# Accounting & Bookkeeping module

> Turn on double-entry bookkeeping in SmartPOS Hub, run the three-step setup, and let every sale, purchase and expense post itself to your books.

Source: https://docs.smartposhub.com/modules/bookkeeping/  
Last updated: 2026-10-30  
Product: SmartPOS Hub (https://smartposhub.com)

The **Accounting & Bookkeeping** module gives SmartPOS Hub a real double-entry general ledger that keeps itself up to date. Every sale, purchase, expense, return and payment you record in the POS becomes a balanced journal entry automatically. It is for owners and accountants who want a balance sheet, trial balance and proper profit & loss without retyping anything.

> **How to turn it on**
> 1. **Plan:** Your plan must include Accounting & Bookkeeping (check Settings › Package Subscription). If it shows Not in your plan, see plans or contact support.
> 2. **Switch:** Settings › Business Settings › Modules › Industry modules › Accounting & Bookkeeping module, then click Update settings.
> 3. **Permission:** Admins have every permission. Other roles need the Accounting permissions (User Management › Roles).
> - **Mobile app:** SmartPOS Business app › Bookkeeping (read-only overview, accounts and journal).

## Who it is for

- **Any business that wants real books**: shops, marts, pharmacies, restaurants, salons, hotels, gyms and repair shops. The setup offers a chart of accounts made for each of these.
- **Owners** who want to know cash, money owed to them, money they owe and true profit at a glance.
- **Accountants** who need a trial balance, balance sheet, ledgers, aging reports and a tax summary they can export.

What you get, under the **Accounting** menu:

| Menu item | What it is for |
|---|---|
| **Dashboard** | Cash & bank, receivables, payables, income and expenses this month and year, net profit, current ratio, gross margin, charts and a **Needs attention** panel |
| **Chart of accounts** | Your accounts in a tree (assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses) with balances; click an account to see every transaction in it |
| **Journal entries** | Automatic entries (read-only, linked to their sale or purchase) and your own manual entries |
| **Transfers** | Move money between cash, bank and card accounts, with an optional fee |
| **Bank reconciliation** | Tick off cleared items against your bank statement, or import the statement as CSV and auto-match |
| **Budgets** | A budget per account per month, then **Budget vs actual** |
| **Reports** | Financial statements, ledgers, aging, tax summary and more |
| **Sync log** | Every automatic posting, with **Sync now** and **Full re-sync** |
| **Settings** | How your books are kept (see below) |

## Before you start

- Your **financial year start month** is taken from **Settings › Business Settings › Business**. Check it first: it decides "this year" in every report.
- Decide which chart fits you best: **Retail**, **Restaurant**, **Services**, **Hotel**, **Gym** or **Repair**. You can add or rename accounts later.
- If your business is older than the data in SmartPOS Hub, have your starting balances ready (cash, bank, what customers owed, what you owed suppliers).

## First-time setup

1. Switch the module on: **Settings › Business Settings › Modules**, turn on **Accounting & Bookkeeping module** and click **Update settings**.
2. Open **Accounting** in the sidebar. The first visit opens **Set up Accounting & Bookkeeping** ("Three quick choices and your books start keeping themselves"). Staff without the settings permission see "Accounting is not set up yet" and must ask the owner.
3. Under **Choose a chart of accounts**, pick the template for your type of business.
4. Pick **Account numbering**: **Standard 4-digit codes (1000-5999)**, **Extended 5-digit codes (10000-59999)** or **No codes (names only)**.
5. Choose how stock costs are recorded (perpetual inventory is recommended) and answer **Which existing documents should be posted?**: **All history** (recommended), **Only from the start of this financial year**, or **From a date I choose**.
6. Click **Start bookkeeping**. The app posts your existing sales, purchases, expenses and payments and shows how many entries were created.
7. If you started later than your real start date, open **Settings › Opening balances** and enter the balances you had on your start date, then **Save opening balances**.

![Chart of accounts with Current Assets group, cash, bank, receivables and inventory accounts and their balances](https://docs.smartposhub.com/_astro/bookkeeping-chart-of-accounts.OjUXzAmt.png) (web app page: `/bookkeeping/accounts`)
*Chart of accounts: accounts marked System are used by automatic posting.*

## Everyday use

Most days you do nothing: the books follow the POS. Postings happen the moment a document is saved and are re-checked every 10 minutes.

- **Check the dashboard** for the **Needs attention** panel (unposted documents, unreconciled items, entries in a closed period).
- **Record things the POS does not know about** with **Journal entries › + New journal entry**: pick accounts, enter debits and credits, and save. The save button stays off until debits equal credits.
- **Move money** between cash and bank with **Transfers**.
- **Reconcile your bank** each month under **Bank reconciliation**: enter the statement date and ending balance, tick cleared items until the difference is zero, then finish.
- **Read the reports** under **Reports**. How to read each one is explained in [Bookkeeping reports](https://docs.smartposhub.com/reports/bookkeeping/).

![Accounting reports page with profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, trial balance, ledgers, aging and analysis cards](https://docs.smartposhub.com/_astro/bookkeeping-reports.CRIWQ6L3.png) (web app page: `/bookkeeping/reports`)
*Every report can be filtered by date and location, printed, and exported to CSV, Excel or PDF.*

### What posts automatically

| In the POS you… | The books get… |
|---|---|
| Make a sale (cash or credit) | Receivable, sales revenue, tax payable, discounts; with perpetual inventory also cost of goods sold out of inventory |
| Take a payment (also part payments) | Cash or bank in, the customer's receivable down |
| Accept a sell return | Sales returns, tax back, stock back into inventory |
| Receive a purchase / return one | Inventory and input tax against the supplier's payable |
| Add an expense | The expense account mapped to its category |
| Adjust stock | Shrinkage against inventory |
| Hotel bookings, gym memberships, repair sales | Their own revenue accounts |

A customer's **Contacts** page also gets an **Accounting** tab with their ledger balance and a 12-month statement.

## Settings explained

Open **Accounting › Settings**. Changes apply to new postings; use **Full re-sync** on the **Sync log** page to apply them to existing documents.

![Accounting settings General tab with financial year, base currency, perpetual inventory, approval and entry number prefixes](https://docs.smartposhub.com/_astro/bookkeeping-settings-general.Bu1YnhGn.png) (web app page: `/bookkeeping/settings`)

| Tab | What you set |
|---|---|
| **General** | Shows financial year start and base currency; **Perpetual inventory (track cost of goods sold)**; **Manual entries need approval**; **Statement auto-match window (days)**; **Entry number prefixes** (manual JV-, automatic AJ-, transfer TR- and others) |
| **Auto-posting** | Turn posting on or off per document type |
| **Account mapping** | Which account each kind of posting uses, with overrides per location and payment method; expense categories and tax rates to accounts |
| **Chart template** | Add the accounts of another template later |
| **POS payment accounts** | Link your Payment Accounts (cash drawer, bank) to ledger accounts |
| **Lock date & year-end** | **Lock date (closed period)**: nothing on or before it can be posted or changed. **Year-end close** moves the year's profit to equity and can lock the year |

:::tip
Keep **Perpetual inventory** on unless your accountant says otherwise. Then each sale carries its real purchase cost, so profit is exact per sale.
:::

:::caution
Set a **Lock date** only after your accountant has finished a period. Edits to old sales still reach the books, but as an adjustment dated today, never by changing a closed month.
:::

## Permissions

Give these in **User Management › Roles** (they appear only when your plan includes the module).

| Permission (as on the Roles page) | Lets the user |
|---|---|
| Accounting: view dashboard | Open the accounting dashboard |
| Accounting: view chart of accounts & registers | See accounts and each account's transactions |
| Accounting: add / edit / delete accounts | Change the chart of accounts, import accounts |
| Accounting: view journal entries | See entries |
| Accounting: create journal entries (and reverse) | Add manual entries and reverse entries |
| Accounting: edit manual journal entries | Edit manual entries |
| Accounting: delete manual journal entries | Delete manual entries and templates |
| Accounting: approve journal entries | Approve entries when approval is switched on |
| Accounting: transfer money between accounts | Use Transfers |
| Accounting: bank reconciliation | Reconcile bank accounts |
| Accounting: view budgets / manage budgets | See or edit budgets |
| Accounting: manage fixed assets & depreciation | Manage the simple fixed-asset register |
| Accounting: view financial reports | Open all accounting reports |
| Accounting: run auto-posting sync / view sync log | Use Sync now and the sync log |
| Accounting: settings & account mapping | Run the setup, change settings, opening balances |
| Accounting: lock date & year-end close | Close periods and years |

A typical **Accountant** role has everything except settings and lock date; a **Viewer** has the dashboard and reports only.

## In the SmartPOS Business app

The app has a read-only **Bookkeeping** screen with three tabs: **Overview** (cash & bank, owed to you, you owe, and this month's and this year's sales, cost of goods sold, running costs and net profit), **Accounts** (balances, tap one for its register) and **Journal** (search by entry number, memo or reference).

![Bookkeeping overview in the app with cash and bank, owed to you, you owe and net profit](https://docs.smartposhub.com/_astro/bookkeeping-app-overview.DcCnNZz0.png)
![Journal tab in the app listing automatic entries for sales and payments](https://docs.smartposhub.com/_astro/bookkeeping-app-journal.BQAI-Gra.png)
*Bookkeeping in the SmartPOS Business app.*

## Tips and mistakes to avoid

- Set the financial year start month **before** you run the setup.
- Don't post the same money twice: if a bill was already entered as an **Expense** in the POS, don't add a manual journal for it too.
- Deleting an automatic entry isn't possible: change or delete the sale, purchase or expense instead, and the entry follows.
- Accounting is single-currency (your business currency).

## Related pages

  - [Bookkeeping reports](https://docs.smartposhub.com/reports/bookkeeping/) — Read the P&L, balance sheet, trial balance and aging.
  - [Payment accounts](https://docs.smartposhub.com/reports/payment-accounts/) — The simple cash and bank register.
  - [Asset management](https://docs.smartposhub.com/modules/asset-management/) — Depreciation and disposals post to your books.
  - [Users and roles](https://docs.smartposhub.com/start/users-and-roles/) — Give your accountant the right permissions.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I have to type journal entries for every sale?

No. Every sale, return, purchase, expense, stock adjustment and payment becomes a balanced journal entry automatically. You only type manual entries for things that never pass through the POS, such as a loan or owner's capital.

### What happens to the books if a cashier edits or deletes a sale?

The sale's journal entry is updated or reversed to match. Each document has exactly one entry, so nothing is ever posted twice. If the old date is inside a closed period, an adjustment entry is dated on the first open day instead.

### Is this the same as Payment Accounts?

No. Payment Accounts is the simple cash and bank register that comes with every account. Accounting & Bookkeeping is a full double-entry ledger with a chart of accounts, balance sheet and trial balance. You can link your payment accounts to ledger accounts in Accounting settings › POS payment accounts.

### My business has been running for two years. Can I start bookkeeping today?

Yes. In the setup you choose whether to post all history, only this financial year, or from a date you pick. If you start later than your real start date, enter your earlier balances under Opening balances.

### Can my accountant use it without seeing everything else?

Yes. Create a role that has only the Accounting permissions you want (for example everything except settings and lock date) and give it to your accountant's user.

### Does switching the module off delete my books?

No. Turning it off in Settings › Business Settings › Modules only hides the menu. Your accounts and entries are kept and come back when you switch it on again.

### Can I see the books in the SmartPOS Business app?

Yes, read-only. The Bookkeeping screen in the app shows the overview, the chart of accounts with balances and the journal. Entries and settings are managed on the web.