Accounting module
The books already know what happened in the warehouse
Double-entry bookkeeping, suppliers and purchasing inside the same system that moves the goods. Issued invoices, payments received, goods receipts and cost of goods sold turn into journal entries on their own, on the accounts you chose: when you need a trial balance there is nothing to re-key, because it is already written.
A full Italian statutory chart on three levels — six classes, control accounts and sub-accounts — with 41 switched on at the start: what a business that buys, sells, collects and pays actually uses.
When something happened and when it was written down are two different columns. The balance cuts on the first, the statutory day book on the second.
The journal is append-only, like the stock ledger: a wrong entry is corrected by a reversal, which sits next to it with the date and the name of whoever made it.
Italian bank collection slips in the CBI fixed-width format, and SEPA direct debit, generated from the open items instead of typed again.
The missing piece is usually not the bookkeeping: it is the bridge between the warehouse and the bookkeeping. Closing stock gets posted once a year with a figure nobody can trace, cost of goods sold is an estimate, and the day book is copied off a printout. Here the goods ledger and the accounting journal are one system seen from two sides: every valued movement has an entry, and the two halves can be put side by side and made to agree.
The entry comes from the event, not from someone re-keying it
When you issue an invoice, take a payment, receive goods or pay a supplier, the accounting entry is created there and then. There is no later moment when somebody «does the books»: the document enters a queue and the entry appears, with its reason code, its accounts and its open item. There is a single door into the journal, and before anything gets through it checks that debits equal credits: an unbalanced entry never lands, so there is nothing to fix afterwards. The same document is posted once even if the event arrives twice, and a periodic sweep picks up whatever fell behind instead of waiting for someone to notice at quarter end.
- Sales invoices and credit notes, customer payments, purchase invoices and supplier payments
- Stock is capitalised on receipt and released as cost of goods sold on despatch, from the real cost layers
- Adjustments, returns and the periodic VAT settlement each have their own reason code, not a suspense account
- Debits and credits balance before the entry is saved: an unbalanced entry is never something to repair later
- The same document is never posted twice, even if the event is delivered twice
- Which accounts to use is a table of rules, not codes hard-wired into the program
- The eventYou issue an invoice, take a payment, receive goods, pay a supplier. It happens in the warehouse or in sales, not in the accounts.
- The queueThe document joins a queue and goes through one door only. The same document is never posted twice, even if the event arrives twice.
- The entryIt appears with its own reason code and accounts, taken from a table of rules rather than from code hardwired into the program.
- What is left behindThe line on the VAT register with its net amount per rate, and the open item with its due date.
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1210 Trade receivables | 1,220.00 | — |
| 4010 Sales revenue | — | 1,000.00 |
| 2110 VAT payable | — | 220.00 |
| Total | 1,220.00 | 1,220.00 |
A chart of accounts your bookkeeping actually fits into
The chart follows the Italian statutory layout on three levels — classes, control accounts, sub-accounts — because that is the shape Italian bookkeeping really has: anyone arriving from another system brings a tree built that way, and flattening it to one level means reclassifying hundreds of lines by hand. Only the trading accounts are switched on at the start; fixed assets, depreciation, financial charges, taxes and memorandum accounts are already there but stay out of the lists until they are needed, so a business that does not keep full statutory books is not shown two hundred entries it will never use. A disabled account refuses the entry instead of silently accepting it, and a grouping account cannot be posted to: posting there would still balance the books while making the account detail wrong, which is the worst kind of error because nothing looks broken.
- Six classes, control accounts and sub-accounts: the structure an Italian accountant already works in
- A sub-account code extends its parent in steps of ten, so one can be slotted in later without renumbering anything
- A disabled account and a grouping account both refuse the entry, and say why
- Search across the chart, and an account ledger that asks for one account instead of downloading the whole chart
- Every customer has their own copy of the chart: tailoring it touches nobody else
- CLASSAssetsgroups the balance sheet
- CONTROLTrade receivables1210
- SUB-ACCOUNTDomestic customers12100010
- SUB-ACCOUNTInvoices to be issued12100050
- INACTIVEA switched-off account refuses the entry, and says whyrefuses
A sub-account code extends its parent’s in steps of ten: you can slot one in between without renumbering anything.
The event date and the entry date are two different dates
An invoice dated December but written into the books on 7 January belongs to December for the balance sheet and to January for the statutory day book. Italian law requires operations to be recorded day by day, in order: if the day book carried the date of the operation while the number was assigned at the moment of writing, you would get numbers that go up while the dates go backwards — a formally wrong book that no internal check would flag. Here the two dates really are two columns, and every statement says which one it cuts on.
- The event date drives the financial year and the VAT period; the entry date drives the place in the book
- Trial balance and account detail cut on the event date, the statutory day book on the entry date
- Once a VAT period is settled, only the event date can move, never the entry date
- A check looks for gaps in the numbering and for numbers rising while dates go backwards
- EVENT DATEThe event belongs to December: so do the accounts and the VAT period31/12/2026
- ENTRY DATERecorded on 7 January: that is its place in the journal07/01/2027
- DOCUMENTThe invoice the entry comes fromno. 318
For the same month the journal and the trial balance give two different totals without either being wrong: they are two cuts of the same event, and each statement says which one it cuts on.
VAT: the registers stay, the settlement closes
The Italian VAT registers — sales, purchases, retail takings — are not part of this module and do not switch off with it: they are legal obligations and stay on in every configuration, like the delivery note and the year-end stock record. What the module adds is the rest of the cycle: the periodic settlement, monthly or quarterly, which puts output tax against input tax for the period, writes its own journal entry and closes with either an amount to pay or a credit to carry forward. Once settled, the period defends itself: whatever has to change, changes with a credit note, not by rewriting the past.
- Sales, purchase and retail VAT registers always active, with or without this module
- Monthly or quarterly settlement, one per period, with its own journal entry
- Detail per rate and per exemption category, not just the document total
- Two zero-rated lines under different exemption categories stay apart: they go into different boxes of the return
- A check puts the VAT register next to the corresponding journal account and confirms they say the same number
- OUTPUT VATTax on the period’s sales4,820.00
- INPUT VATTax on the period’s purchases3,150.00
- TO BE PAIDThe net, which reaches the journal with its own reason code1,670.00
Once settled, the period defends itself: whatever has to change changes through a credit note, not by rewriting the past.
Who owes you, who you owe, and how you ask for it
Every document opens an item: amount, due date, balance outstanding. From there come the customer, supplier and owner ledgers, and each one is reconciled against its own control account — the sum of the open balances has to equal the control account, and when it does not, you find out. Overdue means a date has passed, not a feeling: an invoice on sixty-day terms issued yesterday is not overdue and does not appear among the late ones. To ask for the money there are the two instruments Italian banks read: the bank collection slip in the fixed-width CBI format, and SEPA direct debit with its mandates — which authorisation, signed when, on which account.
- Customer, supplier and owner ledgers, each reconciled against its control account
- Ageing built on real open items: balance, due date, days late
- Bank collection files in the CBI format, with presented, collected and unpaid states
- SEPA direct debit with a mandate register, amendment and revocation
- Manual journal entries cannot touch the control accounts: those move from documents only
Purchasing: from the supplier to the cost that reaches the accounts
The supplier record holds contacts and a price list: which supplier sells which item, at what cost and in how many days. There is one purchase order — the commercial head and the goods-in view are the same order seen from two sides — and goods that arrive without a price are not booked at zero: they stay flagged as cost pending until the invoice turns up, because stock capitalised at zero drags cost of goods sold down for months without anybody connecting it back to that delivery. The lead time you read is measured between order and receipt, not the one declared in the supplier record, which is a promise.
- Suppliers with contacts and a price list: item, agreed cost, quoted lead time
- Purchase orders the warehouse receives against, with the gap between ordered and arrived
- Purchase invoices and payments, with the open item closing when the payment lands
- Cost pending: goods that arrived without a price stay on a list until the price exists
- The cost suggested at goods-in comes from the cost layer, the last receipt or the order, and the answer says which
- Supplier returns reopen the cost layers instead of making the goods disappear
- RECEIVED120 units on the shelf, counted and already pickableMAG-01
- COSTPending until the invoice turns upnot zero
- INVOICEIt arrives later, and the cost attaches to that receiptclosed
Stock booked in at zero would depress the cost of goods sold for months, with nobody connecting it back to that purchase.
The warehouse and the accounts have to say the same number
Stock value is not reconstructed at year end: it enters the journal when the goods arrive, at the value of the cost layers, and leaves as cost of goods sold when the goods ship. The result is that the stock account and the warehouse valuation are two comparable figures at any moment — and when they diverge, the gap is visible and explainable, instead of sitting there for years because no screen ever put them side by side. At year end the profit and loss accounts are cleared to the result and the balance sheet reopens; and what the accountant needs comes out as real files, not printouts to re-key.
- Stock capitalised on receipt, released as cost of goods sold on despatch, at actual costs
- Stock account and warehouse valuation comparable, with the difference stated
- Year-end close and reopening, with a check that the profit and loss accounts really are cleared
- Exports for the accountant: the day book line by line, VAT registers per document and per rate, trial balance, open items
- The filed statutory accounts, the periodic returns and the tax filings stay with the accountant: here is what they need to produce them
| The number | Where it comes from | Who keeps it |
|---|---|---|
| Closing stock in the accounts | Booked in on receipt and out as cost of goods sold on shipment, at real cost | The accounts |
| Warehouse valuation | The cost layers of the movement ledger | The warehouse |
| The gap between them | The difference, computed and shown instead of smoothed away | Nobody: you trace it back to the movements |
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to take the books away from my accountant?
The module keeps the running books — the ones that come out of the documents you issue and receive every day — and your accountant gets complete files instead of printouts: the day book line by line, VAT registers per document and per rate, a trial balance, open items. The filed statutory accounts, the periodic returns and the tax filings stay their trade, and they do them on your figures instead of your photocopies: the same division of labour as before, with data that reconciles in between.
If I get an entry wrong, can I delete it?
You correct it with a reversal — an entry recording the exact opposite — and the correction sits next to the original, with the date and the name of whoever made it. It is the same rule as the goods ledger, and for the same reason: a journal you can rewrite proves nothing. The balances end up right and the history stays readable for anyone who has to check it.
Are the VAT registers and the delivery note part of this module?
They are there regardless, in every configuration: VAT registers, delivery notes, the year-end stock record, lot traceability and invoice issuing are Italian legal obligations, so they answer without this module too. Accounting adds double-entry bookkeeping, suppliers and purchasing: keeping the books in house, on top of a base that is already compliant.
Where does cost of goods sold come from?
From the cost layers actually consumed: goods leave at the prices they came in at, first in first out. It is not an average recomputed at month end, and it is not a selling price worked backwards. Where the inbound cost is not yet known the line stays flagged as such, because a margin computed on a missing cost is more dangerous than a missing margin.
Will the bank files work with my bank?
The collection file follows the Italian CBI standard position by position, and direct debit follows the SEPA message in the version currently in use. Every collecting bank then has its own arrangements: the first file gets uploaded to your own bank’s portal and validated there — an hour of setup, once, as with any bank flow. After that it is a two-minute job, with the lines taken from your open items instead of from your fingers.
I already have an accounting package. Can I switch on the warehouse only?
Yes. There are four modules and they are switched on one at a time: the warehouse is there regardless, with its Italian compliance. With Accounting off, invoices still go out and the VAT registers still fill up; there simply is no double-entry ledger in house, and the books stay where they are today.
Let us take your books through it
Send us a chart of accounts and one month of real documents. We will show you the same entries you would have made by hand, and where your warehouse and your accounts are not looking at each other today.
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