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Upscale

Introduction to accounting

Upscale keeps a proper double entry ledger. When you raise an invoice, record a payment, receive stock or pay a bill, the accounting entry is posted at the same moment, in the same transaction as the document itself.

That single decision is why the numbers hold together. Your profit and loss, balance sheet, ageing and tax report are all views of one ledger rather than four separate calculations that scan your documents and hope to agree.

What posts to the ledger

Anything that moves money or value:

DocumentEffect
InvoiceRecognises income and what the customer owes you
Credit noteReverses it, through a sales returns account so the two stay visible separately
Customer paymentClears what is owed and increases the account it was received into
BillRecognises the cost and what you owe the supplier
Vendor credit, supplier paymentThe purchase side equivalents
ExpenseThe cost and how it was paid
Retainer invoiceMoney held as a liability until it is drawn against an invoice, because an advance is not yet yours
Stock movementsInventory value in and cost of sales out, at the cost that applied when the stock moved
Stock transfersValue moved between locations through a stock in transit account, never charged to cost of sales
Manual journalsWhatever you tell them to

What does not post

Quotes, sales orders and purchase orders record intent, not value. Nothing has been earned, owed or moved, so nothing posts. They appear in their own reports and convert into documents that do post.

Drafts post nothing until published.

Reading the ledger

Every figure can be opened. A total on the balance sheet opens to the accounts behind it, an account opens to the entries that made it, and an entry opens to the document that raised it. A number you cannot trace to its source is a number nobody can defend.

Where to start