Golf Course Accounting
A Sales Report Is Not a Set of Books
Most golf course software tells you what you sold and leaves the accounting to whoever comes next. TeeWire keeps a real double entry general ledger underneath the register, so the day's journal entries are already written and already in balance.
Why Golf Courses End Up Re-Keying Their Own Sales
A golf course runs green fees, carts, a pro shop, a grill, a beverage cart, memberships, gift cards and events. Each one is a different kind of money. Software that only produces a sales report hands your bookkeeper a number and leaves them to decide which account it belongs in, every month, forever. That is where the re-keying comes from, and it is why a course can close a strong December and still not know how much of it was actually revenue.
The alternative is not a better report. It is putting the ledger underneath the register, so the journal entry exists at the moment the sale does.
The General Ledger, Underneath the Register
A real double entry ledger
Ring a sale and the journal entry is already written: one account debited, another credited, for the same amount. An entry whose two halves do not agree is refused rather than saved crooked.
A golf chart of accounts, already drawn up
Cash, receivables, tax payable, tips, gift card liability, green fee, cart, lesson and event revenue, discounts, cash over and short, inventory and cost of goods, with the rules that decide where each kind of ring-up lands.
Corrections, never erasures
Voids, refunds including partial refunds, and reopened shifts write offsetting entries. The history is corrected in place, so last month does not quietly change after you have reported on it.
Never a silent default
Anything you have not mapped yet prints as exactly what it is, revenue:green_fee or tender:cash, instead of being filed somewhere plausible and wrong.
The Reports an Accountant Actually Asks For
On screen, in the same system that rang the sales.
Trial balance
Every account with its debits and credits for the period you pick.
Profit and loss
Revenue by account against the expenses the register actually posts, with merchandise and food and beverage carrying their own margin lines.
Balance sheet position
What the register is holding, drawer cash and inventory, against what it owes: tax collected, gift card balances and tips owed, as of any date.
Revenue by GL account
Where the money landed, ranked, rather than a sales report you then have to re-code.
A/R aging
Every member charge account bucketed under 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and past 90, as of any date you pick, and exportable.
Sales tax
What you collected by day and by each tax class you charge, plus a list of the sales that came out with no tax on them.
Getting It To Your Accountant
Two ways, and you pick. Connect it, or hand over a file.
Push the ledger straight in
Your journal entries go into your QuickBooks Online company as journal entries, the same thing a bookkeeper would type in. Sign in once to connect, then push a date range when you want it or put it on a schedule.
Or hand your bookkeeper a file
Pick any date range and generate a QuickBooks import file or a plain CSV, with every batch you have generated kept in a list.
Post to the accounts you already use
Bring your existing QuickBooks account list in and match your POS activity to the accounts your accountant already knows.
Journal entries only
It writes journal entries and nothing else. No invoices, no customers and no vendors get created in your books behind your back.
Golf Course Accounting Questions
Does golf course management software include accounting? +
Most does not. Most golf course software produces sales reports and leaves the accounting to whatever your bookkeeper does afterward, which is why so many courses re-key a day of sales into an accounting package by hand. TeeWire keeps a real double entry general ledger underneath the register, so the journal entry for a sale is written at the moment of the sale, on the same database as the tee sheet and the point of sale.
What is a general ledger in golf course accounting software? +
A general ledger is the record every accounting system is built on: each transaction is written twice, once as a debit and once as a credit, and the two halves must agree. A sales report tells you what you sold. A general ledger tells you what happened to the money, which account it landed in, and what you owe as a result. TeeWire ships a golf specific chart of accounts covering green fee, cart, lesson and event revenue, tips, gift card liability, tax payable, inventory, cost of goods and cash over and short.
Does TeeWire sync with QuickBooks? +
Yes, two ways. TeeWire can push its general ledger straight into your QuickBooks Online company as journal entries: you sign in once to connect, then send a date range on demand or put it on a schedule. If you would rather not connect anything, generate a QuickBooks import file or a CSV for any date range and hand it to your accountant. You can also bring your existing QuickBooks account list in so you are posting to the accounts you already use.
Can I see a profit and loss for the pro shop and the grill separately? +
Yes. Merchandise and food and beverage carry their own margin lines, so the shop and the grill stop being one lump. Be clear on what that profit and loss is: it is your point of sale margin, not your whole course. Payroll, rent and insurance never touch the register, so they are not in it, and green fees and cart rentals are not in the department margin.
How does TeeWire handle gift card liability? +
Selling a gift card books money you owe your customer, not revenue. It becomes revenue when the card is actually spent. That is the correct accounting treatment and it is the difference between a course that thinks it had a good December and a course that knows how much of December it still owes.
Can I track what members owe me and how long they have owed it? +
Yes. Every member charge account is bucketed under 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and past 90, as of any date you pick, and the report exports. Credit limits are enforced at the register rather than suggested, and going past one takes a manager approval that is stamped on the ledger row.
Do I still need an accountant? +
Yes, and that is the point. TeeWire is not trying to replace your accountant. It is trying to stop your accountant billing you to re-key a month of golf sales, and to make sure the numbers they receive were written by the register rather than reconstructed from it afterward.