Your confusion ends here, @drewbooks.
Allow me to fill you in on everything about how the cash or accrual accounting methods work.
The accrual method reports your business income and expenses for completed and pending transactions. With this method, you can see customer transactions that haven't paid or bills you haven't paid yet. While the cash method reports only the completed transactions. Thus, you can only see transactions after it gets paid.
Most importantly, I recommend seeking help from your accountant on which accounting method to take based on your recording practice and business needs.
I'm adding this article to know more about the accounting terms: Learn common accounting terms.
Please let me know if you need clarification about this, or there's anything else I can do for you. I'll be standing by for your response.
