GETTING STARTED & SETTINGS
Version 2024.02
After requesting the templates, you’ll receive an email with links to two Google Sheets templates.
One template includes sample data. The second template has no sample data. You may wish to use the sample data template to get an idea for how it works and see if Mere Bookkeeping is right for you before putting much time into it.
Click the link in the email for the desired template. Log into your Google account if prompted to. Then, click the blue “USE TEMPLATE” button at the top right of your screen. This will copy the template into your Google account. This copy will only be viewable by you and anyone you choose to share it with.
You'll start on the Welcome sheet which contains the most important information to get oriented and get setup. Follow the instructions there, and utilize this user guide for additional help, context, tips, tricks, screenshots and troubleshooting.
The workbook is arranged in multiple worksheets. All sheets can be found at the bottom of the page. The sheets are arranged with those you’ll generally use more often toward the left. Reports (the bulk of your sheets) are in the middle. Worksheets you may only need at the beginning of the year, end of the year, or never are further to the right.
Click the left and right arrows near the bottom right to scroll through the worksheets - not the side panel arrow in the far, far right. If you accidentally open the side panel, click that arrow again to collapse it.
The order of worksheets can be changed by clicking and dragging them left/right.
You can also click the “hamburger” icon to scroll through and select sheets via a list.
Each worksheet has a color to provide a quick visual indicator for what it is. Green worksheets are reports. Black worksheets you’ll use at the beginning of the year to input your settings, funds, chart of accounts, and budget. Purple worksheets you’ll use at the end of the year to produce donor tax statements.
Start by going to the Settings sheet. Enter your organization’s name and address. This is used to populate fields on your reports and donor statements.
Then, enter the date for the start of your fiscal year. Mere Bookkeeping is designed to track a single fiscal year within a workbook. Subsequent years will be tracked in a new Google Sheets workbook.
Most small non-profits follow a calendar year, so you’ll usually enter January 1st of the year you’ll be tracking within this workbook. This date will be utilized in many of your reports and your journal.
The Year-to-Date Budget Setting allows you to decide when and how your budget will increase throughout the year in your year-to-date (YTD) budget reports. You can choose to have your YTD budget increase on the first day of each month, on the last day of each month, or daily. This setting can be changed at anytime, so don't stress about it when getting started.
To populate the last setting, you'll need to go to your Journal worksheet. Copy the URL in your browser (Google creates a unique URL for each worksheet). Go back to the Settings sheet and paste the URL into this setting (replacing the placeholder URL). This will allow the link in the date column of your Journal to function. Clicking the "Date" header will take you to the last record in your Journal. This isn't critical, but just a convenience as your Journal gets longer as the year progresses.
Finally, you’ll want to rename your file using the "File" menu.
Note: if you don't see the Google Sheets menu bar, it might be hidden. Click the small arrow near the top right of your screen to show the hidden menu bar.
Then, click "File" and "Rename" and rename your workbook. The name of your organization, followed by the year you’ll be tracking is a good place to start.
