How to use the books

Signing in

Everyone has their own login. Never share one.

Go to books.cnsusvi.com and enter your username and password. The Two-factor code box is only needed if you've turned on two-step sign-in — leave it blank otherwise. Having all three boxes on one screen means a password manager can fill them in one go.

Turning on two-step sign-in

Click Security in the top bar, then follow the steps to scan the QR code with an authenticator app. After that you'll enter a 6-digit code each time you sign in. Strongly recommended for anyone who can see money.

Light or dark

The dropdown in the top bar switches between Light, Dark and System. Your choice is remembered on that device. Printed pages are always light, whatever you pick.

The dashboard

Where you land, and the fastest read on the month.

• USVI GRT — receipts this month, your monthly exemption, and estimated tax due.
• Collected / Spent / Net — cash in and out this month.
• Outstanding A/R — everything customers still owe you.
• Open invoices — filter by due date or invoice date, and by any date range.

Figures are cash-basis: income counts when a payment is recorded, not when an invoice is raised.

Phone & tablet

The books install like an app, and work the same on a phone.

1. Open books.cnsusvi.com in Chrome (Android) or Safari (iPhone).
2. Android: menu ⋮ → Install app. iPhone: Share → Add to Home Screen.
3. Open it from your home screen — full screen, no browser bars.

Tabs scroll sideways, wide tables scroll rather than squash, and the camera is available for photographing checks and receipts.

Customers

One record per customer. Getting these right is what makes everything else work.

Contact details

Permission to text

Tick OK to text invoices and payment links only when the customer has signed the consent box on the intake form or agreed to the verbal script. The date and time are recorded automatically — that record is what proves consent if it's ever questioned.

Statements

Send statement… shares a running summary of everything outstanding. Copy statement link gives you a link you can paste into a message yourself.

Invoices

Create, find, and act on invoices in bulk.

Creating one

1. New invoice, choose the customer, set the dates.
2. Type a line item — the price list autocompletes and fills in the rate.
3. Add more lines, add a note if useful, then save as a draft or mark it sent.

Drafts are invisible to the customer. An invoice becomes visible when it's marked sent.

Finding things

Search by invoice number or customer name; filter by status and by date range. The summary line above the list always reflects what's currently filtered — count, total billed, and total outstanding.

Doing several at once

Tick the checkboxes on the left. An action bar appears showing how many you've selected and what they're worth.

• Record payment — see below.
• Delete selected — owner and manager only. You'll be warned if any have payments attached, because deleting removes those payments too and changes your reports.

Sending invoices

Email, text, or both — in one step.

Open an invoice and click Send invoice…. Tick Email, Text message, or both, then Send. Each one reports back separately, so you know exactly what got through.

If a channel is greyed out, the reason is written underneath it — no email address, no mobile number, no consent yet, or the customer has opted out. Fix it on the customer record and try again.

Both channels include a secure payment link. The customer doesn't need a login — the link is unique to that invoice.

Recording payments

Card payments record themselves. Everything else you enter.

One invoice

Open the invoice, click Record payment, enter the date, amount and method. For checks, put the check number in the note. Partial payments are fine — the balance updates and the customer sees the payment history on their link.

One check covering several invoices

Tick the invoices in the list, then Record payment in the action bar. Two choices:

• Pay each in full — clears every selected invoice.
• Apply one total amount — enter what you received and it pays off the oldest invoice first, part-paying wherever the money runs out. Anything left over is reported back to you.

Payments that arrive on their own

When a customer pays through their link, the payment records itself within a couple of minutes and the invoice updates. Check online payments on an invoice forces an immediate look if you're standing there waiting.

You'll also get an email when a payment lands, and a daily list of overdue invoices — both configurable in Settings.

Card on file

Charge a customer's saved card without them doing anything.

Saving a card

Tick Offer to save the customer's card when creating the invoice. On the payment page the customer sees an optional checkbox explaining what it means. If they tick it and pay, their card is saved.

The card number is never stored here — the processor keeps it and gives us a meaningless token. You'll see card ••••1234 on the customer record; that's all we hold.

Charging it

Open any unpaid invoice for that customer and click Charge card on file. A window shows each step as it happens and ends with either an approval or the exact reason it declined. If it declines, nothing is taken and the invoice is untouched.

Removing a card

On the customer record, card × deletes the saved card immediately. Do this the moment a customer asks.

Recurring billing

Monthly and yearly contracts that invoice themselves.

A plan holds the customer, the line items, the day of the month, and whether it repeats monthly or yearly. On its day, it creates the invoice automatically.

Dates in descriptions

Put these in a line description and they fill themselves in each cycle:

Two switches worth understanding

• Auto-send — emails the invoice as soon as it's created. Off means it waits as a draft for you to review.
• Auto-charge card on file — charges the saved card automatically. Needs a saved card and the customer opted in.

Estimates & quotes

Two ways to quote: quick, or fully costed.

New estimate works like an invoice. Send the customer their link and they can accept or decline online; accepted estimates convert to an invoice in one click.

New opportunity

A guided six-step version for bigger proposals: client, timeline, scope, line items, notes, then a review screen showing monthly and one-time totals, your cost, and the profit margin before you send it. A percentage box adjusts every price at once and never sells below cost.

Margins only appear for services that have a cost recorded — see the price list below.

Other income

Money received that didn't come from an invoice.

The Income tab is for cash sales, counter card sales, and anything else received outside the invoicing flow. Invoice payments are not listed here — they live on the invoice — but both count toward your P&L and GRT.

New income records the date, amount, who it came from, category, method and a reference. Import from bank pulls deposits straight from a statement file.

Expenses

What the business spent, and the proof.

Entering one

New expense — date, vendor, category, amount and payment method. Choose Check as the method and a Check # box appears; the number then shows beside the vendor and in every export.

Attaching the proof

Any expense takes photos or PDFs — up to 10 MB each, several at a time. On a phone, Take photo of check opens the camera directly.

A 📎 badge appears next to expenses that have attachments. Click it to open the viewer: zoom, rotate, print, download, and step through several images. Owner and manager only, because check images show bank account numbers.

Categories

Choose + New category… in any category dropdown to create one. The system also learns: enter a vendor once with a category and it suggests the same next time.

Bank & card imports

A month of entries in a couple of minutes.

1. Download the CSV from your bank or card account.
2. Choose the matching import button — bank expenses, credit card, or income.
3. Review the list. Everything is shown with a suggested category; untick anything you don't want.
4. Import.

What it does for you: suggests categories from vendor names it has seen before, flags likely duplicates, detects check numbers automatically and marks those as checks, and unticks transfers and card payoffs. Credit card files from AMEX and Capital One are detected automatically, and refunds and payoffs are left out.

Price list

Your services and parts, with what they cost you.

The Services tab holds the name, description, your rate (what you charge) and your cost (what you pay). Typing on an invoice line autocompletes from here and fills the rate in.

Filling in costs is what unlocks profit and margin figures on the opportunity builder. Items with no cost simply show no margin rather than a wrong one. Fill them in as you go.

Reports

Everything the accountant asks for.

Every report prints and downloads as CSV. Staff logins can't see reports.

Users & roles

Everyone gets their own login, with only the access they need.

In Settings → Users an owner can add someone, change a role or password, reset two-step sign-in, and remove people.

Removing versus deactivating

• Remove — for someone who has left. They're signed out immediately. Invoices they created still show their name.
• Edit → untick Active — keeps the account but blocks sign-in. Right for someone on leave.

Settings

Owner only. Most of it is set once and left alone.

When something looks wrong

Everything is backed up nightly and kept off-site, so nothing is ever lost for good.