering, Ridgefront Tech, and That's A Wrap and More shop sales. If one is missing, tap + Add a business at the top, type the name exactly as you use it, and it is added and picked straight away. If you add a business by mistake, there is no delete button for a business in version 1 — just leave it alone and pick the right one.
2. For each business, add its bank accounts as labels. Pick the business at the top first, then tap the Bank files tab. Under the heading, type the Bank name (for example, PNC), an Account nickname (for example, Main checking), and the Last 4 digits (for example, 8976), then tap Add bank account. In version 1 these are just names, so your entries can say which account the money touched. Nothing connects to a real bank yet — that comes later, inside the finished app. Repeat for each business and each account it has.
3. Check the money categories. Tap the Money in & out tab. The Type box says Money in or Money out, and the Category box under it shows the list for that type — plain words like Supplies, Chemicals, Equipment, Food, Travel, Mileage, Insurance, Advertising, Software, Rent, Utilities, Cleaning income, Catering income, App subscriptions, and Shop sales. You cannot delete a category in version 1, so do not worry about the ones you will never use — just do not pick them. To add one, tap + Add a category, type income or expense when it asks, then type the new category name.
4. Add your inventory items for each business that keeps stock, using Topic 6. Count what you actually have on the shelf today as the starting number — do not guess.
5. Enter any money already moving this month using Topics 3 and 4, so this month starts complete.

Example: for Lilly's Janitorial you add a bank account called PNC, Main checking, ending 8976. Then you check the categories and add one called "Paper products" for money out, because you buy paper towels and trash bags every week and do not want them mixed in with Chemicals.

Go to Money in & out → Go to Inventory → Next: Money in →

Where to find it: the Money in & out tab. What this screen does: it is the list of every dollar in and out for the business at the top, newest at the bottom of the list. Adding a payment here is how the totals on the Home page and the reports get their numbers.

A note on the labels: the instruction sheets talk about tapping "Add, then Money In". In this version of the app there is no Add button — you use the form on the Money in & out tab itself, and the Type box is where you pick Money in or Money out.

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1). Switch if it is the wrong one.
2. Tap the Money in & out tab.
3. Date: type the date the money arrived — not the date you are typing it in, if those are different. The box already shows today's date; change it if the payment came earlier.
4. Type: pick Money in in the Type box.
5. Category: pick the category that says what the money was for, like Cleaning income, Catering income, App subscriptions, or Shop sales. The list changes when you change the Type, so it only shows money-in categories here.
6. Description: type who paid you, in your own words — a client name, or "Shop sale". This is what you will read back later, so make it clear enough to recognise in a month.
7. Amount ($): type the full amount that arrived, exactly as it shows on the bank line or the payment notice. Do not put a dollar sign in — just the number, for example 450.00.
8. Tap Add it. The entry appears in the All entries list below, and the totals update right away.
9. If it pays an invoice, do not add the money here by hand. Go to the Invoices tab instead, find the invoice, and tap Mark paid — the app adds the money in for you (Topic 5). That way the invoice and the money can never disagree.

Example — a finished entry: Lilly's Janitorial, Date 2026-11-04, Money in, Category Cleaning income, Description "Miller Road office — November cleaning", Amount $450.00. After you tap Add it, the All entries list shows a row reading 2026-11-04, Money in, Cleaning income, Miller Road office — November cleaning, $450.00, and the Home page Money in total for Lilly's Janitorial goes up by $450.00.

Go to Money in & out → Next: Money out →

Where to find it: the Money in & out tab, same form as Money in. What this screen does: same list, same form — only the Type is different. Once you know Money in, you know Money out.

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1). Switch if it is the wrong one.
2. Tap the Money in & out tab.
3. Date: type the date the money was spent. The box already shows today; change it if the receipt is from another day.
4. Type: pick Money out in the Type box.
5. Category: pick what it was for, like Chemicals, Food, Fuel, Equipment, Supplies, or Insurance.
6. Description: type who you paid — the store, the company, or the person — and one short note if the receipt alone would not explain it later. For example, "Sam's Club — paper towels and trash bags for the Miller Road job". Plain words are fine.
7. Amount ($): type the amount exactly as it shows on the receipt, just the number, for example 86.40.
8. Tap Add it. The entry appears in the All entries list, and the totals update right away.
9. If you bought inventory (chemicals, food, shop products), also update the item on the Inventory tab — see Topic 6. The money entry records the spending; the inventory count records that you now have more on the shelf.

Example — a finished entry: Lilly's Janitorial, Date 2026-11-03, Money out, Category Supplies, Description "Sam's Club — paper towels and trash bags", Amount $86.40. The All entries list shows 2026-11-03, Money out, Supplies, Sam's Club — paper towels and trash bags, $86.40.

Go to Money in & out → Next: Invoices and receipts →

Where to find it: the Invoices tab. What this screen does: it keeps the list of bills you have sent, each one showing draft or paid, and it is the place you mark one paid so the money lands in the books.

A note on the labels: in this version there is no "New Invoice" button, no Send button, and no separate lines for each thing you are charging for — one invoice is one amount. There is also no photo upload yet: the Receipt note box is a typed note only, not a picture of a paper receipt. Real receipt files come in a later version.

Make an invoice

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1).
2. Tap the Invoices tab.
3. Customer: type who the invoice is for.
4. Date: type the invoice date. The box already shows today.
5. Amount ($): type the full amount, just the number — for example 450.00. Check it against what you and the client agreed before you save it.
6. Receipt note: type a short note if it helps, for example "Office cleaning, November". You can leave it blank.
7. Tap Add invoice. It appears in the list below with the status draft. That means sent-or-not, it is not paid yet. Send it to the client the way you send invoices today — the app does not send it for you in version 1.

When the client pays

1. Tap the Invoices tab and find the invoice in the list.
2. Tap Mark paid next to it. Two things happen at once: the invoice changes to paid, and a Money in entry for the same amount appears under Money in & out, described as "Invoice paid —" plus the customer name. Do not also type the money in by hand, or it will be counted twice.
3. If an invoice was made by mistake, tap Delete next to it. Deleting an unpaid invoice does not touch any money entry, because none was made yet.

Receipts in version 1

For money you spent, the proof lives in the Description you typed on the Money in & out entry (Topic 4) and, on an invoice, in the Receipt note box. Keep the paper receipt with your papers until receipt photos arrive in a later version. If you need a receipt note on a money entry, the surest way in version 1 is to put it in the Description, for example "Sam's Club — receipt in the November folder".

Example: invoice for "Miller Road office", dated 2026-11-01, $450.00, receipt note "Office cleaning, November". It shows as draft. On November 4 the client pays: tap Mark paid. It now shows paid, and Money in & out shows a $450.00 Money in entry, "Invoice paid — Miller Road office".

Go to Invoices → Next: Inventory →

Where to find it: the Inventory tab. What this screen does: it is the list of what you keep on hand — cleaning chemicals and supplies, catering food and supplies, shop products. Each item shows what you paid, what you sell it for, how many you have, and the count where it warns you. When an item gets low, it also shows up on the Home page under "Low stock — needs attention".

Add a new item

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1). The item belongs to whichever business is showing.
2. Tap the Inventory tab.
3. Item: type the name the way you say it — for example, "Glass cleaner, 1 gallon".
4. What you paid ($): type what one of them cost you. What you sell it for ($): type the selling price if you sell it. If you only use it yourself, leave the selling price at 0.
5. How many on hand: type how many you have right now — count the shelf, do not guess.
6. Warn me when it gets to: type the low-stock number — the count where you want a warning, like 2. When the shelf drops to that number, the app flags the item so you can reorder before you run out. Set it at the count where ordering still leaves you time, not at zero.
7. Tap Add item. The item appears in the list below.

When you sell one

Tap Sold 1 next to the item. The on-hand count drops by one, and a Money in entry is added for the selling price, described as "Sold: " plus the item name. If you sell more than one at a time, tap Sold 1 once for each one.

When you buy more

There is no "add stock" button in version 1, so do it in two short steps: first record the spending as Money Out on the Money in & out tab (Topic 4), so the spending shows in the books. Then go to the Stock count part of this same tab (Topic 7), count the shelf with the new stock included, and save that count — the count is the truth, and it sets the on-hand number to what is really there. That is the honest way to add stock in version 1, and a proper buy-more button is a later step.

Example — a finished item: "Glass cleaner, 1 gallon", paid $8.50, sell for $0 (you only use it), on hand 6, warn at 2. When you use the fourth bottle, the count falls to 2 and the item appears on the Home page under Low stock. A shop item looks different: "Gift basket", paid $12.00, sell for $25.00, on hand 10, warn at 3. Tap Sold 1 and on hand becomes 9, plus a $25.00 Money in entry appears.

Go to Inventory → Next: Stock count →

Where to find it: the Inventory tab, under the heading Stock count. What this screen does: it lets you record what you actually counted on the shelf, and it sets the on-hand number to that real count. The count is the truth — the shelf wins over whatever the app thought you had.

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1).
2. Tap the Inventory tab and scroll to Stock count.
3. Download stock-count sheet (CSV) if you want a paper sheet: tap that button and it downloads a list of every item with its on-hand number. Print it, or carry your phone, and go item by item down the shelf.
4. Count what you can actually see and touch and write the real number next to each item.
5. Back in the app, pick the Item from the list, type the Date (it already shows today), and type the number you Counted.
6. Tap Save count. That item's on-hand number now matches the shelf, and the count appears in the list underneath with its date.
7. Repeat for every item you counted. Where the real count and the app's count agree, nothing changes. Where they differ, the saved count is the new truth.

Example: the sheet says 6 bottles of glass cleaner, but you count 5 on the shelf. Pick "Glass cleaner, 1 gallon", type 5, tap Save count. On hand is now 5. Small differences are normal — a bottle went to a job and nobody logged it.

Go to Inventory → Next: Mileage →

Where to find it: the Mileage tab. What this screen does: it keeps a log of every business trip, works out what each trip is worth at the IRS standard rate for the date you drove, and adds it all up. At the top of the list it shows Trips logged, Total miles, and Worth (at IRS rate) for the business at the top.

The rates the app uses: 72.5 cents a mile from January 1 to June 30, 2026, and 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026. For 2025 it is 70 cents a mile. The rate used is shown on every trip in the list, so you can check it. A trip's rate is fixed when you save it, so a mid-year rate change never rewrites old trips.

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1). A catering delivery goes under catering, a cleaning walkthrough under janitorial — never both. One trip, one business.
2. Tap the Mileage tab.
3. Date: type the date of the trip. The box already shows today.
4. From: type where you started — for example, "Home". To: type where you went — for example, "Office building on Miller Road".
5. Why: type the business reason — for example, "Cleaning walkthrough" or "Delivered catering order". This one line is what makes the trip count as a business trip. Do not leave it vague like "out" — a reason you can read back at tax time is the whole point.
6. Miles: type the miles. Use the trip meter, or the start and end odometer numbers, whichever you already use. Round trips count in full, there and back.
7. Tap Add trip. The trip joins the list with its date, route, reason, miles, the rate used, and what it is worth.

Example — a finished trip: Date 2026-11-04, From Home, To Office building on Miller Road, Why Cleaning walkthrough, Miles 24. At 76 cents a mile that trip is worth $18.24, and the list shows 24 miles, 76c, $18.24. Log each trip the same day, while you still remember it — a late entry with the right date is fine, but a forgotten trip is money left off the return.

Go to Mileage → Next: Bank files →

Where to find it: the Bank files tab. What this screen does: it reads a file you downloaded from your bank, shows you every row first, and lets you pick which rows go into the books. Nothing is saved until you say so.

Read-only means read-only. This app never moves money, never pays a bill, and never sends money anywhere. Downloading a file from your bank changes nothing at the bank. Bank linking comes later, inside the finished app — until then, this file step is the way bank transactions get in.

First, add the bank account as a label (once per account)

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1) — it must be the business that bank account belongs to.
2. On the Bank files tab, type the Bank name, an Account nickname, and the Last 4 digits, then tap Add bank account. The account appears in the list below. Only the bank name, nickname, and last 4 digits are stored — never any bank login details.

Then, for each upload

1. Sign in to your bank's website the way you normally do, and open the account for one business.
2. Download the transactions for the dates you need, as a CSV file (most banks call this "Download" or "Export"). Save it where you can find it. The file needs a header row and columns for date, description, and amount — most bank downloads already have those.
3. In the app, check the business at the top again — it must be the business that bank account belongs to.
4. Tap the Bank files tab and scroll to Upload a bank file (CSV). Tap Choose File and pick the file you just saved.
5. Review the rows. The app shows a table: Date, Description, Amount, Type, and Category for every row it found. For each row, pick Money in or Money out and choose its category. The app guesses the type for you — a positive amount usually means money out — but the guess is only a starting point: check it and flip it if it is wrong.
6. Skip any line already entered by hand. If you typed an entry earlier and the same line arrives in the file, keep one and leave the other out — never save both. There is no per-row skip button in version 1, so if a file has a duplicate in it, save the file, then find the duplicate in the Money in & out list and tap Delete next to one of the pair.
7. Tap Save these rows. Only then do the rows become entries. The screen tells you how many rows were saved, and you can check them under Money in & out.

Example: you download October from PNC for Lilly's Janitorial. The preview shows 14 rows. One is the $86.40 Sam's Club run you already typed in by hand — you save the file, then delete one of the two $86.40 entries under Money in & out. The other 13 rows get their categories in the preview, and you tap Save these rows.

Go to Bank files → Next: Reports →

Where to find it: the Reports & year-end tab, and the Home tab. What these screens do: two reports do almost all the work. Everything else in the app exists so these two come out right.

• Profit and Loss — for a month, or the year so far: how much came in, how much went out, and what is left. That last number is the profit — or, if it is below zero, the loss. On the Reports tab it is the three boxes at the top: Money in, Money out, Left over.
• Totals by Category — where the money went, grouped: this much on fuel, this much on chemicals, this much on food. This is the report that shows what to cut. On the Home tab it is the table under "Totals by category", and on the Reports tab it is the table under the three boxes.

1. Check the business at the top (Topic 1). Reports are always for one business at a time — that is the point of keeping them separate.
2. Tap the Reports & year-end tab.
3. Pick the dates: type a From date and a To date. The boxes already show January 1 of this year to today — that is the year so far. For one month, type the first and last day of that month. Start and end on the first and last day of a full month when you compare months.
4. Tap Show report. The three boxes and the category table update for those dates.
5. Read the top number first. Left over is money in minus money out for those dates.
6. Then read the biggest category. In the Totals by Category table, the largest spending line is the first place to look if the profit number was smaller than you expected.
7. Switch businesses and repeat if you want the same report for another business.

Example: Lilly's Janitorial, October 2026: From 2026-10-01, To 2026-10-31, tap Show report. Money in $4,200.00, Money out $2,850.00, Left over $1,350.00. The category table shows Supplies $640.00 as the biggest spending line — that is the first place to look if $1,350.00 feels low.

Go to Reports & year-end → Next: Moving files →

Where to find it: the Import & export tab. What this screen does: it is the connection point for WorkTeams, Workforce, and Business HQ. In version 1, information moves between them as standard files — out of one app, into the other. The direct live hookup comes later, once exactly how each app sends its data can be seen. Nothing is plugged in live yet, on purpose.

A note on the labels: the sheets talk about picking which app a file came from. In version 1 there is no app picker — you just pick the file, and the app records it as coming from "WorkTeams / Workforce / Business HQ". That is enough for version 1, because the file itself is the same shape either way.

Bring a file in

1. In the other app (WorkTeams, Workforce, or Business HQ), export or download the information you want — for example, a list of invoices or job payments — as a CSV file.
2. In Ridgefront Accounting, check the business at the top (Topic 1). Imported information lands in the business showing, so this check matters most on this screen.
3. Tap the Import & export tab and scroll to Bring a file in. Tap Choose File and pick the file. It needs the same shape as a bank file: columns for date, description, category, and amount.
4. Review the lines before saving. The app shows what it is about to bring in, row by row, with a Type and Category box on each row. Change anything that does not belong in this business before you save — there is no per-row skip button in version 1, so if a row does not belong, save the file, then delete that row from the Money in & out list afterwards.
5. Tap Save these rows. The lines become normal entries, which you can open, categorise, or correct like anything you typed by hand. The import is recorded under What has come in and gone out at the bottom of the tab.

Send a file out

1. Check the business at the top, then tap the Import & export tab.
2. Under Send a file out, tap one of the three buttons: Download all money entries (CSV) for the money list, Download mileage log (CSV) for the trips, or Download inventory (CSV) for the items. The file downloads with the business name in front of it, so it cannot be confused with another business's file.
3. Save the file the app makes, then import it in the other app the way that app takes files in.

Example: WorkTeams has the month's job payments for Lilly's Janitorial. Export them as a CSV, check the top of Ridgefront Accounting says Lilly's Janitorial, bring the file in on the Import & export tab, check the rows, tap Save these rows. The payments are now Money in entries, and the import is listed under "What has come in and gone out".

Go to Import & export → Next: Year-end export →

Where to find it: the Reports & year-end tab, under the heading Year-end export for TurboTax. What this screen does: once a year, per business, it gathers that business's whole year — money in, money out by category, and total mileage — into files TurboTax can take. You run it four times, once for each business, because the businesses file separately in the books.

What you get per business: three downloads — a year-end CSV (the full list, one row per entry, so you can check it line by line), a year-end TXF file (for TurboTax Desktop import), and a year-end summary CSV (the totals). QuickBooks Online cannot send its numbers straight into TurboTax, and neither does this app — that gap is one of the reasons this app exists. If you use TurboTax Online, use the CSV and the summary; the TXF file is for TurboTax Desktop only. Before the first real TurboTax import, a tax preparer should check the TXF tax-line mapping.

1. Before you export, tidy the year: sort any unsorted bank lines (Topic 9), finish December's stock count (Topic 7), and make sure no trips are missing from the mileage log (Topic 8).
2. Check the business at the top (Topic 1), then tap the Reports & year-end tab and scroll to Year-end export for TurboTax.
3. Pick the tax year. The Year box already shows 2026. The app fills in January 1 to December 31 of that year.
4. Read the summary on screen before downloading anything. Under the three download buttons there is a line that reads like this: "Check this first — Lilly's Janitorial, 2026: money in $X, money out $X, left over $X. Mileage: X miles over X trips, worth $X." Each number should look like the year you remember.
5. If a number looks off, stop. Run the two reports from Topic 10 for the full year (From January 1, To December 31) and find the wrong entry first. Exporting again after a fix costs nothing — just download the files again.
6. Download the three files — Download year-end CSV, Download year-end TXF, and Download year-end summary (CSV). Each file name starts with the business name, so the four businesses' files can never be confused with each other.
7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for the other three businesses. You should end with four sets of files, one set per business.
8. In TurboTax, bring in each business's file for that business's part of the return, the way TurboTax prompts you to add business income and expenses. Keep the four sets together with the year's tax papers, so what TurboTax used can always be found again.

Example: Lilly's Janitorial, 2026. The on-screen summary says money in $48,000.00, money out $31,000.00, left over $17,000.00, mileage 3,200 miles over 140 trips, worth $2,432.00. Those numbers look like the year you remember, so you download the three files: "Lilly's Janitorial-2026-year-end.csv", the TXF, and the summary. Then you switch to That's A Wrap and More Catering and do it again.

Go to Reports & year-end → Next: Routine and fixes →

Where to find it: this is the routine for the whole app — no single tab. The whole system is this topic: a few minutes a week, one check a month, and the year-end step in January. Nothing piles up.

Once a week — about ten minutes

• Enter the week's receipts and payments (Topics 3 and 4), business by business. Check the business at the top every time you switch.
• Log any trips not yet in the mileage log (Topic 8).
• Upload the bank file and sort the new lines (Topic 9).
• Glance at the Invoices tab and follow up on the oldest invoice still showing draft (Topic 5).

Once a month

• Run Profit and Loss for the month, for each business (Topic 10).
• Run Totals by Category and look at the biggest spending line (Topic 10).
• Do one stock count per business that keeps stock (Topic 7).
• Check the low-stock flags on the Home page and reorder before anything runs out (Topic 6).

Once a year, in January

• Run the TurboTax export for all four businesses (Topic 12).

Fixes for the three common mix-ups

What this app does not do — on purpose

• No payroll: pay stays in Gusto.
• No moving money and no paying bills: the bank side only reads.
• No bank linking yet, and no Plaid hookup yet: banks link inside the finished app, later.
• No card billing yet: that comes when Wendy decides to sell the app.

If a job is on this list, it is not missing — it lives somewhere else, or it is a later step.

Back to the top: Pick the right business first ↑