Settings & Preferences

The Settings screen provides access to company management, edition management, fiscal period management, audit log configuration, data management, and administrative functions. This guide explains each section and when to use it.

Who is this for?

All Addsworth Accounting users who need to manage backups, imports, legal documents, or database operations.

Navigating to Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar on your Mac or iPad. On iPhone, Settings is the fifth tab.

Sections

Company

Switch the active company or create the sample company. Use Change Active Company to switch to a different company already in your database. Use Create Sample Company to generate a pre-configured sample company (Ambrenta Machining Ltd.) with a Chart of Accounts, posted journals, and a GST/HST report marked as filed, with its clearing journal — useful for exploring the application without affecting real data. Only one sample company is permitted at a time, in any state: if the sample sits in the archive, the button reads Restore Sample Company… and offers Restore Archived Sample or Start Fresh. For full company setup and management, see Company Management.

Create the sample company on your Mac.

Edition

Shows your current access. On the Mac, select Editions: Addsworth Core is a one-time purchase, owned permanently, and it opens company creation. On iPhone and iPad, select Subscription instead: the Companion's monthly tier, its renewal date, Apple's manage-subscriptions sheet, and Restore. On either platform, Restore Purchases reinstates anything previously bought with your Apple ID — there is nothing to re-buy.

Counterparties

Navigate to the Customers or Vendors list for AR/AP tracking at the GL level. Select Customers to manage customer records, or Vendors to manage vendor records. Requires an active company.

Fiscal Periods

Manage fiscal periods and run the year-end close on your Mac.

Manage fiscal years and posting periods for the active company. Use Manage Fiscal Periods to open, close, or lock periods (macOS only). Use Year-End Close to generate year-end closing entries once all periods in the fiscal year are locked. For a full walkthrough, see Fiscal Periods.

Data Management

Back up, restore and reset the database on your Mac.

Options for backing up and importing data:

• Backup Database: create a full ZIP archive of your data. See Backup & Data Management for details.
• Import / Export Data: import Chart of Accounts or Opening Balances from CSV or JSON, export the chart as JSON, or import and export Customers and Vendors. See Importing Data: Chart of Accounts & Opening Balances.

Audit Log

Configure how long fiscal period status change logs are retained for CRA T2 compliance. Open Audit Log Settings to set the retention policy (permanent or a fixed number of years), export all audit log entries, or remove entries that fall outside the current retention window. This section is available on macOS only. For details, see Audit Log.

Legal

Open the Licence Agreement (also in French), the Privacy Policy and the open-source licences.

Help

Open Help Centre for these guides.

Danger Zone

Operations that modify or destroy data. These are highlighted in red as a visual warning:

• Restore from Backup: replace all current data with an archived backup. A backup holds real books, so restoring requires the Addsworth Core purchase; the button stays disabled until it is owned. See Backup & Data Management.
• Reset Database: permanently delete all local data and the iCloud copy of the books. It needs a network connection when iCloud is in use. The app returns to its initial state and asks for the terms again.

Warning: Always create a backup before using any Danger Zone option. These operations cannot be undone.

iCloud Sync

Addsworth Accounting uses iCloud to synchronize data across all your Apple devices. Sync is automatic and requires no configuration. If you sign into the same iCloud account on multiple devices, your companies, journals, and reports will appear on all of them.

The iCloud Sync section shows the sync Status, the iCloud account and when the last sync finished. If the status is Not syncing, the line under it says why. On a Mac that last synced with a different iCloud account, choose Keep Working Without iCloud to keep this Mac's books without sync. Or choose Switch to This Account… to replace this Mac's books with the books of the account that is signed in. Before you switch, use Backup Database to keep a copy.

For more on the relationship between iCloud sync and local backups, see Backup & Data Management.

What's Next

• Backup & Data Management: Full guide to backups, restore, and database reset.
• Importing Data: Chart of Accounts & Opening Balances: Prepare and import CSV or JSON files.
• Getting Started with Addsworth Accounting: Return to the overview for the full accounting workflow.