Accounting — User Guide

Recommended roles:

• Finance Admin
• Owns chart of accounts structure, opening balances, period close rules, and finance configuration.
• Accountant
• Posts/reviews journal entries, verifies receivables/payables, runs monthly close.
• A/R Clerk / Collections
• Tracks customer invoices, payments, and aging follow-up.
• A/P Clerk
• Tracks vendor bills, due dates, and payment status.
• Approver (Finance Lead)
• Approves adjustments and high-impact entries (recommended).
• Read-only / Auditor
• View access for reporting and audits.

Best practice:

• Separate duties: the person creating adjustments should not be the only person approving them.

### 1) Company and fiscal basics

• Confirm company legal name, address, and invoice identity fields.
• Confirm base currency and (if used) allowed currencies.
• Decide reporting periods (monthly close cadence and cutoffs).

### 2) Chart of Accounts (COA)

• Create a structured COA:
• Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Expenses
• Use consistent naming conventions:
• Prefixes or numbering
• Clear group structure (parent/child)

### 3) Opening balances (go-live requirement)
Before running real transactions:

• Enter opening balances for:
• Bank/cash accounts
• Receivables (if migrating open invoices)
• Payables (if migrating open vendor bills)
• Any required asset/liability balances
• Validate: trial balance totals align with expected starting point.

### 4) Customers and vendors alignment

• Ensure customer records used by invoicing are complete.
• Ensure vendor records used by purchasing/bills are complete.
• Decide responsibility for master data cleanup and duplicates.

### 5) Journal entry governance

• Decide who can create manual journals.
• Decide review/approval steps for:
• adjustments
• reversals
• period-close entries
• Define required documentation:
• reason
• attachments/evidence

### 6) Bank & cash routines

• Create bank/cash accounts used by your business.
• Define reconciliation cadence (weekly/monthly).
• Define evidence requirements for recorded payments.

### Workflow 1: Accounts Receivable (Invoice → Payment → Aging)

1. Issue customer invoices via Sales & Invoicing.
2. Monitor open invoices and due dates.
3. Record payment when received (with evidence if required).
4. Review outstanding balance and aging.
5. Follow up on overdue balances using aging reporting.

Collections best practice:

• Review aging weekly and assign follow-up owners.

### Workflow 2: Accounts Payable (Bill → Approval → Payment)

1. Record vendor bills (from Procurement or manually, depending on your rollout).
2. Validate bill accuracy (amount, tax, due date, vendor).
3. Approve bill for payment (if policy requires).
4. Record payment and attach payment evidence.
5. Review payables aging and upcoming obligations.

### Workflow 3: Journal entries (Adjustments & corrections)
Use journal entries for:

• period-end adjustments
• corrections not covered by operational workflows
• accruals and reclassifications (based on your accounting policy)

Steps:

1. Create a journal entry with multi-line debit/credit lines.
2. Add a clear description and supporting evidence.
3. Review and approve (recommended).
4. Post the entry.
5. Verify impact in trial balance / ledger.

### Workflow 4: Bank & cash reconciliation routine

1. Export or review the bank statement for the period.
2. Compare statement movements to recorded transactions.
3. Identify:

• missing entries
• duplicates
• timing differences

1. Post required corrections (often via journals or payments).
2. Confirm reconciled balances.

### Workflow 5: Monthly close

1. Confirm all invoices/bills for the period are recorded.
2. Reconcile bank and cash accounts.
3. Post required adjusting journals (with approvals).
4. Review trial balance and general ledger for anomalies.
5. Publish reports (P&L, balance sheet, and any required internal statements).

Close discipline:

• Keep a close checklist and follow it every month.

Common finance reports:

• Balance Sheet
• Profit & Loss
• Trial Balance
• General Ledger
• Transaction reports
• Accounts Receivable Aging
• Accounts Payable Aging

Operational cadence:

• Weekly: receivables aging + cash position
• Monthly: P&L, balance sheet, reconciliation evidence

### Trial balance doesn’t “look right”

• Confirm opening balances are correct.
• Check for missing journals or duplicate postings.
• Review unusual balances (negative assets, large suspense balances).

### A/R aging doesn’t match reality

• Confirm payments are applied to the correct invoices.
• Check for partial payments and remaining balances.
• Confirm invoice dates/due dates are correct.

### A/P shows bills still unpaid after payment

• Confirm payment was recorded against the correct bill/vendor.
• Verify payment evidence and date.
• Check if approval steps are required before it is considered paid.

### Reports show unexpected results after adjustments

• Review the journal entry lines and account mapping.
• Verify approvals and evidence were added.
• Re-run reports for the correct period/date range.

---