Everyday modules
Accounting
Chart of accounts, journal, ledger, financial statements and the month and year close.
What it is for
Pixel One keeps your books on its own. Every sale, payment, purchase, expense, cash register movement, supplier payment or return writes its own double-entry journal entry in the General journal, the moment it happens. You do not have to record anything for the books to be up to date: only review them, record what operations do not record on their own, and close each month.
Everything is in the Accounting group of the menu: Chart of accounts, Journal, Ledger, Financial statements, Reconciliation and Bank reconciliation.
Before you start
- The View accounting permission to look at the books. Recording manual entries, reversing them, creating accounts and closing months also needs Manage accounting. The Accounting template in Invite your team has both.
- Your Opening entry: the cash, banks and debts you started with (Load your data). Without it, balances start at zero.
What is recorded on its own
Every automatic entry carries its Source, which in the journal is a link to the document that wrote it. These are the most common:
| Source | When it is written |
|---|---|
| Invoice and Cost of goods sold | When a sale is issued: the payment (cash, card, transfer or credit), the sale, the taxes and, separately, the cost of what was sold against inventory. |
| Credit and Installment payment | When you sell on credit and when you collect each installment, with its interest and late fee. |
| Cash register, Cash register open and Cash register close | A withdrawal from or deposit into a cash register, and the shortage or overage when a shift opens or closes. |
| Purchase receipt and Supplier payment | When a receipt is confirmed and when you pay the supplier. |
| Expense | When you record an expense, paid from a cash register, a bank, on credit or from petty cash. |
| Inventory adjustment | An adjustment or an applied physical count. |
| Credit note, Returned cost and Void | A return, what goes back into inventory and a voided invoice. |
| Order deposit and Deposit refund | A deposit on an order, and what is refunded if the order is cancelled. |
| Bank | A deposit, a transfer, a card settlement or a bank charge. |
| Payroll and Payroll payment | An approved payroll and its payment (Dominican Republic only). |
An automatic entry is never edited or deleted. If the document was wrong, you correct the document: void the invoice, the expense or the receipt, and Pixel One writes the opposite entry.
The chart of accounts
Chart of accounts shows the accounts as a tree by Code, with their Type (asset, liability, equity, income, cost or expense) and their Balance. A group account adds up the ones below it. Your company starts with its country's chart, ready to use.
Create a sub-account
Click New sub-account, choose the Parent account and type the Name. The code is proposed and the account inherits the parent's type. If the parent had no sub-accounts and no activity, it becomes a group.
Edit or delete
In each account's menu: Edit (code, name and Active), Delete and View ledger. Only an account with no activity or sub-accounts can be deleted; if it has been used, deactivate it. An inactive account does not appear when recording entries.
Accounts with a lock are a System account: the automatic entries use them. You can rename them, but not deactivate or delete them.
The general journal
Journal lists every entry, newest first, with its number, Date, Description, Source and Amount. Click a row to see its lines. Filter with Search by number or description, All sources and a date range.
The Manual entries in control accounts filter shows only the manual entries that moved an account with its own subsidiary ledger (receivables, payables, inventory, banks, cash registers...). They carry the Control account tag: it is the first thing to check when the reconciliation does not tie.
Recording a manual entry
For what operations do not record on their own: a bank deposit, a rent payment, a capital contribution, depreciation.
Open the entry
In Journal, click New journal entry. Type the Date (never later than today) and the Description.
The lines
Each line takes an Account and an amount as a Debit or a Credit: typing one clears the other. Add line proposes the amount still needed to balance. Until it balances, you see "Out of balance" and the difference in amber.
Record it
When it says Balanced., click Record entry.
A manual entry is corrected with Reverse: you state why and Pixel One records a new entry, dated today, with the same amounts on the opposite sides. The original stays, so the audit trail remains. Only manual entries can be reversed.
The ledger
Ledger shows one account over a date range: the Opening balance, each movement with the balance after it, and the Closing balance. Choose the account (for example Cash, a bank or Accounts receivable) and the range. A hundred movements show per page; the totals and the closing balance are always the whole range's.
The financial statements
Financial statements has four tabs. Every total that must tie says so in green.
Each account with its opening balance, its Activity and its closing balance, as debits and credits, for the range you choose. At the bottom, "Balanced: debits equal credits".
Closing the month and the year
A closed month accepts no entries, neither manual nor automatic: a sale or a payment dated in that month is rejected. Close it once you have reviewed it.
Close the month
In Financial statements, Period close, click Close on the month's row. If something needs correcting, Reopen asks for the reason, which is kept in the History.
Close the year
With its twelve months closed, the Year-end close box turns on Close the year: an entry dated December 31 moves the year's net income to Retained earnings. Reopen the year reverses that entry and leaves December open; the other months stay closed.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation puts each control account beside the documents behind it: receivables against the open credits, payables against receipts and credit expenses, inventory against the stock at cost, each cash register against its shifts, each petty cash fund against its balance. Each row shows In the books, In the documents and the Difference.
When everything is right you see "Everything reconciles". When an account does not, it is almost always a manual entry in that account: find it in the Journal with Manual entries in control accounts. Cards and wallets show No documents: they are reconciled against the processor and the bank.
The Bank reconciliation, the bank statement line by line, is in Banks and payment methods.
By country
The chart uses a small business's 1000 to 6000 numbering, in English when the company was created in English. Sales tax collected goes to its payable account; the sales tax you pay on a purchase is part of the cost. There is no payroll. See United States.
Common mistakes
- "I cannot record a sale dated last month." That month is closed. Reopen it in Period close if it is really needed.
- "Out of balance: ... difference on the debit side." The lines do not add up to the same on both sides. Add line proposes what is missing.
- "I do not see Reverse on an entry." Only manual entries can be reversed. An automatic entry is corrected by voiding its document.
- "I cannot delete an account." It already has activity or sub-accounts, or it is a System account. Deactivate it if you will not use it.
- "Close the year is greyed out." Some months are still open: the box says how many of the 12 are closed.
- "I do not see Accounting in the menu." You are missing the View accounting permission.
Next step
See sales by product, by seller or by day in Reports.