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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

  1. Choose the company. If it has no postable accounts, a warning offers to import the UK template or add an account.
  2. On Chart of accounts, import the template or a CSV.
  3. On Periods, generate the current financial year.
  4. On Set-up, check the tax codes and add exchange rates if the company deals in other currencies.
  5. 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.