Manual14 min read

Finance foundation — the four prerequisites

Chart of Accounts, accounting periods, exchange rates and base currency. Nothing posts until these are right.

ForWorkspace ownerFinanceAdministrator

Read firstCH 00Orientation — how the system thinks

Why this chapter gates everything

Four things must exist before a single operational form will post. Get them right once and every later chapter works. Get them wrong and you will meet the two most common errors in the product.

#	Prerequisite	Menu	Why operations needs it
1	Chart of Accounts active	Accounting → Chart of Accounts	Goods receipt, purchase invoice, sales invoice and demurrage all post to fixed accounts
2	An OPEN accounting period covering today	Accounting → Accounting Periods	No posting can be dated outside an open period
3	Exchange rates for foreign currencies	Finance → Exchange Rates	Foreign invoices, POs and demurrage convert to base currency at a stored rate
4	Base currency chosen	Administration → Workspace Settings	All report values convert to it

Watch

Two errors that always mean this chapter

If a posting fails with 'Missing chart-of-accounts entries for codes…' or 'No open accounting period found for date…', the operational form is not at fault. Fix the foundation here, then retry.

Chart of Accounts

A standard chart of accounts is seeded automatically when your workspace is created. Your job is to confirm the accounts exist and are Active before anything else. Nothing posts until they do.

Code	Account	Type	Used by
1000	Cash	ASSET	Petty cash, cash receipts and payments
1010	Bank	ASSET	Bank receipts and payments, prepaid and asset purchases
1100	Driver Advance Receivable	ASSET	Driver advances
1150	Intercompany Due-from	ASSET	Intercompany
1200	Accounts Receivable	ASSET	Sales invoices, receipts, demurrage
1300	Inventory	ASSET	Goods received
1400	Prepaid Expenses	ASSET	Prepaid expenses
1500	Accumulated Depreciation	ASSET (contra)	Depreciation
1600	Fixed Assets	ASSET	Asset acquisition and disposal
2000	Accounts Payable	LIABILITY	Purchase invoices and payments
2050	Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI)	LIABILITY	Goods receipt vs invoice
2100	Accrued Liabilities	LIABILITY	Accruals
2150	Intercompany Due-to	LIABILITY	Intercompany
2200	Trade Payables	LIABILITY	Reserved
2300	Tax Payable	LIABILITY	Output VAT on sales
2310	Input VAT	ASSET	Recoverable VAT on purchases
3000	Retained Earnings	EQUITY	Period close
4000	Sales Revenue	REVENUE	Sales invoices
4100	Demurrage Income	REVENUE	Container demurrage
5000	Operating Expenses	EXPENSE	Expenses, amortization, driver pay
5100	Depreciation Expense	EXPENSE	Depreciation
5200	Gain/Loss on Asset Disposal	EXPENSE	Asset disposal
9000	Suspense	ASSET	Uncategorised cashbook and petty cash

Accounting periods

Create a period — for example 2026-06, running 2026-06-01 to 2026-06-30 — and leave it OPEN. You need one open period covering the date of every transaction. Many teams create a full year as twelve monthly periods.

Periods cannot overlap.
A date must be covered by exactly one open period to post.
Closing a period is permanent for posting: no new entries, and the close writes a closing entry that moves profit or loss to Retained Earnings.

Rule

Opening a year

Create all twelve monthly periods at the start of the year and leave the current month open. Open the next month when you are ready to date entries in it.

Currencies and exchange rates

If you invoice or buy in a currency different from your base currency, add a rate dated on or before the transaction date.

The system uses the most recent rate on or before the date.
It can invert a stored reverse pair.
It throws an error if no rate exists for a genuine foreign conversion — it will not silently use 1.0.

Opening balances (migrating from another system)

If you are switching from another system, enter opening balances as a manual journal entry dated in the first open period: debit each asset, credit each liability and equity, and balance the difference to Retained Earnings (3000).

Manual journalAccounting → Double-Entry Journal

Foundation checklist

Check	Done when
Accounts active	Every account in the table above exists and is Active
A period covers today	An OPEN period includes the current date
Rates loaded	Every currency you transact in has a rate on or before today
Base currency confirmed	The workspace base currency matches your reporting currency

Note

With the foundation in place, move to CH 03 to create the parties and locations your operations reference.