Chapter 11
Accounts and Cash Book
11.1 Cash, mobile money and bank accounts#
Accounts are where your money is: office cash, mobile money wallets and bank accounts. Every payment received, expense paid, transfer and bank charge moves an account’s balance, and each account keeps a full ledger. All balances are kept in your base currency (GHS unless your company chose another in Settings, section 11.7).
A new system starts with three accounts, Office Cash, MTN Mobile Money and Main Bank Account, all with a zero balance. Edit them to match your real accounts before you start.
The Accounts page shows each account with its balance, and the Total Balance of all active accounts. One account of each type can be the default, which is picked first on forms.
11.2 Adding an account#
- Finance → Accounts → “New Account.”
- Enter the Account Name and choose the Type: Cash, Mobile Money or Bank.
- For Mobile Money, choose the Network (MTN, Telecel or AirtelTigo) and enter the Number and Registered Name. For Bank, enter the Bank Name and Account Number, and optionally the Branch, Account Name and SWIFT Code.
- Enter the Opening Balance (in your base currency): what the account holds today.
- Tick “Set as default for this type” if it should be picked first on forms.
- Click “Create Account.”
11.3 The account page and ledger#
Open an account to see its Current Balance; This Month In, Out and Net; and the Transaction Ledger: every credit and debit, with the balance after each one.
11.4 Moving money between accounts#
- Finance → Accounts → “Transfer.”
- Choose the From Account and the To Account. The form shows each one’s balance.
- Enter the Amount (in your base currency), the Date and a Description.
- If the transfer cost a fee, open “Transfer Charges (optional),” choose the Charge Account the fee came out of, and enter the Transfer Charge and any Other Charges (in your base currency), with descriptions.
- Click “Execute Transfer.” It gets a reference such as TRF-2026-0001.
11.5 Recording a bank charge#
For a charge that isn’t part of a transfer, such as a monthly bank fee, open the account and click “+ Record Bank Charge.” Enter the Description, Amount (in your base currency) and Date, then click “Save Charge.”
11.6 Deactivating or deleting an account#
An account can only be deleted if its balance is zero and it has no transactions. Otherwise, deactivate it from its Edit page: it stops appearing on forms and its history stays.
11.7 Currencies and exchange rates#
The currency list holds the currencies staff can choose for clients, quotes, trips, expenses, invoices, proformas and payments, and their exchange rates to your base currency. It starts with GHS, USD, EUR and NGN; add others as you need them.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Code | The 3-letter international code, e.g. USD |
| Name | The currency’s name, e.g. US Dollar |
| Today's Rate | How many units of your base currency one unit is worth today, e.g. “1 USD = GHS 15.2500” when GHS is the base, or “Not set” |
| Since | The date today’s rate applies from |
| Status | Active currencies appear on forms; inactive ones don’t |
Rates are kept with the date they apply from, so the history stays: each rate applies from its date until the next one. To add a rate:
- Finance → Currencies, then click “Rates & Edit” on the currency.
- Under Exchange Rates, set Applies From (the first day the rate applies, today unless you change it) and the Rate to your base currency (units of it per 1 unit of this currency).
- Click “Add Rate.”
How the forms use the rates:
- Choosing a currency fills in the rate for the record’s date: a payment’s date, an expense’s date or an invoice’s date. New trips use today’s rate.
- Change the date and the rate follows, unless you have typed your own rate. Staff can always change the rate on a record, for example to the rate a client actually paid at.
- If the date is before the currency’s first rate, the field is left empty and staff type the rate.
- Adding or removing rates never changes saved records: each trip, invoice, payment and expense keeps the rate it was saved with.
Managing the list:
- “New Currency” adds one, with its code (e.g. XOF), name and, if you know it, its first rate and the date it applies from.
- On a currency’s page, “Save Changes” updates its name. The code can’t be changed, because saved records use it.
- Adding a rate for a date that already has one replaces it. “Remove” deletes a rate entered by mistake; the rates around it then apply.
- “Deactivate” takes a currency off the forms. Records already in that currency keep it. The base currency, and the default currency in Settings, can’t be deactivated.
- Base currency: set it under Settings (section 13.2) before you record anything. Enter the 3-letter code and the name, for example NGN and Nigerian Naira. If you change nothing it stays GHS, so existing companies are unaffected. Once any quote, trip, expense, invoice, proforma, payment or account entry exists, the code is locked and cannot be changed, because every past amount is stored in it; the name can still be corrected. Nothing already recorded is ever converted or rewritten. Exchange rates for other currencies are always units of the base currency per 1 unit of that currency.
- “Delete” works only for a currency that nothing uses yet. Once a currency is used, deactivate it instead.