Cash and bank accounts

This is the list of the places your money is kept: bank accounts, till drawers, a safe, petty cash. Each one is linked to one account in your books, and its balance is that account’s balance. Adding, renaming or archiving an account posts nothing to your books. Only the starting balance you enter later does, on Money in or out.

Where

Banking & cash › Accounts › Cash and bank accounts (the screen that Banking & cash opens on)

Number

None

Posts to

Nothing when you add, change or archive. The starting balance posts to Opening Balance Equity

Who

Admins add, change and archive. Managers can look

What it’s for

• Add every cash drawer, safe, petty cash box and bank account you want to use, so payments, receipts and the Cashbook have somewhere to go.
• See each account’s balance, and open its Cashbook.
• Rename an account, add the bank’s name and the last four digits, or archive an account you no longer use.
• A new company starts with two accounts: Cash on Hand and Bank Accounts. Petty Cash is not in the list until you add it.
• Opening Banking & cash always lands here. The first thing above the list is a line, Card money not yet paid out, with View card payouts and, for managers and admins, Record payout. See Card payouts.

Before you add one

An account on this list is linked to an account in your Chart of Accounts. Create that account first, in Accounting, unless you want to use Petty Cash. The account you link must be:

• an asset account that can take entries (not a heading that only groups other accounts);
• active, and not linked to another cash or bank account;
• new, with no entries on it yet. The one exception is the standard Petty Cash account.

The link is fixed once the account is saved. You cannot change its type or move it to another account.

Fields

The list

Field	What it means	What it changes
Search	Type a name, a bank or the last four digits. Admins can also type the code or name of the linked account. Up to 120 characters	Lists only the matching accounts
Type	All types, Bank or Cash	Lists one kind of account
Status	Active (the default), All statuses or Archived	Lists accounts in use, or archived ones
Clear filters	Appears once the list is narrowed	Goes back to active accounts, all types, no search

The list shows 8 accounts per page. You can choose 8, 10, 25 or 50. Columns are Name, Type, Status, Balance and a ⋯ menu. A bank account also shows its bank and “ending” digits under Type. The line above the list says, for example, “5 accounts · Balances as of ‹date›, from entries dated up to today”. A balance below zero shows with a minus sign.

The add and edit form

Field	What it means	What it changes
Friendly name (required)	A name your team will recognise, such as Main operating account or Front till. At least 2 and up to 120 characters. Two accounts cannot share a name, and capital letters do not make a name different	The name shown in lists, payment choices and the cashbook
Account type (required)	Bank account or Cash account. Use Cash for tills, petty cash and other physical cash. Fixed once saved	A bank account can hold bank details. A cash account cannot
Institution	The bank’s name. Bank accounts only, up to 160 characters	Shown in the list to tell similar accounts apart
Last 4 digits of the account number	Exactly 4 letters or numbers. Never enter the full account number	Shown as “ending ‹digits›”
Which account holds this money?	Under Accounting details, open while you add. Choose the account in your books. You can search by code or name	Links the account. Fixed once saved
Active for banking workflows	Only when you edit. Untick to archive, tick to reactivate	Archived accounts cannot be chosen for new entries

Note

Cash on Hand, Bank Accounts and Petty Cash are standard accounts. They cannot be archived, and the Active for banking workflows box is greyed out for them.

Buttons

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
Add cash or bank account	List, for admins	Opens the blank form. Saving adds the account with a zero balance	No change
The account’s name	Every row	Opens the read-only summary	No change
View cashbook	In the ⋯ menu of a row, and on the summary	Opens the Cashbook for that account	No change
Edit	In the ⋯ menu and on the summary, for admins	Opens the form to change the name or bank details	No change
Archive / Reactivate	In the ⋯ menu, for admins	Opens the form with the status ticked or unticked. The change happens when you press Save and archive or Save and reactivate	No change to entries
Save changes	Edit form	Saves the new name or bank details	No change
Record money in or out	Summary, for people who may record money, on an active account	Opens Money in or out with this account chosen	No change
Open Chart of Accounts	Summary under Accounting details, for admins. Also in the form when no account can be linked	Opens the chart, where you create the account to link	No change
Enter the balance it starts with	In the message after you add an account, for people who may record money	Opens the Opening balance tab with the new account chosen	No change
Cancel and Back to cash and bank accounts	Forms and summary	Leave without saving. If you typed something, the app asks first	No change

Statuses you will see: Active and Archived. After you add an account, a message says “‹name› saved. It starts at zero.”

What the summary shows

Opening an account’s name shows its Type, Bank and Account ending (bank accounts), Status and Balance with the day it is for. A line explains three things. The balance adds up every saved entry dated today or earlier. It is not a bank statement balance. It does not say how much you may spend. Below that:

• For a bank account, for people who may see cheques: the cheques waiting to clear.
• Below-zero days: each day a payment took this account below zero because the company allows it, with the balance that day. A day shows either “Approved by ‹name›: ‹reason›” or “Saved with a warning, without an approval”. If there are none, it says no payment has taken this account below zero with a warning or an approval.
• Accounting details, for admins: the Linked ledger account (its code and name) and whether it is a Protected standard account.

What gets posted

Adding an account, renaming it, changing bank details, archiving and reactivating post nothing. No journal entry is written and no balance changes. A new account starts at zero. The change is only recorded in the history of who did what.

The one entry connected to this screen is the starting balance. You enter it on Money in or out, on the Opening balance tab, once for each account, for the day you start using it.

Example 1Starting balance of a bank accountMoney in or out › Opening balance · AED 2,500.50

• Amount entered2500.50

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
1020Bank Accounts	2,500.50		The account starts with this money
3150Opening Balance Equity		2,500.50	The other side of every starting balance
Total	2,500.50	2,500.50	Balanced

A cash account works the same way, with its own account in place of Bank Accounts. Here the bank account is the standard one. A bank account you add yourself uses its own linked account.

Rules for the starting balance:

• Enter it once for each account. A second one is refused.
• It must be dated on or before the first entry on the account. If entries already exist before that date, it is refused.
• A wrong starting balance is cancelled on Money in or out and entered again.

Cash drawers, safes and petty cash

• A till drawer or a safe. Add a Cash account linked to your own account for it. A till drawer posts its sales to its own cash account, never to Cash on Hand. A person can use a drawer only when an admin assigns it to them in Settings › Users & access, under Cash drawers this person may use.
• Cash on Hand and Petty Cash cannot be assigned to a person and cannot open a register at the till. By default, only drawers assigned to the person can be paid from. Your company can switch on the accounting rule Pay expenses and transfers from Cash on Hand and Petty Cash. Then admins and managers may also pay expenses and make transfers from them.
• Petty cash. Add a Cash account, and in Accounting details choose the standard Petty Cash account.

Card machines and Pay by link

These are not on this list. They have their own setup, and each gets its own account in your books.

What	Where you set it up	Its account
A card machine	Card payouts: add the provider named on your processor statement, then add a terminal for each card machine	“Card clearing - ‹machine›”
A Pay by link provider	Settings › Pay by link	“Pay by link - ‹provider›”

In the standard roles, only admins set these up. Managers see the money in these accounts on Card payouts, but cannot open Settings. Card sales wait in these accounts until the provider pays your bank.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes
Payment and receipt screens	An active account can be chosen. An archived one cannot
Cashbook	Every saved entry on the account, archived or not
Balance sheet	The linked account’s balance
Chart of Accounts	Archiving an account here archives its linked account there too
Money in or out, Transfers and Expenses	The account appears as a choice
Settings › Users & access	Cash accounts that are not Cash on Hand or Petty Cash appear under Cash drawers this person may use

What the app blocks

Situation	What you see
Name left empty or one letter	Enter a display name.
Name over 120 characters	Use 120 characters or fewer.
Name already used by another account	This financial account display name already exists.
No account chosen to link	Select an eligible ledger account.
Last four digits not exactly four letters or numbers	Enter exactly the last 4 letters or numbers.
Bank’s name over 160 characters	Use 160 characters or fewer.
The chosen account is already linked to another account	This ledger account is already mapped to a financial account.
The chosen account already has entries	A custom ledger account can be mapped only before it has journal history.
The chosen account is not an active asset account	Select an active, eligible cash or bank asset account from this company.
No account is free to link	No unmapped cash or bank ledger is available. and No eligible ledger matches this search. when you searched, with Open Chart of Accounts
Account type does not match the standard account chosen	Account type must match the selected protected ledger account.
Archiving a standard account	In the menu: This is a standard account, so it can’t be archived. In the form: This is a standard account. It stays active and cannot be archived.
Saving with nothing changed	Nothing has changed yet. Make a change, then save.
Someone else changed the account while you had it open	The account changed, so its latest details were loaded. Your changes were kept and rebased. Review them, then save again.
The save may not have gone through	A box, Save not confirmed, with Check status. Check before saving again. Your details are kept
The account is gone	Cash or bank account not found and This account may have been removed from the current company.
The list cannot load	Cash and bank accounts are unavailable and Try again
Nothing matches the filters	No matching cash and bank accounts and Change the search or filters to see another account.
No accounts yet	Set up your cash and bank accounts
A manager with no accounts to see	Ask someone who can add cash and bank accounts to add a cash or bank account first.

Payments that would take an account below zero

Your company decides what happens when a payment would take an account below zero. The choice is in Settings › Accounting rules. It applies to every account, not to one.

Setting	Which accounts	What it does
If a payment would take a bank account or cash below zero	Bank accounts, always. Cash accounts only while the switch below is on	Block (the default): the payment is not saved. Allow a manager with a reason: a manager or admin can approve it with a reason. Warn only: the payment is saved and the person is told
Don’t let cash go below zero (switch Refuse anything that would take a cash account below zero)	Cash on Hand, Petty Cash and cash drawers	Off by default. While it is off, cash accounts can go below zero with no check
Card clearing accounts	Every card machine account and Card and Payment Clearing	Always blocked, whatever you choose

How the checks work:

• Money coming in is always allowed. An account that is already below zero accepts money in, but not money out, until it is back above zero.
• The check looks at the first day the balance would be below zero. A payment dated in the past can be refused because of a later payment.
• Turning a rule on changes no past entry.
• A payment that takes the balance down to exactly zero is allowed.

When a payment is blocked you see, with your own account, date and amounts:

This would take ‹account› below zero on ‹date› (balance then AED −‹amount›). Record at least AED ‹amount› coming in on or before ‹day› first, then save again.

For a cash account the message says “Record at least AED ‹amount› of cash coming in”. When a manager may approve, it adds Or ask a manager to approve it with a reason. A manager or admin then sees Approve with a reason, with the field Reason for approving (3 to 500 characters) and the buttons Approve and save and Cancel. Under Warn only, or after an approval, the payment is saved and a notice says ‹account› is below zero from ‹date› (AED −‹amount›). Each such day is kept in Below-zero days on the account.

For a card clearing account the message is: This would take ‹account› below zero on ‹date› (balance then AED −‹amount›). Record the card sales first, or choose another date. If a card payout already took this money, reverse the payout on its own date first.

Who can do it

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
See the list, open a summary, open the cashbook	Yes	Yes	No, cashiers do not see Banking & cash
Add a cash or bank account	Yes	No	No
Rename, add bank details	Yes	No	No
Archive or reactivate	Yes	No	No
See Accounting details (the linked account)	Yes	No	No
Enter a starting balance	Yes	Yes	No
Change the below-zero rules	Yes	No	No
Approve a payment below zero, when the company allows it	Yes	Yes	No
Add a card machine or Pay by link provider	Yes	No	No

These are the standard roles. Your administrator can give a custom role each action separately in Settings › Users & access. Archiving and reactivating also need the right to change an account. Giving someone only the right to archive is not enough.

Fixing a mistake

1. The name or the bank details are wrong. Use Edit, change them and press Save changes. Earlier entries stay on the same account. Renaming never moves an entry.
2. You linked the wrong account, or chose the wrong type. Neither can be changed after saving. Archive the account, then add a new one linked to the right account. The archived one keeps its history. If you want to reuse its name, rename the archived account first, because names must stay different even for archived accounts.
3. You no longer use an account. Use Archive. Move any money out first. The app does not check the balance when you archive. Its history stays in the cashbook, and the account cannot be chosen for new entries.
4. You archived an account by mistake. Choose the Archived status filter, open the ⋯ menu and use Reactivate.
5. The starting balance is wrong. Cancel it on Money in or out and enter it again.
6. You cannot archive Cash on Hand, Bank Accounts or Petty Cash. They are standard accounts. They are always active.
7. A payment is blocked because the account would go below zero. Record the money coming in first, as the message says. You can also choose another account or date. If your company allows it, ask a manager to approve it with a reason.