Procountor's accounting pages are technically identical regardless of the receipt type to which they are linked. The processing of the receipt type nevertheless creates some differences between the pages.
Read more from What are dimensions? and Dimensioning
See also VAT summary, Tax Return for Self-Assessed Taxes and VAT processing in Procountor
Download the Accounting Committee’s General Instructions on methods used in electronic accounting(PDF, in Finnish)
General information
An accounting page is created when a receipt is saved (or approved in case of salaries). If you edit the information affecting the receipt’s accounting (products, sum, quantity, VAT, etc.), the accounting and dimensioning will be generated again using the default values. For this reason, you should finish creating the receipt before you make changes to its accounting/dimensioning. The rows on the page will only be added to the official accounts provided for in the Accounting Act when the receipt has been approved. Before this, unapproved transactions can be taken into account in reporting that covers all transactions in the database. Information on the company’s profit (loss) and financial position can be obtained more quickly in this manner.
Buttons
Clicking on the Save button will save changes made to the accounting page.
The Approve button is only displayed on the accounting pages of journals with a status of Unfinished. Clicking on this button will verify the journal and add it to the official accounts. You can edit the accounting of approved journals later.
The Dimensions button is described in more detail below.
Clicking on the Attachments button will let you add, delete and browse file attachments to the receipt. You can add/browse/delete file attachments on the accounting pages of all receipt types.
Clicking on the Preview button will display the information on the accounting page in HTML or PDF format. You can also include dimensions in the output file if desired.
Either the Transactions to rows or Rows to transactions button will be displayed on the page. The Transactions to rows button will convert postings combined by VAT rate into postings by row. Rows to transactions combines rows by VAT rate. Whether the postings have been made by transaction or by row depends on whether the Accounting by row option has been selected at invoice creation or not. This function will delete postings and dimensions and create them again using default values.
The Discussion button opens an invoice specific discussion window, where you can send messages to other users, e.g. the approvers. The discussion is visible to users who have the permission to view the invoice. Read more about the discussion feature.
Buttons in Transaction information
The Add transaction button creates a new empty accounting row.
The Copy transaction button creates a new transaction identical to the copied one.
The Delete transaction button deletes the selected accounting row. You can only delete rows with a sum of zero, and you cannot delete reversing entry rows.
Clicking on the Select account button will take you to the Account list page, from which you can pick an account for the accounting row.
Accounting page information
The type and number of the receipt are displayed in the upper bar. The creation and editing stamps are displayed in the lower bar.
You will see the customer’s/supplier’s/person’s information (Name, Business ID / SSN / VAT number) in the accounting page’s basic information.
The default value for the Business ID field is the contents of the invoice’s Business ID field. If this is empty, the contents of the invoice’s VAT number field will be imported into the Business ID field.
VAT status
Figures are exported to the VAT summary based on VAT statuses. Procountor assumes invoices to be for domestic trade, so the default VAT status for the accounting page is Domestic. If the invoice is for international trade, the VAT status must be changed on the accounting page. Default VAT statuses can be specified for business partners and products. In trade inside the EU, invoices are normally VAT-free, i.e. VAT is zero. The accounting rows on the accounting page therefore must not include VAT if the VAT status is not domestic. The program will issue an error message if VAT has been saved onto such rows. You must select the appropriate VAT status on the accounting page, since transactions with different VAT rates must be reported in their own sections on the periodic tax return. For example, if the purchase would be subject to 24% VAT in the country where your company is based, its VAT status must be set to EU 24%. The invoice amount and VAT will then be exported to both the payable and deductible fields in the periodic tax return. The net effect on the VAT sum due is zero.
Receipt date and entry period
The default Receipt date on the accounting page is the date of the invoice. This date can be changed. For example, an annual discount invoice created on 15 January 2010 can be dated to a logical payment date. By changing the Receipt date to 31.12.2009 on the accounting page, this invoice will be considered as an accounting transaction in December 2009.
The entry period is automatically the calendar month in which the Receipt date falls. The entry period cannot be changed. If you change the Receipt date, the entry period will change correspondingly.
Receipt number
In Procountor, receipts are numbered sequentially by receipt type.
The series of receipt numbers may contain gaps, since transactions can be invalidated after having been assigned numbers. For instance, this will happen when a purchase invoice is deemed not to belong to the company upon inspection. Invalidated receipts will still be stored in Procountor, but their accounting pages are deleted. Invalidated receipts can be searched for using the Search function.
Instead of the sequence of numbers, the completeness of receipt data is verified through matching.
See the Accounting Committee’s General Instructions on methods used in electronic accounting(PDF, in Finnish): ”Numbering systems shall be systematic, although the numbers do not have to be sequential.”
Receipt validity time / Service period
The data in the fields is used in Procountor’s Accrual tool to determine the accrual period for the receipt. When Contractual invoicing is used, the fields will contain the invoicing period’s start and end dates.
Depreciation method
This field is for information only and has no impact on any functions.
Accountant's notes
You can enter 255 characters of notes in this field. The notes will only be displayed on the receipt’s accounting page.
Transactions description
You can enter a 255 character long, receipt-specific description in the Transactions description field. If transaction-specific row descriptions have not been saved on the accounting page, the transactions description will be copied into the row data.
Invoice notes
This field shows any notes entered on the invoice.
Accounting currency
The receipt currency is converted to the accounting currency, which is the Euro, on the accounting page. This allows purchase invoices to be made in the local currency, travel invoices in the destination’s currency, etc., while the actual accounting is performed in Euros. The system will perform the conversion automatically in accordance with the selected exchange rate. You can set the update intervals of exchange rates in Basic company info.
Receipt in total
The balance in this section should be zero. If it is not, the postings on the accounting page do not balance out. In such a case, you should click on the Save button, which will transfer the balance to account 8890 Balancing differences, from which it can be entered into the correct place.
Receipt balancing
Receipts use a balancing row, whose balancing difference is entered on account 8890 Balancing differences in nominal ledger accounting. You can track the number of transactions entered on the account by creating a general ledger of such transactions and sorting them by book value.
If balance has been entered on account 8890 Balancing differences, you must create a new row on the accounting page for the balancing row’s sum and correct account number. You must then adjust the balance on the Balancing differences account to zero. For technical reasons, the account number or VAT % of balancing difference rows cannot be changed.
Postings
Procountor assumes that receipts will be posted by type (e.g. Travel expenses for travel invoices), the business partner’s default account, or by the default account entered in the product register. Posting rows are created by VAT rate or by row, if the Accounting by row option was selected at invoice creation. You can also convert combined postings to postings by row by clicking on the Transactions to rows button, or postings by row to postings combined by VAT rate by clicking on the Rows to transactions button.
Clicking on the Select account button will take you to the Account list page, from which you can pick an account for the selected accounting row. You can also open the Account list page by double-clicking on the account name. You can also change the account by entering the account name or number in the account number field. If you enter account name partly you'll get a list of all the accounts including that name. If you enter an account number, the account name will change if the entered number is found in the chart of accounts. Clicking on the Continue button will export the account selected from the Account list page to the accounting row. Clicking on the Edit chart of accounts button will take you from the Account list page to the Edit chart of accounts page.
Clicking on the Transactions to rows / Rows to transactions button will restore the default posting, and any changes you have made will not be saved. Dimensioning will also disappear. Before clicking on the Transactions to rows/ Rows to transactions button, you should consider whether you wish to post the receipt by row or from a combined state.
Clicking on the Calculate summary button will open a window listing the transactions on the receipt and combining the transactions posted to the account.
In addition to the account number and name of ledger account, accounting rows contain the following information:
|
Value (EUR) |
The transaction’s value in Euros. Charges are positive figures (i.e. debit entries). |
|
VAT (EUR) |
The amount of VAT on the row |
|
VAT % |
The VAT rate of the row |
|
VAT ded. % |
The default values of 100% on purchase invoices, travel invoices and bills of charges means |
|
VAT status |
From the drop-down menu, you can select an entry-specific VAT status different to the receipt’s status. |
|
Row info |
The accountant can enter a description on this row, |
|
Dimensioning amt |
The number of items the row is allocated to. |
|
Balance sheet item |
This field will be displayed on the receipt’s accounting page if you have selected the setting Show balance sheet items on accounting page in the Usage settings. Through the journal created using the Accrual tool, the journal’s accounting page will contain the original receipt and receipt number, such as Sales invoice 2, in the Balance sheet item section. In case of balance sheet accounts, free-form text (up to 40 characters) can be entered for such transactions in addition to numbers. This field facilitates the creation of balance sheet specifications, since open balance sheet items can be searched through them. The Search open balance sheet items function retrieves all transaction descriptors used on the account and calculates the corresponding open balance sheet balances. |
You can change the posting information while the fiscal year is open. However, Procountor seeks to automate accounting to such an extent that posting entries do not require specification.
Dimensions
Dimensions are cost accounting data (they correspond to cost centres / tracking items) that must be specified in Basic accounting info before they can be used in accounting entries. You can use projects, persons, profit centres, sales districts, or up to six other cost-accounting categories as dimensions. Each dimension can contain several items.
Transactions are dimensioned by selecting the dimension items to which the figures will be distributed. Figures are distributed to items using percentages, and the sum of the percentages of each item in a dimension must be 100.
Accounting postings must be finished, i.e. the Save button must be clicked, before dimensioning.
If you change the sums on accounting rows, you must change their dimensioning to correspond to the new sums.
If a user performs the dimensioning or an invoice has default dimensions, and you change the accounts after this, the account used by the dimensions will change as well.
If a user changes the sums on the accounting page (or data such as VAT % or deduction right), the dimensioning will not adjust automatically and the dimension sums must be adjusted manually. If the sums of accounting entries dimensions do not balance, the total Set value (%) of an accounting row’s dimension on the Dimensions page will be other than 100%. Another way of verifying whether the sums balance is to go to the accounting row’s Transaction dimensions page and checking whether any figures are highlighted in red.
The number of dimension items to which the sum has been distributed is displayed by row.
If you click on the Transactions to rows or Rows to transactions button on the Accounting page, the dimension entries will be deleted and created again using default values.
When you delete an accounting row, the dimension entries made for that row will also be deleted.
If you change information that will affect accounting on the invoice, the accounting page will be generated again. Any dimension entries will be deleted and made again using default values.
Clicking on the Dimensions button will open the Dimensions page. The receipt’s accounting entries are displayed at the bottom of the page. If dimensioning has not been performed, the top of the page will be empty.
If dimensioning has been performed, the dimensions will be displayed at the top of the page.
Read more from What are dimensions? and Dimensioning
Correction entry
When corrections are made to existing Accounting pages, the Correction entry button will appear on the page. Clicking on this button will open the previous version of the Accounting page. You can navigate back to the Accounting page by clicking on the Close button.
Correction entries will be made if:
- More than two months have passed from the receipt’s accounting date AND the receipt was created more than two months ago AND the receipt has not been edited in two days
"Correction entries can be made directly to the posting without employing the correction entry procedure if the correction is made within the time periods specified for making correction entries (Accounting Act, Chapter 2, Section 4(2)), that is, if the correction is made within two months of the calendar month to which the business transaction is dated, or within two months of the end of the period."