Financial statements

The financial statements show what your books say: how much you earned, what you own and owe, where your cash went, and what sits in each account. They only read. They never post anything, and no button on them changes your accounts.

Every figure comes from posted journal entries. A sale, a bill, a payment or a manual journal becomes a journal entry when it is posted (see Accounting basics and Journals). Drafts are not in the books, so they are not in any statement. Edit or delete a document and the statements change with it.

Where: Detailed Reports › Accounting. Use Change report to switch between the five
Number: None. These reports have no document number
Posts to: Nothing. They only read the posted journal entries
Who: Admins by default. A custom role can be given each report separately

What it’s for

Report	The question it answers	The date it uses
Profit and loss	Did we make a profit in this period?	A period: From to To
Balance sheet	What do we own and owe on this day?	One day: As of
Cash flow	Where did our cash and bank money come from and go to?	A period: From to To
Trial balance	Does every account add up, and do debits equal credits?	One day: As of
Account ledger	What is in this one account, entry by entry?	A period: From to To

A report on a period counts only entries dated inside the period. A report as of a day counts every entry from the very first one up to and including that day.

You choose the dates above the report. The period buttons are Today, This month, Last month, This quarter, Last quarter, This year, Last year and Custom. A report opens on This month unless you already chose a period. The date arrows step the period back and forward.

Fields

The dates and the account

Field	What it means	What it changes
Reporting period (From and To)	The first and last day to count. Custom shows both boxes, then Apply period	The Profit and loss, Cash flow and Account ledger. A period can be at most 366 days
As of	The day to take the position on. Apply uses the date you typed; Today jumps to today	The Balance sheet and Trial balance. They ignore the start of the period
Account (Cash flow)	One cash or bank account, or All cash and bank accounts	The Cash flow figures, opening balance and closing balance
Account (Account ledger)	The one account whose entries you want. Search by name or by code	The whole Account ledger. Nothing shows until you choose one

Dates are the date of the journal entry, not the day someone typed it in.

Buttons

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
Change report	Always	Opens a list of reports, grouped, that you can search. Only reports you may open are in it	No change
Print…	You hold the right to print reports	Opens a print preview of the report. Ctrl+P does the same	No change
Export CSV	You hold the right to export reports	Downloads the report as a spreadsheet file	No change
Export accounts only	Trial balance, and you hold the export right	Downloads one row per account, without the subtotal rows	No change
Clear account	Account ledger, after you chose an account	Goes back to “Choose an account”	No change
Try again	A report could not be loaded	Asks for the figures again	No change

Statuses you will see: Balanced or Out of balance on the Trial balance, and Balanced or Review required on the Balance sheet. The Profit and loss, Cash flow and Account ledger have no status. Each account name on a statement opens that account’s entries in the Account ledger, for the same dates, if you may open the Account ledger.

What gets posted

Nothing. The statements only add up entries that other screens posted.

How each statement is worked out:

Profit and loss

It shows the Revenue accounts and the Expenses accounts for the period, with Total revenue, Total expenses and Net profit.

Net profit = Total revenue − Total expenses. A loss shows as a negative net profit.
Revenue accounts are shown as credits less debits. Expense accounts are shown as debits less credits.
Sales Revenue and Service Revenue add to revenue. Sales Returns and Allowances takes away from it, so it appears as a minus line inside Revenue.
Cost of Goods Sold is one of the expenses, together with your other expense accounts. There is no separate gross profit line.
Accounts that are headings for others (a parent account) show a Subtotal — includes the accounts below. Do not add a subtotal to the accounts under it. The totals at the top are the figures to use.
VAT is not here. VAT you owe sits in a liability account (Output Tax Payable), which belongs to the Balance sheet. Your VAT return is under Detailed Reports › Tax › VAT return; see VAT.
Total expenses includes Cost of Goods Sold, so it is more than your running costs. The Expenses and Net profit cards on the Overview use the same rule.
There is no comparison with an earlier period. To compare, open the report twice for two periods.

Balance sheet

It shows Assets, Liabilities and Equity as of one day.

Assets are shown as debits less credits. Liabilities and equity are shown as credits less debits.
Equity has your equity accounts, such as Owner Capital, and one extra line, Current earnings.
Current earnings is all the revenue less all the expenses from your first entry up to the As of day. It is not limited to the current year.
Total assets should equal Total liabilities and equity. When they do, the report says Balanced.
When they do not, it says Review required and tells you where to look next (see What the app blocks).
Equity is described on the screen as what the owner has put in and the profit kept.

Cash flow

It shows the money that moved in and out of your cash and bank accounts: Cash on Hand, Petty Cash, each till drawer’s cash account, and your bank accounts. It starts at the Opening balance and ends at the Closing balance.

Opening balance is everything in those accounts before the first day of the period.
Each line is worked out from the journal entries that touched those accounts. The entry’s type decides the line it goes on.
Money in has these lines: Till sales, Customer receipts, Card payouts, Pay by link payouts, Owner and loans and Other money in.
Money out has these lines: Supplier payments, Expenses, Salaries, VAT paid, Owner drawings, Customer refunds and Other money out.
Moves between your accounts (Moved in, Moved out) are transfers between your own cash and bank accounts. They are not money in or money out. They only matter when you look at one account.
Closing balance = Opening balance + Total money in − Total money out + Moved in − Moved out. The app checks this every time. If the parts did not add up to the closing balance, it would not show the report.
A cancelled entry takes itself off its own line. A line can therefore be below zero. For example, a refund from a supplier shows as a minus under Supplier payments.
The Day book treats a cancelled entry differently. It lists the entry and its cancellation as two separate lines.
Money paid into a card machine’s account, or a Pay by link provider’s account, is not cash yet. It counts as money in only when the payout reaches your bank. It then appears as Card payouts or Pay by link payouts, for the amount the bank received (the payout less the fee).
The name of the line comes from the type of entry, not from a person’s note. Entries of types the report has no line for go to Other money in (their debits) and Other money out (their credits). No money is lost from the report.

Trial balance

It lists every account that has a balance on the As of day, with a Debit or a Credit column, and a Type for each.

Each account shows its balance on one side only: the debit column or the credit column, not both.
An account whose debits equal its credits is left out.
Total debit and Total credit must be equal. When they are, it says Balanced. If not, it says Out of balance. The books cannot normally go out of balance, because the app refuses an entry whose two sides differ.
Heading accounts show a subtotal marked Subtotal — do not add again. The totals at the top are the figures to use.
Click an account name to open its entries in the Account ledger.

Account ledger

It is the list of entries of one account, oldest first, with a running balance.

The top strip shows Opening balance, Debits, Credits and Closing balance for the whole period, not only the page on screen.
Closing balance = Opening balance + Debits − Credits, where a debit balance counts as plus and a credit balance as minus.
Balances are shown as an amount followed by Dr (debit balance) or Cr (credit balance). There is no minus sign.
The closing balance is the same figure that the Trial balance shows for that account on the end date. The opening balance is the Trial balance figure for the day before the first day.
Each row shows the Date, Document number, Type, Description, Party (the customer or supplier, when there is one), Debit, Credit and Balance. A document number opens the document that made the entry, or the journal entry itself.
You can show 10, 25, 50 or 100 entries a page. From the second page on, the first line says Brought forward from the previous page.
A reversal is an ordinary entry with its own number. It does not hide the entry it reverses.
Only accounts that can hold entries are offered. Heading accounts are not. Archived accounts are still offered, marked Archived, because they keep their history.

Worked examples

These are worked examples with round amounts. Your accounts and amounts will differ.

A cash sale at the till. Two items at AED 100.00 each, 5% VAT, paid in cash. Each item cost AED 60.00.

Report	What it shows
Profit and loss	Total revenue 200.00, Total expenses 120.00 (the Cost of Goods Sold), Net profit 80.00
Balance sheet	Total liabilities 10.00 (the VAT you owe), Total equity 80.00 (Current earnings), Total liabilities and equity 90.00, Total assets 90.00, so Balanced
Trial balance	Total debit 330.00 and Total credit 330.00, so Balanced

The 10.00 VAT is not income: it stays a liability until you pay it with your VAT return.

A return and a loss. One item sold at AED 100.00 is returned, and a rent bill of AED 5,000.00 is paid from the bank in the same month.

The return is a line of −100.00 under Sales Returns and Allowances inside Revenue. Total revenue is the sum of all the revenue lines, the return included.
The month is a loss, so Net profit is negative. Current earnings on the Balance sheet shows the same negative figure, and total assets still equal total liabilities and equity.

An account with a reversal. An owner capital account (a credit-balance account) in September:

Date	Entry	Debit	Credit	Balance
Before 1 Sep	Opening balance			1,000.00 Cr
5 Sep	Capital introduced		35,000.00	36,000.00 Cr
20 Sep	Capital top-up		4,600.00	40,600.00 Cr
25 Sep	Drawings	500.00		40,100.00 Cr
26 Sep	Split correction	300.00	100.00	39,900.00 Cr
28 Sep	Reversal of the 20 Sep entry	4,600.00		35,300.00 Cr
	Totals	5,400.00	39,700.00	Closing 35,300.00 Cr

An entry that has the account on both sides, like 26 Sep, shows one row with both amounts. An entry dated after 30 September is not counted. A draft entry is never counted.

A day of cash and bank movements. With an opening balance of AED 1,000.00 across the cash and bank accounts:

Line	Amount
Opening balance	1,000.00
Money in: Till sales 105.00, Customer receipts 300.00, Card payouts 98.00, Pay by link payouts 100.00, Owner and loans 500.00	Total money in 1,103.00
Money out: Supplier payments 120.00, Expenses 40.00, Salaries 90.00, VAT paid 25.00, Owner drawings 50.00, Customer refunds 10.00, Other money out 7.00	Total money out 342.00
Moved in 200.00, Moved out 200.00	Not counted as money in or out
Closing balance	1,761.00 (1,000.00 + 1,103.00 − 342.00 + 200.00 − 200.00)

A card payout of 100.00 with a 2.00 fee reaches the bank as 98.00, which is the Card payouts line. A bank charge of 7.00 posted as a money entry is Other money out.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes
Day book	Both read the money that moved in your cash and bank accounts. The totals match only when nothing was cancelled or refunded. The Day book lists a cancelled entry and its cancellation as two lines, so its Cash/bank in and Cash/bank out both grow. The Cash flow puts them together on one line. The money you hold at the end is the same
Overview	The Expenses and Net profit cards follow the Profit and loss. The Cash & bank card shows the same cash and bank balance as the Cash flow closing balance, on the end date
Customer and supplier reports	Their totals are compared with Accounts Receivable, Customer Deposits, Accounts Payable and Supplier Advances. You can open each account in the Account ledger
VAT	The VAT return is not one of these statements. It is under Detailed Reports › Tax. Locking a return moves VAT between accounts, and the Balance sheet shows it
Account ledger	The closing balance of an account is the figure the Trial balance shows for it on the end date
Chart of accounts	The accounts and their order, the headings and the type (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense) decide where each account appears
Journals	Every figure here is the total of lines in Journals. A manual journal changes the statements on its date
Your own edits	Editing or deleting a posted document changes the statements for the date of that document

What the app blocks

These reports have no form to fill in, so there is little to refuse. The checks are on the dates, the account and your access.

Situation	What you see
Custom period with the start after the end	Start date cannot be after end date.
Custom period longer than 366 days	Report range cannot exceed 366 days.
A saved link whose start is after its end (Cash flow, Account ledger)	End date cannot be before start date.
The Custom dates are not valid	Correct the highlighted report dates.
The As of date is not valid	Enter a valid as-of date.
Account ledger with no account chosen	Choose an account to see its opening balance, every entry with a running balance, and its closing balance.
Account ledger for an account that does not exist	The account could not be found. Choose another account.
Account ledger for a heading account (by a saved link)	This is a group heading and holds no entries. Choose an account inside it.
An account with no entries in the dates	No entries for this account in these dates.
Print or Export on an Account ledger of more than 5,000 entries	This account has more than 5,000 entries in these dates, too many to print. (or “…too many to export.”) then “Narrow the dates and try again.”
A report you may not open	There is nothing to show here for your access.
A report could not be loaded	‹report› is unavailable. then “Choose another report from the menu or try again.”
The Cash flow report could not be loaded	The Cash flow report could not be loaded. Try again.
The Balance sheet does not balance	Total assets and total liabilities plus equity do not match. Choose Change report, then Trial balance, to find the account that is out, or ask your accountant to check recent entries.

The Cash flow also shows the heading “Check the dates” above its date message. Reading a statement never saves anything, so a refused request leaves no half-written records.

Who can do it

Each statement is a right of its own, so a custom role can be given only the Balance sheet, for example. By default only admins hold these rights.

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
See the Profit and loss	Yes	No	No
See the Balance sheet	Yes	No	No
See the Trial balance	Yes	No	No
See the Account ledger and the Cash flow	Yes	No	No
Print and export (a right of its own, for the reports you may open)	Yes	No, a manager cannot open these reports	No, a cashier cannot open these reports

The Cash flow uses the same right as the Account ledger. A custom role cannot have one without the other. Account names on the Profit and loss and Balance sheet open the Account ledger only for people who hold the Account ledger right.

These are the standard roles. Your administrator can give a custom role each report separately in Settings › Users & access.

Fixing a mistake

A statement cannot be edited. If a figure looks wrong, find where it came from and put it right there.

A total looks too high or too low. Click the account name to open the Account ledger for that account and the same dates. Open the document number on the row you doubt.
The entry came from a document with a mistake. Correct the document on its own screen, for example Edit bill on an invoice. The statements change for the document’s date. See Accounting basics.
No document fits. An admin can post a manual journal, or delete or reverse one they posted. See Journals.
The Balance sheet says Review required, or the Trial balance says Out of balance. Open the Trial balance and look for the account that is out. Ask your accountant to check the recent entries. Do not change figures to make the totals match.
The report for an earlier period changed. An entry was added, edited or deleted with a date inside that period. The report always reads the books as they are now. Print or export a period at the time you close it if you need a copy that stays fixed.
A statement is missing from the list. Your role does not include it. Ask your administrator.