Playground is your billing subledger; it tracks every charge, credit, and payment for your students. Your accountant still needs that data in QuickBooks (or whatever accounting software you use) to close the books. This article walks through the accounting codes you can set up in Playground, the five core billing reports available under the Reports tab, and which ones to hand your accountant depending on what they need.
Which Report Do I Need?
Before exporting anything, it's worth figuring out which report actually answers your accountant's question. Here's a quick reference:
"How much did we bill, collect & still owe this period?" | Revenue Summary |
"Who owes money — and how late is it?" | A/R Aging |
"What journal entries do I need for my accounting close?" | Grouped Ledger |
"What made up this bank deposit, and which charges did it cover?" | Payouts & Payouts (Debits) |
"What revenue can I expect from enrollment ahead?" | Forecast Enrollment |
🚨 If the numbers don't match QuickBooks, the very first thing to check is the Date Filter on the report. See the Choose the Right Date Filter section below — this is the most common cause of mismatches.
The 5 Reports to Show Your Accountant
We recommend sharing these five reports with your accountant. Depending on how your books are set up, they may only need one or two of them, or all five. Here's what each one covers:
Revenue Summary
The big-picture report: total revenue billed, collected, and still outstanding for a period. Best for reconciling Playground back to QuickBooks, or answering "how much did we bill/collect this month?"
A/R Aging
Who owes money and how late they are, broken out per student into aging buckets (Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 90+ days). Best for explaining why a Balance Forward is high, or answering "who owes us, and how late are they?"
Grouped Ledger
Accounting-style debit/credit journal entries, built for a formal close. Best for accountants creating summary journal entries, especially schools using NetSuite.
Payouts & Payouts (Debits)
Payouts shows what's in a specific bank deposit; Payouts (Debits) shows which charges those payments covered. Best for reconciling a deposit in your bank account against the charges that made it up.
Forecast Enrollment
Projected headcount and expected tuition for months ahead, based on scheduled enrollments (not money already billed). Best for budgeting, cash-flow planning by classroom, or spotting seats to fill before a revenue dip.
💡 Not sure where to start? Revenue Summary is the simplest starting point for most accountants; think of it as "accounting simplified." If your accountant specifically needs formal journal entries for a close, that's when Grouped Ledger comes in.
Export a Report
All five reports live in the same place. To export any of them:
Navigate to the Reports tab.
Click the Billing dropdown.
Click the Report type dropdown and select the report you need: Revenue Summary, A/R Aging, Grouped Ledger, Payouts, Payouts (Debits), or Forecast Enrollment.
You can also search for these reports in the search bar.
Set your Start date and End date. (A/R Aging uses a single "as of" date instead of a range.)
If the report includes one, choose your Date Filter: Service Start, Service End, Start of Period, or End of Period. See the next section for how to pick the right one.
Click Generate Report in blue.
Choose the Right Date Filter
The date filter is the single most confusing part of these reports — and the first thing to check if your numbers don't reconcile with QuickBooks. It doesn't change any of the math, it changes which billing items are included in the report.
Service Start / Service End | Anchored to when the service actually happens. Generally used for accrual-basis accounting. |
Start of Period / End of Period | Anchored to the billing period, not the service dates. Generally used for cash-basis accounting. |
Rule of thumb: if your books are accrual-basis, use Service Start. If they're cash-basis, use Start of Period. If you're not sure which your accountant uses, ask them — or default to Start of Period, which shows the more complete picture.
Add Accounting & GL Codes
Accounting codes and GL (General Ledger) codes let you tag billing items so they map cleanly to categories in your accounting software. An accounting code classifies a financial activity (like "Tuition" or "Registration Fee"); a GL code is the unique identifier your accounting system uses to track and categorize that transaction. Adding these makes the reports above far more useful to your accountant, since charges arrive already grouped by category.
Set Up Your GL Codes
Navigate to your Settings menu on the bottom-left of the side navigation panel.
Click the Billing tab.
Scroll down to the Accounting codes section.
Click + Add accounting code.
On the Add accounting code window, add a Name and a Value, then click Save.
Scroll to the top of the page and click the blue Save button to confirm your updates.
Apply Accounting Codes to Charges
Once you've set up your codes, apply them to charges so they flow into reports correctly.
Adding an accounting code to a new charge
Adding an accounting code to a new charge
Navigate to the Billing tab and click Overview.
On the Overview tab, click into Saved items. Saved items are the templates for your charges — they're what house your accounting code.
Click Create new item in blue.
Add a Name, Price, and Description for the charge.
Add the code in the Accounting code field.
Click Save in blue.
Adding an accounting code to an existing charge
Adding an accounting code to an existing charge
Navigate to the Billing tab and click Overview, then Saved items.
Locate the charge you want to update and click the pencil icon next to it.
Add the code in the Accounting code field.
Click Save in blue.
What if my charge doesn't have a matching saved item?
What if my charge doesn't have a matching saved item?
You can add an accounting code directly to the charge instead:
Locate the charge and click the pencil icon (or the three dots, depending on the page).
On the Edit transaction window, find the Accounting code field and enter the proper code.
Click Save.
🚨 We recommend creating a saved item for all charges going forward instead — it ensures every future instance of that charge automatically carries the right accounting code.