Can I use FireDeck instead of QuickBooks?

FireDeck keeps its own full set of books — every invoice, payment, credit memo, vendor bill and part posts itself, and the Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, A/R and A/P aging, sales tax and 1099 reports all run off it. QuickBooks is optional. If your accountant wants it, export the journal entries from the bottom of Reports rather than entering everything twice.

How do I know which subcontractors need a 1099?

Tick 1099 contractor on the vendor and enter the tax ID from their W-9. The 1099 Totals report then adds up what you paid each of them this year and flags anyone at or over $600 who needs a 1099-NEC filed by January 31, along with anyone whose W-9 is still missing.

Do I still have to add up my sales tax by hand at filing time?

No. The Sales Tax report totals taxable sales and tax collected by rate for a month, quarter or year, and splits each rate into the state portion and the county surtax above it. It counts invoices by issue date whether or not they have been paid, and exports to CSV.

Why does my inventory value not match my books?

Usually because parts were received but the vendor's bill has not been entered yet — receiving stock and recording the bill are separate steps. The banner on the Inventory page shows the difference; enter the bill with an Inventory Asset line and the two come back together.

Do I have to import my bank statements for the reports to be right?

No. The reports are built from the invoices, payments and bills you record. Bank import is a check on that work — matching a line only confirms a payment you already entered really cleared, and it is bank-only items like fees and interest that create a new entry.

Accounting & Reports

FireDeck keeps a real set of books behind your invoicing: every invoice, payment, credit memo, late fee, vendor bill, and part you pull off the truck records itself, so the reports stay current without double entry. The pages hang off Billing → Invoicing — Bills and Reports under the heading, with Vendors, Inventory, and Banking linked from the Bills page.

Vendors

A vendor is anyone you pay — distributors, subcontractors, the fuel card. Click Add vendor and fill in the name, contact details, and a Default expense category so new bills for them start on the right account; any line can still be changed as you enter it.

Turn on 1099 contractor for a subcontractor you'll file a 1099-NEC for, and enter their Tax ID (EIN/SSN) off their W-9. Marking a vendor inactive drops them from the picker on new bills but leaves their history alone.

Bills — what you owe

A bill is a vendor's invoice to you. Recording it books the expense straight away, whether or not you've paid it.

From Bills, click New bill.
Pick the Vendor, then enter their Vendor's invoice #, the Bill date (which month the expense lands in), the Due date (what the A/P aging report buckets on), and a Memo.
Add a line for each thing you're charged for and choose its category. Split a bill across categories by adding a line for each.
Use Inventory Asset for parts you're stocking rather than expensing — that's what keeps your inventory value matching the books.
Click Record bill.

Bills read Open, Partial, Paid, or Void, and the tabs filter to each. Record payment starts at the full balance due — enter less for a partial payment, pick how you paid, and set Paid on to the date the money actually left your account. A bill can only be voided while nothing has been paid against it.

Inventory and job cost

Inventory tracks what your stocked parts are worth and charges them to jobs as you use them. Click Receive to add a delivery — part number, quantity, unit cost. That cost is averaged in with what's already on the shelf, so a part pulled later is charged at the blended average rather than the newest price you paid. Click Use parts to pull stock for a job, optionally tagging the work order; that books the cost against the job and drops the on-hand quantity.

Receiving parts and entering the vendor's bill are separate steps, so a banner compares your on-hand value against the Inventory Asset account and flags a difference — normally parts received but not yet billed. Enter the bill with an Inventory line and they come back together, and each item's page lists every movement with the work order that consumed it. This is the books' view of stock — the truck and shelf counts your technicians work from are a separate page, under Field Service → Inventory.

Banking

Banking is where you check your books against what actually cleared the bank.

Click Add account and name it (e.g. Operating Checking) with its last 4 digits.
Open the account and click Import statement. It accepts CSV, OFX, and QFX files; duplicate lines are skipped.
Click Match on a line and FireDeck offers the payments it already has for that amount and date — click one to tie them together. Matching creates no new entry; it confirms a payment you recorded really cleared.
For bank-only lines with nothing behind them — fees, interest — use the book-it-as-income or expense section and pick an account. That one does create the entry.
With everything matched, enter the Statement date and Statement ending balance ($). Finish reconciliation unlocks only when the difference reads zero, and reconciled lines then lock.

The reports

Open Reports for Reports & Books. Every report prints; A/R Aging and Sales Tax also export to CSV.

Profit & Loss — what you earned and spent over a period, and whether you made money. Accrual counts income when you send an invoice, Cash when the money arrives.
Balance Sheet — what you own, what you owe, and what's left over as of a date. It tells you when the two sides balance.
Cash Flow — cash in and out over a period, from opening balance to closing balance.
A/R Aging — who owes you, split by how late they are: Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, and 90+ days past due. It's your collections list, and where you email statements and assess late fees.
A/P Aging — the same thing pointed the other way: what you owe vendors, by how overdue it is.
Trial Balance — every account's balance, debits against credits. Its banner confirms the ledger's receivables and payables match the aging reports to the cent, and offers Rebuild ledger when they don't.
Sales Tax — taxable sales and tax collected by rate for a month, quarter, or year, ready to file from. It splits each rate into the state portion and the county surtax above it, using the base rate under Settings (Florida is 6%). Invoices count by issue date, paid or not, and the report defaults to last month.
1099 Totals — what you paid each 1099-flagged vendor this year, flagging anyone at or over $600 who needs a 1099-NEC filed by January 31, and anyone whose W-9 is missing.
Inventory Valuation — what's on the shelf right now at average cost, reconciled against the books.

QuickBooks export and closing the books

The QuickBooks export panel at the bottom of Reports downloads every journal entry in a date range as QuickBooks Online (CSV) or QuickBooks Desktop (IIF), so QuickBooks stays current without double entry. Account names have to match your QuickBooks chart of accounts.

Once a month is reconciled and filed, Close the books through a date you pick: reports on or before it stop moving, and anything posted into the closed period books on the first open date instead.