Tax-ready books
Solid Accounting can lay your books out the way the business return reads, so you or your preparer start the return from finished numbers instead of retyping a trial balance. Three screens do the work:
- Settings → Tax profile — how the business files.
- Reports → Tax Line Mapping — which return line each account goes on.
- Reports → Tax Trial Balance — the books by return line, with tax-only adjustments, schedules and an export.
None of this changes your books. Mapping and tax-only adjustments are workpapers for the return.
1. Set the tax profile
Open Settings → Tax profile (an Admin can change it):
- Entity type for tax — how the business is taxed, not its legal form: Schedule C (sole proprietor), Form 1065 (partnership), Form 1120-S (S corporation) or Form 1120 (C corporation). An LLC picks the classification it files under.
- S election effective date, for an S corporation.
- EIN. It's stored encrypted and shown masked; Show reveals it.
- Tax year ends in — leave it to follow your fiscal year, or pick the month. Tax reports and the TXF export cover this tax year.
The Tax Line Mapping and Tax Trial Balance screens need the entity type before they show anything.
2. Map accounts to return lines
Open Reports → Tax Line Mapping. Each account has a Tax line picker with the lines of your return.
- Click Apply suggested lines. Solid Accounting fills in a line for each account from its type and name, marked Suggested.
- Check the suggestions and change any that are wrong. A line you choose is marked Chosen and is kept if you apply the suggestions again.
- For an account that doesn't belong on the return, choose Not reported on this return.
Use the search box and filters to find unmapped accounts. A mapping applies from the tax year you set it and later years. Claude and ChatGPT can also map an account, after you confirm it; the change is recorded in the Audit Trail.
3. Run the Tax Trial Balance
Open Reports → Tax Trial Balance and pick the Tax year. The Trial balance tab shows each account with its return line and these columns: Unadjusted, Adjusting entries, Book, Tax-only adj. and Tax.
The other tabs:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| By line | Each line of the return with its amount and the accounts behind it |
| Depreciation and sales | Section 179 (Form 4562 Part I) and a Form 4797 worksheet for business property you sold |
| Adjustments | Tax-only adjustments, such as the part of meals that isn't deductible, penalties, and depreciation differences |
| Schedule L | The balance sheet as the return reports it |
| Schedule M-1 | Book income reconciled to taxable income |
| Schedule M-2 | The equity roll-forward (AAA for an S corporation, partners' capital for a partnership) |
| Equity roles | Which equity accounts are distributions, contributions, retained earnings and so on, for Schedules L and M-2 |
A tax-only adjustment never posts to the ledger. Book adjusting entries — the ones you or your accountant post as journal entries — appear in their own column.
Depreciation for the return
Section 179 and bonus depreciation are set on each asset in Lists → Fixed Assets: give the asset a Federal tax method, enter the Section 179 expense you elect, and tick Elect out under Bonus depreciation if you're not taking it. The Tax Trial Balance picks these up. See Fixed Assets.
Export for your tax software
On the Tax Trial Balance, pick a format from the list next to Export and click Export. Each format saves the return lines with their amounts and the accounts behind them, as CSV or Excel. A format marked (not yet tested) hasn't been checked against that product yet; the generic export can be brought into any of them by hand.
The Year-End Package and the Accountant's Workbook include the tax figures too.
What it needs
- Included in every paid plan: Standard, Professional and Accountant.
- Your accountant still signs off on the return. Solid Accounting prepares the numbers; it doesn't file returns.
Related: Reports · Fixed Assets · Accountant's Copy · TXF format