General Ledger

The ledger as the system of record: the Ledger & Finance console, chart of accounts, journals, currency and intercompany, open items, revaluation and periods.

The Ledger and Chart of Accounts

The general ledger holds the double-entry record of what each company has done, and it is the system of record: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, Integra and your bank are sources and mirrors, not the destination. The chart of accounts is its foundation, and a finance team can now build and maintain it on the Chart of accounts tab of Ledger & Finance without an architect.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Chart of accounts tab: import, add, edit and classify accounts

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects
Chart of Accounts — the accounts as a datastore, for inspection
Posting Rules — which accounts each document type posts to

Starting a chart

Open Ledger & Finance, choose the company at the top and open the Chart of accounts tab. A company with no accounts shows This company has no chart of accounts.
Press Import a template… and choose UK small and medium business: a four-digit chart for a VAT-registered company filing FRS 102 accounts, with the UK VAT codes S20, R5, Z0, EX, OS and RC20 and the account roles the year-end close, VAT return and revaluation need.
Leave Add the template's VAT codes ticked unless you already have tax codes. Tick Fill in empty classification to complete accounts that already exist. The dialog checks the template before you press Import; existing account codes are never renamed or re-sided.
Or press Import a CSV file… to bring a chart from your old package. The first row names the columns: at least code, name and type, optionally side, control, parent, section, cashflow, role, tax and postable. Press Check the file; every row is checked before anything is written. Template CSV downloads an example.

Adding and editing accounts

New account… adds one account. Its settings:

Code, Name and Type (asset, liability, equity, income or expense).
Normal balance: debit or credit, or the type's usual side.
Control account for: Sales ledger control (AR), Purchase ledger control (AP), Bank control or Tax control. Fixed once the account has journal lines.
Sits under: a heading account, for sub-totals.
Statement heading and Cash-flow category: where it appears in the statements. Blank means the default for its type.
Account role: what the ledger uses it for, such as Retained earnings (year-end close) or VAT liability.
Default tax code: what a new line on this account starts with.

Editing an existing account changes its name and classification, never its code, type or side: journal lines carry the account, and re-typing one with history would restate every statement it is on.

Checks on the tab

Configuration check lists every account code named by posting rules, tax codes and intercompany rules that is not a postable account on this chart. Documents posting through those rules are refused until it is fixed.
Reference lists the ledger acts on shows each account role and which account carries it; a role with none is flagged. Without Retained earnings the year cannot be closed; without Unrealised exchange gains and losses a revaluation cannot be posted.
Statement headings… renames the headings the statements print, for every company.

Rules the ledger enforces

Posted journals are never edited or deleted. A correction is a reversal and a new posting.
Nothing posts twice. Every journal carries a key derived from what caused it, so a retried task or redelivered webhook cannot post the same transaction again.
Post only from a console or a document. A row typed on the Journals datastore bypasses the balance and period checks.

Worked example

A new UK company imports the template, which gives it 1000 Bank current account and 1010 Bank deposit account with Bank control, 1100 Trade debtors with AR control, and the VAT codes. It also banks in euros, so the controller adds 1030 Bank euro account with New account…, sets Control account for to Bank control and Statement heading to Current assets, then checks the configuration check reports no problems before the first invoice is posted.

Recommendations

Start from the template and add to it, rather than building from nothing.
Agree the chart with whoever prepares your accounts before the first posting.
Clear the configuration check before go-live and after every change to posting rules.
Give every role an account. A missing role surfaces at year end or VAT time, the worst moment to find it.

Journals, Currency and Intercompany

Most journals post themselves from documents, receipts and bank lines. The Journals tab of Ledger & Finance is for the rest: accruals, reclassifications, opening balances and intercompany recharges. Every line stores three amounts, worked out once when it posts, so a closed period gives the same figures next year as on the day it closed.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Journals tab (post, find, reverse) and the Set-up tab (exchange rates and intercompany rules)

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects
Journals — posted journals as a datastore, for investigation only
Exchange Rates — the rates as a datastore
Intercompany Rules — the intercompany rules as a datastore

Posting a journal

Choose the company at the top, open Journals and press New journal.
Set the Date. The line under the form says which period it posts into, or warns that no open period covers the date.
Choose the Book (the company's own by default), the Type (GJ General journal, AJ Accrual or adjustment, OB Opening balances, RC Reclassification) and the Currency.
For an accrual or prepayment, set Reverses on: the reversal is posted with it.
Enter a Narrative. It is how the journal is found again.
Add lines: Account, Debit or Credit, optional Tax code, Cost centre and Line narrative. Receivable and payable lines need a counterparty, under More, which also holds the due date and further analysis codes.
Watch the debit and credit totals. Balance the last line puts any difference on the last line. Press Post journal.

Finding and reversing

Filter the list by Search (number or narrative), Status (Posted or Reversed), Type, Source (Manual journals), dates and Book, and Export it as CSV. Open a journal to see its lines (with functional amounts in brackets for a foreign-currency journal) and any allocations.

A posted journal is never edited. Press Reverse…, give a Reverse on date in an open period and a Reason, and press Post the reversal. Tick Then put a corrected copy on the journal form to fix a wrong account, counterparty or amount and post the copy.

Three amounts on every line

Transaction: in the currency the journal was entered in.
Functional: in the company's own currency (Books kept in).
Reporting: in the currency the company reports to the group in.

The conversion uses the spot rate on or before the journal date. A missing rate stops the posting rather than guessing. Maintain rates on the Set-up tab under Exchange rates: Add a rate for one, or Paste rates… with one line per rate (date, from, to, rate, type, source). Rates are shared by every company. A rate entered by mistake can be withdrawn; journals already posted keep the rate they were posted at.

Intercompany recharges

On Set-up, under Intercompany rules, press Add an intercompany rule. Choose the Company that charges and the Company that is charged, the accounts Owed to the charging company, Owed by the company charged and Recharge account, and the Transfer price (At cost, Cost plus a mark-up with its Mark-up %, or Market price). You need write access to both companies.
On Journals, press Intercompany recharge, choose From (charges) and To (is charged), the amount (the cost: the rule's transfer price is applied to it), date and narrative, and press Post recharge. Both halves post in one transaction, in the same currency, and each company stores its own functional amount; you need post access to both companies. Give Your reference (optional) when two genuine recharges of the same amount fall on the same day, or the second is refused as a repeat.

Once a recharge has posted under a rule, its companies and accounts are fixed so consolidation can eliminate them; the transfer price can still change.

Worked example

At month end the controller accrues an unbilled audit fee: type AJ, dated 30 September, Reverses on 1 October, debit audit fees and credit accruals. The reversal posts with it, so the October bill lands against a zero balance. The same day they post a management recharge from the UK parent to the Dutch subsidiary at cost plus 5% with Intercompany recharge; both halves are in sterling, and the subsidiary's half is also stored in euros at the day's spot rate.

Recommendations

Use Reverses on for every accrual rather than remembering to reverse next month.
Load month-end rates with Paste rates… from your bank's or the central bank's file.
Use the corrected-copy option to fix a posted journal; it keeps the audit trail clean.
Set up intercompany rules before the first recharge: consolidation eliminates only what the rules describe.

Accounting Periods and Closing

A journal belongs to an accounting period as well as a date. Nothing can post until a period covers the date, and once a period is closed nothing more can be posted into it, so the figures reported for that month stay true. The Periods tab of Ledger & Finance is where periods are generated, closed, reopened and locked, with every change recorded.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Periods tab: generate, close, reopen, lock and unlock periods, and close the year

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects
Accounting Periods — the periods as a datastore, for inspection

Generating a financial year

Choose the company and the book at the top, and open Periods.
Under Generate a financial year, set Year it starts in. The periods follow the company's financial year end, set on its company record.
Choose the Pattern: 12 calendar-style months, 12 months + adjustment period 13 or 13 four-weekly periods.
Press Preview to see every period and its dates, then Generate. Existing periods are left alone.
Repeat for each book the company keeps, choosing the book at the top first.

The three statuses

Open: postings are accepted.
Closed: postings dated in the period are refused. It can be reopened.
Locked: closed and protected. It must be unlocked (which makes it closed again) before it can be reopened. Use it once a period has been audited or filed.

Closing, reopening and locking

Choose the year in the Financial years table to list its periods.
A period that has not ended shows Ends and its last day; it cannot be closed early. For an ended open period press Close….
The dialog works out the close checks. If every check passes and every close task is signed off, press Close period.
If something fails, the dialog lists it under Not ready to close. Put it right, or tick Close it anyway and give a reason; the reason is recorded with what was closed over.
On a closed period, Reopen… asks for a reason and accepts postings again; anything already posted stays posted. Lock… protects it. On a locked period, Unlock… asks for a reason.

Each period's Checklist link opens it on the Close tab, and Processes shows any close-checklist workflow run on it. The checks, close tasks and the board of every company's periods are covered in Period Close.

History

Under History, every period change for the company is listed newest first: when, what (generate, close, reopen, lock, unlock, year-end close), the period, the change of status, the reason and who did it. Reasons can be long; a full explanation is kept.

A transaction that arrives late

Post it into the current open period rather than reopening the old one. Reopening changes figures that have already been reported from that period. If the amount is material to the closed month, discuss it with whoever signs off the accounts before reopening, and give the reason when you do: it is recorded in the history.

What goes wrong

"No accounting period covers" a date on the journal form or dashboard: generate that year's periods.
"No accounting periods yet": the company has none in the chosen book.
A posting refused into a closed period: date it in an open period, or reopen the period with a reason.

Worked example

A company with a 31 March year end generates 2026/27 with 12 months + adjustment period 13, so year-end adjustments can be kept apart from March trading. On 5 May the controller opens Close… on April; the bank check fails because the last statement is dated 21 April. They import the statement to 30 April, reconcile, and close April with every check passing. In June the auditors sign off the year, and they lock every 2025/26 period.

Recommendations

Generate next year's periods before it starts, or postings on its first day are refused.
Close every ended month, so nothing is posted into it by mistake.
Never reopen for one transaction. Post it into the open period.
Lock once audited or filed, so a reopen needs a deliberate unlock first.

The Ledger & Finance Console

Ledger & Finance is the finance workspace: one console where a finance team runs each company's books, from posting journals and reading the statements to closing the month, filing VAT and keeping the chart of accounts. Finance staff reach it from the Admin Panel with the ERP: Finance role; directors and auditors can read it with ERP: Reporting.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the finance workspace for ERP: Finance (read and write) and ERP: Reporting (read-only)

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects (previously named Ledger)

Who can do what

ERP: Finance reads and writes. What it may change in a company still depends on company access: Post to post journals, close periods and file VAT; Write to change the chart, tax codes, cost centres and budgets; Read to see the reports.
ERP: Reporting sees every tab read-only. A Read-only label shows at the top.
Architects can do everything in every company.

The top bar

Company: the company every tab works on.
Book: the accounting book the reports read. Journals choose their own book on the entry form, so reading an IFRS report never sends the next journal to IFRS.
As at: the report date for balances, the trial balance and revaluation.
Refresh: re-reads everything.

The fourteen tabs

Dashboard: Cash, Receivables, Payables, Revenue this month, Revenue year to date, Gross margin, Profit year to date and Open periods, with revenue, profit and cash by month. Warnings appear here first, such as no period covering today or a trial balance that does not balance.
Journals: post, find, export and reverse journals; intercompany recharges.
Trial balance and Statements: the trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow, for one company or the consolidated group.
Account enquiry: one account's transactions with a running balance.
Open items and Ageing: allocate receipts and payments to invoices, and age what is still owed.
Periods and Close: generate and close periods and the year; the month-end close board, checks and tasks.
VAT return: calculate, save, adjust and file the UK nine-box return.
FX revaluation: revalue foreign-currency balances at the period end.
Chart of accounts, Budgets and Set-up: the accounts, the budget lines, and the tax codes, intercompany rules, cost centres and exchange rates.

Each area is covered in its own section: Period Close, Financial Reports, Tax & VAT and Budgets. Other screens send you to the right tab: the ERP workspace's Post a journal and Periods to close, and the ERP Setup checklist's chart, periods, tax and exchange-rate rows.

First use for a new company

Choose the company. If it has no postable accounts, a warning offers to import the UK template or add an account.
On Chart of accounts, import the template or a CSV.
On Periods, generate the current financial year.
On Set-up, check the tax codes and add exchange rates if the company deals in other currencies.
On Dashboard, confirm there are no warnings.

What goes wrong

"You do not have post access to that company": the group has Read or Write only on Company access.
"Your account does not have the ERP role this needs": the group holds neither Finance nor Reporting.
The trial balance does not balance: rows were written to the ledger datastores directly instead of through the console. Every journal posted here is proved balanced.

Worked example

A finance clerk with ERP: Finance and Post on one company opens the console from the Finance menu. The dashboard warns that no period covers today, so they generate the year on Periods. They post the opening balances as an OB journal, check the Trial balance, and set up the euro rate on Set-up. The managing director, holding ERP: Reporting, opens the same console the next day and reads the balance sheet, with every button that would change something absent.

Recommendations

Give the finance team the Admin Panel door through the ERP: Finance role; there is no need to make them architects.
Use ERP: Reporting for read-only users; it shows everything and changes nothing.
Check the Dashboard warnings daily: they are the early sign of a missing period or rate.
Set the As at date deliberately before reading or exporting a report.

Open Items, Allocation and Ageing

An open item is an invoice, debit note, payment or credit note on a receivables or payables control account that has not yet been fully settled. Allocation records which payment cleared which invoice; ageing shows how long what is still owed has been due. Both are on Ledger & Finance, and both read the same allocations, so they always agree.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Open items tab (allocate and change due dates) and the Ageing tab (aged debtors and creditors)

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Allocations — which payment settled which invoice, as a datastore

How items get there

An item appears when something posts to an account whose Control account for is Sales ledger control (AR) or Purchase ledger control (AP), with the customer's or supplier's reference as counterparty. Sales invoices, supplier bills, receipts recorded from the bank feed and manual journals with a counterparty all qualify. Customer receipts and supplier payment runs are covered with order to cash and purchase to pay; this tab is the ledger's own view of them.

Allocating a payment

Open Open items. Under Ledger choose Receivables (customers) or Payables (suppliers), and pick the Counterparty (or Everyone).
Under Payments and credits waiting to be allocated, press Use this payment on the receipt, payment or credit note.
Under Invoices and debit notes still open, press Settle on each invoice it pays. The amount to allocate is filled in; change it for a part payment.
Read the summary: what is being allocated, and what is left on the payment.
Press Allocate. Allocation records which payment cleared which invoice. It never moves money.

When a foreign-currency invoice is settled at a different rate from the one it was raised at, the summary shows the realised exchange difference, and it is posted to the account with the Realised exchange gains and losses role. Without that role the allocation is refused, naming the role.

Undoing and due dates

Recent allocations lists the 50 most recent. Undo makes both the payment and the invoice open again and reverses any realised exchange difference posted with it.
Press Change beside an open item's due date when terms are renegotiated. Give the New due date and a Reason (recorded). The amounts never change; payment runs, reminders and the ageing follow the new date.

Ageing

Open Ageing and choose Aged debtors or Aged creditors.
Set Buckets (days past due), ascending and comma-separated, for example 30,60,90.
Read each customer or supplier across Not yet due and the buckets, with the total and the oldest due date. Ageing is by days past the due date, as at the date at the top of the console.
Select a row to see its open items, and export when you need the list elsewhere.

What goes wrong

A receipt not listed: it was posted without the customer's reference, or to an account that is not a receivables control account.
The ageing has no due dates: items posted without a due date age from nowhere. Set the due date, or make sure your document binding supplies one.
Allocation refused for exchange: give an account the Realised exchange gains and losses role on the chart.

Worked example

A customer pays 3,000.00 against two invoices of 1,800.00 and 1,500.00. The credit controller chooses the customer, presses Use this payment, settles the first invoice in full and 1,200.00 of the second, and allocates. The ageing now shows 300.00 on the second invoice in the 30 days bucket. The customer then agrees to pay the balance at month end, so they change its due date with the reason "Customer agreed to pay at month end".

Recommendations

Allocate as receipts arrive. An unallocated receipt leaves invoices looking unpaid and the ageing wrong.
Record the reason for every due-date change; it is the audit trail for the change of terms.
Agree bucket boundaries with credit control and keep them the same month to month.
Set the realised exchange role before the first foreign-currency settlement.

Foreign-Currency Revaluation

Foreign-currency balances are booked at the rate on the day they were posted. At a period end the rate has moved, so an unpaid euro invoice or a dollar bank account is worth a different amount in the company's own currency. FX revaluation restates those balances at the closing rate, posts the unrealised gain or loss, and reverses it the next day so the following period starts clean.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the FX revaluation tab (preview and post), and the Set-up tab (exchange rates)

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Exchange Rates — the rates as a datastore

Before you start

An account must carry the role Unrealised exchange gains and losses on the chart. Without it the preview works but nothing can be posted; the tab says so. The UK template sets it.
A closing rate for each currency at the period end should be on the Set-up tab under Exchange rates. The revaluation falls back to the spot rate when there is no closing rate.
Both the revaluation date and the reversal date need an open period.

Running a revaluation

Choose the company and set As at at the top to the period end, for example 30 September.
Open FX revaluation. Choose the Rate: Closing (falls back to spot), Spot or Average.
Under Revalue, tick what to include: Receivables, Payables, Bank and Intercompany. Bank means accounts kept in another currency only.
Leave Reverse on (optional) blank for the next day, or set a date.
Press Preview. Each balance is listed with its account, kind, currency, foreign balance, the value it was booked at, the rate, the revalued amount and the difference, with the net unrealised gain or loss.
Press Post revaluation… and confirm. One journal of type FXR posts on the as-at date, and its reversal on the reverse-on date.

What it does and does not touch

A company can be revalued once per date. Run the preview again afterwards and it says Already revalued, with links to the journal and its reversal.
A realised difference, when a foreign invoice is actually settled, is not part of this. It is posted when the payment is allocated, to the account with the Realised exchange gains and losses role.
Bank reconciliation leaves revaluation journals out of a foreign-currency account's proof: they change the sterling value, not the foreign cash.
The cash-flow statement shows revaluation of cash accounts as the effect of exchange rate changes on cash.

The close check

The month-end close board checks Foreign-currency balances revalued at the period end. It fails, and blocks the close, while a company with foreign balances has not been revalued at that period end. A company with no balance in another currency shows it as not applicable.

What goes wrong

"No account has the role Unrealised exchange gains and losses": give one the role on the Chart of accounts tab.
"Nothing to revalue": no open foreign balance differs from its booked value at that date.
Posting refused: the as-at or reversal date falls in a closed period.

Worked example

A sterling company has an open euro invoice of 10,000.00 booked at 0.86 (8,600.00) and a euro bank account. At 30 September the closing rate is 0.85. The preview shows the invoice revalued to 8,500.00, a difference of -100.00, and the bank account's change. The controller posts the revaluation; it reverses on 1 October, and when the customer pays in October the realised difference is posted with the allocation.

Recommendations

Load closing rates before revaluing, using Paste rates… on the Set-up tab.
Revalue every month end, before closing the period.
Use Closing as the rate unless your accounting policy says otherwise.
Leave the reversal on the default date so each period starts from booked values.