A new organization already has a standard chart of accounts, categories, and posting maps. Review them in this order — you do not need to rebuild the list from scratch. Do Accounting first (General, then Chart of Accounts, then Account Categories), then Sales Journal, Purchase Journal, and Disbursements if auto-post is on.
Settings → Accounting opens General. Use the other tabs from there.
How to open it
| Step | Click |
|---|---|
| 1 | Settings → Accounting |
| 2 | General, then Chart of Accounts or Account Categories |
Do Accounting General before you send an invoice. If Auto-Post Transactions is on, invoices and bills will fail to post until the sales and purchase accounts exist. New workspaces already have those maps pointed at the starter chart of accounts.
Where to click
| Screen | What you set |
|---|---|
| Settings → Accounting → General | Fiscal year, accrual or cash, auto-post, backdating, period close, retained earnings |
| Settings → Accounting → Account Categories | Buckets such as Current Assets and Operating Expenses. Each category has an account type. Already seeded — do not casually change type |
| Settings → Accounting → Chart of Accounts | The accounts themselves, including bank accounts |
| Settings → Sales → Sales Journal | AR, sales and service income, output VAT, COGS and inventory if you track stock |
| Settings → Purchases → Purchase Journal | AP, inventory purchases, expense / service purchases, input VAT |
| Settings → Purchases → Disbursements | Bank or cash account used when you pay a supplier |
Document numbers (SI-00001) and tax rates (12%) are not on this Accounting screen. Numbering is Sales and Purchases General. Rates are Tax Types. Output VAT and input VAT accounts stay on the journal screens. See Sales and purchase posting accounts.
Fiscal Year Start Month is the first month of your books year. January (the default) means the year runs 1 January–31 December. July means 1 July–30 June. Seedflow uses that month to decide which fiscal period a journal date falls in, and to close periods.
There is no separate “close this month” screen. Auto-Close Periods (seeded on) waits Auto-Close Days (default 30) after a period ends, then that period is closed. You cannot post a journal — including an auto-posted invoice — into a closed period.
Match the start month to how you file. Changing it later changes which dates count as closed and how reports split “this year.”
Accounting Method is on Settings → Accounting → General. It is organization-wide: every invoice, bill, and auto-journal follows it. The default is Accrual Basis. The other card is Cash Basis. This is the setting that decides *when* income and expense hit the books — not just how reports are labelled.
Accrual records income when you finalize an invoice and expense when you finalize a bill, even if nobody has paid yet. That uses Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. Cash waits until money moves: unpaid invoices and bills do not create journals. On Cash, the AR field hides on Sales Journal and the AP field hides on Purchase Journal.
Accrual Basis vs Cash Basis
| Accrual Basis (default) | Cash Basis | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | When the invoice is finalized | When the customer pays — in the books, not on the invoice date |
| Expense | When the bill is finalized | When you pay the supplier |
| AR and AP | Used. Those fields show on Sales Journal and Purchase Journal | Not used for auto-post. Those fields are hidden |
| What you see on reports | Performance for the period you invoiced or were billed | Only cash in and cash out that already posted |
| Typical fit | Most businesses; matches income to the period you earned it | A simpler cash-in / cash-out view — confirm with your accountant first |
Same documents, different dates
| Event | Accrual | Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice ₱10,000 on 15 Jan, paid 15 Feb | Debit AR, credit income on 15 Jan. Payment later clears AR | No invoice journal. Income would post on 15 Feb when paid |
| Bill ₱8,000 on 20 Jan, paid 20 Feb | Debit expense, credit AP on 20 Jan. Payment later clears AP | No bill journal. Expense posts on 20 Feb when you pay |
Leave Accrual on unless you and your accountant chose cash. Switching later changes which documents create journals from then on. Customer payments do not auto-journal yet, so on Cash, sales income is not auto-posted when the customer pays — only supplier payments auto-post the expense. If you use Cash, plan to post sales journals yourself or wait until collections posting exists.
Auto-Post Transactions is on by default, on the same General screen. That is the auto-journal switch. It follows the accounting method: invoice and bill journals are created only on Accrual. Supplier payments still auto-post on both methods. Turn auto-post off only if you will enter every journal yourself.
What auto-post creates
| Document | Accrual + auto-post on | Cash + auto-post on |
|---|---|---|
| Sales invoice (finalize) | Yes — AR, income, output VAT; COGS if inventory is tracked | No invoice journal |
| Bill (finalize) | Yes — AP, inventory or expense, input VAT | No bill journal |
| Supplier payment | Yes — reduce AP, credit bank/cash | Yes — expense and VAT on the payment, credit bank/cash |
| Customer payment | Updates the invoice balance only — no auto journal yet | Same — no sales income journal yet |
These sit on the same General screen. Seeded values are usually enough to start.
Accounting → General
| Setting | Seeded default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Allow Backdating | On, max 30 days | Lets a journal date sit in the past. Off, or past the max days, blocks posting — including auto-post |
| Require Journal Notes | Off | Requires a description or notes on every journal. Auto-post writes its own description, so leave this off unless you post by hand |
| Auto-Close Periods / Auto-Close Days | On / 30 days | Closes each fiscal period after the wait. Closed periods reject new journals |
| Retained Earnings Account | 3000 Retained Earnings | Used on the balance sheet for equity and prior-year net income. Not used when an invoice auto-posts. There is no automatic year-end closing journal |
| Show Zero Balance Accounts | Off | Whether reports include accounts with a zero balance. Display only |
In Settings → Accounting, Account Categories is the item right after Chart of Accounts. Categories are not Asset, Liability, Capital, Income, or Expense. Those five are the Account type field on a category.
A category is a finer bucket — Current Assets, Fixed Assets, Current Liabilities, Operating Income, Cost of Sales, Operating Expenses. Every account must belong to one. The account then inherits that category’s type; you cannot pick type on the account itself.
You do not need to create these from scratch. The starter list matches a common small-business chart. Open a category only to rename it, add a description, or (rarely) add a new bucket such as a second expense group.
Category vs account type
| This | Examples |
|---|---|
| Account category | Current Assets, Fixed Assets, Current Liabilities, Operating Income, Cost of Sales, Operating Expenses |
| Account type (a field on the category) | Asset, Liability, Capital, Income, Expense |
What you set on a category
| Field | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Code | Yes | Short label in lists (CA, CL, OPEX). Does not drive reports |
| Account type | Yes | One of the five types. This is what financial statements and normal-balance math use |
| Name | Yes | The category itself: Current Assets, Current Liabilities, and so on |
| Description | No | Help text only |
| Active | Yes | Inactive categories drop out of the account-form dropdown |
The five types also set normal balance: Asset and Expense are debit-normal; Liability, Capital, and Income are credit-normal. Trial balance, ledgers, and net balance on reports all use that. Put a bank account in an Income category and the balance will look inverted.
These categories are created with the organization. Keep the type. Rename the name only if your firm uses different labels.
Starter account categories
| Code | Category | Type | Typical accounts |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | Current Assets | Asset | Cash, bank, AR, inventory |
| OA | Other Assets | Asset | Input VAT, prepaid expenses |
| FA | Fixed Assets | Asset | Equipment and accumulated depreciation |
| CL | Current Liabilities | Liability | AP, output VAT, CWT payable |
| RE | Retained Earnings | Capital | Retained earnings |
| OE | Owner's Equity | Capital | Owner's capital and drawings |
| OI | Operating Income | Income | Sales revenue, service income |
| OTI | Other Income | Income | Interest and other income |
| COS | Cost of Sales | Expense | COGS, purchases |
| OPEX | Operating Expenses | Expense | Salaries, rent, utilities |
| OEXP | Other Expenses | Expense | Bank charges |
Chart of Accounts is the list of accounts themselves. Each account needs a code, a name, and a category. Type is read-only on the account — change the category if the type is wrong.
Safest edit: rename to match how you talk about the account. Example: Main Bank Account → Cash in Bank (BDO). Turn on Bank account, then fill bank name and account number. Seeded bank accounts are Main Bank Account and Collection Account. Cash on Hand and Petty Cash exist for reporting; cash is not a separate switch on the form.
What you set on an account
| Field | Required | Safe to change? |
|---|---|---|
| Account code / name | Yes | Yes — rename to your bank or expense labels |
| Category | Yes | Only if the account truly belongs in another bucket of the same type. Wrong type moves it between balance sheet and P&L |
| Parent account | No | Parent must share the same type as the category. Used for grouping and contra accounts |
| Contra account | No | Only with a parent. Reduces the parent on reports (allowance for bad debts, accumulated depreciation) |
| Bank account | No | Yes — for the accounts you reconcile. There is no separate Banks module |
| Description / active | No | Yes. Inactive accounts stay on history but drop out of new documents |
If you really must change an account’s type or a category’s type, keep the five-type map intact: assets stay Asset, payables stay Liability, capital stays Capital, income stays Income, expenses stay Expense. After the move, confirm Settings → Sales → Sales Journal and Settings → Purchases → Purchase Journal still point at those accounts, and that a sample trial balance still looks right.
You need sales, purchase, and expense accounts — and also AR, AP, VAT, and (if you track stock) COGS and inventory. The form does not force you to fill them; posting fails later if they are missing. A new workspace already points these at the starter chart.
Accounts auto-journal uses
| Needed for | Account (UI label) | Where you set it |
|---|---|---|
| Sales invoice | Customer Balances (AR), Sales Income, Service Income | Settings → Sales → Sales Journal |
| Invoice with tax | Sales Tax (Output VAT) | Sales Journal — not the organization Tax tab |
| Invoice of inventory items | Cost of Products (COGS) and Inventory Value, if Track Inventory is on | Sales Journal |
| Bill | Money Owed to Suppliers (AP), Inventory Purchases, Expense / Service Purchases | Settings → Purchases → Purchase Journal |
| Bill with tax | Purchase Tax (Input VAT) | Purchase Journal |
| Supplier payment | Payment Account (Bank/Cash) | Settings → Purchases → Disbursements |
Expense / Service Purchases is the expense account for non-inventory and service bill lines. There is no separate expense-voucher auto-journal. A product can override these accounts; see Products. Full labels and what is not wired yet are in Sales and purchase posting accounts.
Other guides in Accounting and catalog