Advanced accounting

Sahl keeps your books in double entry automatically from the first invoice, even if you never open an accounting screen. The Advanced accounting group is the door for anyone who wants to see the books and work in them.

Enabling the group

The group is hidden in simple mode. From Settings, then Features, enable Advanced accounting and it appears in the top bar immediately. Details in Features and simple mode. A manager cannot edit posting accounts or unlock closed periods; those belong to the owner and the accountant.

Chart of accounts

From Advanced accounting, then Chart of accounts. When the company is set up, a standard tree is seeded: Assets (1), Liabilities (2), Equity (3), Revenue (4), Expenses (5), and under each header the system accounts the application knows by a fixed key, such as Cashboxes 1100, Accounts receivable 1400, Employee receivables 1420, Inventory 1500, Accounts payable 2100, Sales 4100, Cost of goods sold 5100, Cash differences 5220.

• New account: choose the code, name and parent group; the type is inherited from the group. You may fix a currency for the account (empty = any currency) or make it a control account for a party, so the system requires a party on every entry to it.
• A group does not accept entries; entries go to leaf accounts only.
• System accounts cannot be deactivated, and the type of an account with entries cannot be changed.
• The Statement button next to any account opens its statement directly.

Journal entries

From Advanced accounting, then Journal entries. Every entry has a type: automatic from a document, manual, opening, closing, reversal, revaluation. The type and period filters narrow the list. A posted entry cannot be edited; it is reversed by an opposite entry dated today through Reverse entry with a mandatory reason, and both are kept.

Manual entry

The Manual entry button (with the manual journal permission): a date, one currency for the whole entry with its exchange rate, and at least two lines with an account, a debit or credit amount, and a party when the account requires one. Debits must equal credits. Ctrl+Enter posts.

Opening balances

From Advanced accounting, then Opening balances, used once when moving from your previous system. Pick the Balance date (usually the start of the year), then one line per account, customer or supplier with the amount as it stands in your old books: positive according to the account's nature (Cashbox 1000 means cash on hand; Supplier 400 means you owe them 400). Click Post opening balances.

Trial balance

From Advanced accounting, then Trial balance (the same tab as in the financial statements). Choose the period, the branch and Show zero balances. Per account: opening, period debit, period credit, closing. The badge above the table says Balanced or Unbalanced; the latter does not occur in normal work.

Posting accounts

From Advanced accounting, then Posting accounts. The first table, Default (system) accounts, shows which account receives each line type (sales, accounts receivable, cost of goods, output VAT, cash differences and so on). The second table, Mapping rules, holds rules that say "for this document type and this line type, use this account", with an optional condition on branch or item group and a priority. A rule for a specific document type takes precedence over the general rule (*), and both take precedence over the system account.

Example: route sales of the "Beverages" group to a separate revenue account, or a branch's sales to its own account. After editing, click Save rules; only future entries are affected.

The Rebuild balances button rewrites the daily balances table from the journal lines. It is safe and is used when the trial balance looks wrong after a direct intervention.

Fiscal year and periods

From Advanced accounting, then Fiscal year and periods. Each year has a name, from/to dates and monthly periods. A period is open or locked: locking blocks any posting dated inside it, and unlocking needs a dedicated permission. Nothing can be posted on a date outside all years.

Closing the year

1. Create a New year for the following year first; the system refuses to close without it.
2. Make sure all documents of the year are posted and the trial balance is balanced.
3. Click Close year. All its periods are locked and the action can only be undone by reopening.