Mahougnon Tossou is the accountant of Groupe Gbaguidi. The group has a company in Cotonou, one in Parakou and one in Natitingou, and Sèdjro Gbaguidi wants the books of each one to follow the same plan. Mahougnon needs to know what exists in each book, add the accounts the group uses, and be sure that sales and payments will land in the right place before anyone relies on them. This page follows Mahougnon through that set-up.

​
Who works where

A book belongs to the organization, to one of its companies, or to a client account. In the organization space, people work on a chosen book: the organization’s own book or one of its companies. In the client space, people work on the signed-in client account’s own book, and no other. Mahougnon works in the organization space. He starts with List accessible books to see the books he has been granted access to, then picks the Parakou book. A client account opens its own with View the client book.

​
Build the chart of accounts

Parakou sells to restaurants and wants one receivable account for each large customer. Mahougnon opens List accounts, finds the general customer account, and adds a sub-account under it with Add an account. When a name or a code is wrong, he fixes it with Edit an account. An account that was added by mistake and never used goes away with Delete an account. He can read one account with View an account.

​
Keep the journals in order

Natitingou needs a separate journal for its mobile money collections. Mahougnon creates it with Create a journal, and later corrects its label with Rename a journal. List journals and View a journal show what each book holds.

​
Choose where automatic postings go

When Exowpee posts a sale or a payment by itself, it looks up which account is linked to that role, such as sales or cash. Mahougnon reads these links with List account mappings and View an account mapping. If he wants a role to use another account, he uses Change an account mapping. Entries that are already posted stay as they were.

​
Set exchange rates

The group sometimes receives payments in another currency. Exchange rates belong to the organization, not to a book. Mahougnon adds a rate with Add an exchange rate. When the rate changes, he first ends the old one with End an exchange rate, then adds the new one starting after it. A rate typed by mistake, not yet started, is removed with Delete a future exchange rate. List exchange rates and View an exchange rate show the current and past rates.

​
Check the books are ready

Before the first sales are posted, Mahougnon runs Check accounting setup. It reports what would stop automatic posting: missing account mappings, no open period for today, no current fiscal year, or a currency that does not match. Once the books are ready, go on with Record and correct entries.

​
The rules

  • Every accounting action needs the accounting module in the organization’s plan.
  • In the organization space, the person also needs an access grant on the book.
  • Listing accounts, journals and account mappings, and adding accounts or journals, answer not found when the book has no journal yet.
  • A new account needs a parent from the same book. Its code must start with the parent’s code and be unique in the book, whether the other account comes from the standard template or not. When the parent could receive entries, it becomes a grouping account.
  • A customer account needs a parent whose code starts with 41, and a supplier account a parent whose code starts with 40. A parent that already has entries cannot get a sub-account.
  • Only the name and the code of an account can be edited, and the code is locked once the account has entries.
  • An account from the standard template, an account with entries and an account with sub-accounts cannot be deleted. A deleted account is gone for good.
  • A journal has a code, a label and a type (sale, purchase, bank, cash, misc or carry_forward). Only the label can change afterwards, and journals cannot be deleted.
  • Account mappings can be read and changed from the organization space only. Changing one is switched off by default (the account_mapping_updates_enabled setting) and is refused until it is turned on.
  • A new exchange rate is open-ended and cannot overlap an existing rate of the same pair and direction: close the previous one first. Writing a rate needs an access grant on the organization’s own book.
  • Only a rate that has not started can be deleted, and not when a refund entry used it. A started rate is ended instead; it still applies on the day it is ended. Reading rates needs an access grant on any book of the organization.
  • The client space has its own versions of the account, journal and health actions, on the client account’s own book: for example Add an account and Check accounting setup.

​
All the actions of this topic

From other topics, also used here:
  • Post opening balances (organization): Organization space, on a chosen book. Records the opening balances of a fiscal year (balance sheet accounts only) as a single entry dated on the first day of the year.
  • Post opening balances (client account): Client space, on the client account’s own books. Records the opening balances of a fiscal year (balance sheet accounts only) as a single entry dated on the first day of the year.