Accounting Guides
Which accounting guide do you need? It depends on what is in front of you: a chart of accounts to build before go-live, balances to bring across from your old system, a journal to post or put right, a bank statement that has to agree with a cashbook, a period to close, or an auditor on the way. These guides are for whoever keeps the books; each finishes with a check you can run, using GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd — 22 branches and two sister companies, so three Sets of Books.
Why the books behave as they do is on What posts to the ledger, and where balances come from.
Find your situation
| What you are asking | Read |
|---|---|
| A new company is going live and the first invoice has to post | Chart of Accounts Setup — an unmapped default GL code shows up after FINAL, not at it |
| “My opening balances are in but retained earnings looks wrong.” — or you have not loaded them yet | Opening Balance Migration |
| A journal went to the wrong account — or there is an accrual or a depreciation charge to post | Journal Entries |
| “How do I reconcile a bank statement?” | Bank Reconciliation |
| The month is over and the accountant wants statements | Month-End Closing, then Financial Reporting |
| Who may post, delete or reopen a month | Who May Change the Books |
| “Can I set a credit limit that actually stops an order?” | Credit Limits and Payment Terms |
| An auditor, a tax agent or the year end | Reviewing a Set of Books |
When something looks wrong
| What you see | Read |
|---|---|
| “Where did this figure come from? Nothing on the screen says.” | Which figures BigLedger stores, and which it works out fresh |
| “The Trial Balance doesn’t agree with the ledger”, or its tab is empty or short of a month | The Trial Balance doesn’t agree with the ledger |
| An invoice is FINAL and its journal is missing | The invoice is FINAL but it is not in the ledger — fix the cause, then Resolve in Trace Document, which names any cause left |
| Bank charges are in the ledger and not on the reconciliation | Bank Reconciliation › Now post only what needs posting — they were keyed as a manual journal |
| “Everything is matched to zero and the bank reconciliation still won’t tally”, or shows a difference with every line matched | Bank reconciliation still won’t tally; one cause, a stored cashbook closing that is out of date, is on Post the Fix |
| A journal dated last month is in the ledger and not on the statements | Month-End Closing, If something lands in March after you have closed |
| “The aging still shows an invoice I have already paid.” | The aging shows an invoice that’s already paid |
| “This month’s cost of sales looks wrong”, or the margin jumped with no change in trade | This month’s cost of sales looks wrong |
| “The margin report and the profit and loss don’t agree.” | The margin report and the P&L don’t agree |
| “I voided it and the report still shows it.” | What a Void Undoes |
How the books fill themselves
Most of the ledger is keyed by nobody, and most “wrong number” questions mix up what writes it:
- Documents write their journals after FINAL, in the background, from the company’s default GL codes at that moment — a missing code fails the journal or leaves it short, and nobody is told (Chart of Accounts Setup).
- A manual journal is posted the moment you create it — no draft, no Finalise (Journal Entries).
- Month End Processing writes what the statements read, and the month’s cost-of-sales journal; nothing runs it for you (Month-End Closing).
- The cashbook is fed by documents only — a manual journal to the bank never reaches the reconciliation, so bank charges go on a voucher (Bank Reconciliation).
- Some report figures are worked out when you look, others were stored on a date (Which figures BigLedger stores); when two disagree, the stored one is usually the older.
What BigLedger leaves to you
- Nobody approves a journal before it posts — the control is a weekly review: Who May Change the Books, Step 3.
- Month End Processing is a person’s job, once per Set of Books, with a check that each run wrote its closing journals: Month-End Processing, Stage 5.
- The group statements and the cash flow statement are built outside BigLedger, after the intercompany balances are agreed: Reviewing a Set of Books, Step 6.
- Whether the records are complete and in the right period is a judgement: Reviewing a Set of Books.
How you know the books are in order
At the end of each month, for each company, run the check in How you know a month is really closed, before you lock it: nothing FINAL without its journal, the close’s journals there, the statements agreeing with the lists behind them. Then the month’s snapshot has Trial Balance rows whose totals agree.
Missing Journal, Journal Not Balance and a balanced Trial Balance never catch a journal that left out an unmapped line — it balances. The receivable and payable tie-outs in that check do, and so does comparing the month’s sales and output-tax accounts with the sales report after a default GL code changes.
Read next
What each module’s documents post, and what has no report, is on What posts to the ledger; locks on Set of Books, Fiscal Years and Fiscal Periods. The Financial Accounting Module lists every applet; reference pages: Chart of Account, Ledger and Journal, Bank Reconciliation, Financial Report and Customer Maintenance applets.