☰ Chapter index
01 Before we start
The Finance module is the accounting engine in PZone ERP: the general ledger, the journals, the reports, and the closing. You find it in the menu as “Finance” (the wallet icon) or at /finance — it is an add-on activated by the platform administrator.
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The big idea: the ledger is fed automatically. Everything you did in the previous chapters — a client payment certificate, a supplier invoice, a warehouse receipt and issue, a subcontractor certificate, payroll, rent — is posted here as a double entry with no intervention. Your role is mostly setup, review, and closing, not entering journals by hand.
- How many tabs?
- 24 tabs in a horizontal bar, the default being Payables. They progress from setup (chart of accounts, opening balances) to operations (payables/receivables, journals) to reports and closing.
- Who uses it?
- A management-oriented module: Owner and Admin for everything, Manager for operations (invoices, journals, operational approvals). The policy and sensitive-data tabs (opening balances, bank reconciliation, provisions, audit…) are for Owner and Admin only (Section 08).
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Two accounting rules govern the module: (1) a posted journal is not edited — it is corrected with a reversing entry. (2) Every event is posted once and is reversed automatically when its document is reopened — so there is no duplication or repetition.
02 First-time accounting setup
Before automatic posting works smoothly, the accountant sets up the basics once — and most of it is ready or optional.
- Chart of accounts
- It is created automatically in the Egyptian format the first time you open the tab, and is fully editable (code · name · type · parent account). The accounts that carry a “system key” are the ones that receive the automatic postings — don't delete them; disable them when needed. An account that has movement cannot be deleted (only disabled).
- Opening balances for Owner and Admin
- Enter the opening trial balance at the start-up date, and it is posted as a single journal; any difference goes to “opening-balances equity.” Re-entering reverses the old and posts the new.
- Cost centers for Owner and Admin
- Define them early (code · name) to tag the journal and payroll lines with them, so the revenue/cost/net report appears for each center.
- Periods and the rest of the policies
- Periods are open by default and you close them month by month (Section 07). And configure the approval limits (journals and payments), the currency rates, the taxes, and the e-invoice as you need.
03 Automatic posting: the heart of the module
This is the most important concept in the chapter. Operational events in the other modules produce double-entry journals in the general ledger automatically — and from the ledger all the reports are built.
- The client certificate
- At approval: contract revenue + receivables + retention debit + VAT payable. At payment: bank collection against the receivables.
- The supplier invoice
- At payment approval (after the three-way match): payables + input VAT. At payment: bank against the payables (with exchange differences if any).
- The warehouse
- Receipt (GRN): inventory against a receipt clearing account. Issue to a project: project material cost against inventory — and here the material cost enters the income statement, tagged with the project.
- The subcontractor certificate · payroll · rent
- An approved subcontractor certificate: subcontract cost + subcontract retention; and when paid: bank. Payroll: a payroll expense distributed across cost centers and projects against liabilities (social insurance/taxes/net). And the monthly rent and asset movements are posted likewise.
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Because every automatic journal carries its source, from “journal entries” you can trace any figure in the reports back to the event that created it.
04 Payables and receivables
Two daily operational tabs: Payables (what you owe suppliers) and Receivables (what clients owe you).
- Payables
- Invoices are created from purchase orders (procurement): choose the order, and its lines come in. Approval for payment requires a full three-way match, so the journal is posted and it becomes “approved for payment.” Columns: the invoice · the supplier · the purchase order · the date · the total · the status (received/approved/paid/canceled).
- The payment-approval gate
- When an invoice exceeds a defined limit, a “payment approval” action appears for Owner and Admin only; others see “awaiting payment approval” — a segregation of duties that protects disbursement. The rule prevents payment before approval.
- Receivables
- Client claims from the approved payment certificates: “outstanding” = approved and not yet collected. The tab shows the billed, the collected, the outstanding, and the retention held by clients, with debt aging, a collection log, and an account statement — most of it read-only except recording collection actions.
05 Journals, accounts, and audit
Even with automatic posting, manual journals remain available for exceptional cases — governed by controls that protect the integrity of the books.
- Journal entries
- A double entry (debit = credit), and the rule enforces balance at posting. A posted entry is not editable — it is corrected with a reversing entry. The automatic journals also appear here, each with a badge of its source.
- Approval and segregation of duties
- Manual journals above a certain limit become drafts awaiting the approval of Owner/Admin before posting; others see “awaiting the approver.” (Like the payment-approval gate in Payables.)
- Chart of accounts
- Editing it is for editors: add/rename/enable. Don't delete a “system-key” account or an account with movement — just disable it.
- Audit log for Owner and Admin
- An immutable trail of the most important changes (journals, chart of accounts, supplier invoices): when · who · the record · the action · the change.
06 Financial reports
All the reports are built from the posted journals only. From the Financial reports tab you print the income statement and the balance sheet (with a check of the balance-sheet equation); the rest of the statements are in their own tabs.
| Statement / report | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Income statement and balance sheet | The “Financial reports” tab |
| Trial balance | The “Trial balance” tab |
| Cash flow statement · changes in equity | Exported from the reports tab |
| Cash-flow forecast (monthly 6 months · weekly 13 weeks · company or single project · with chart) | The “Cash-flow forecast” tab |
| Budget vs actual | The “Budget vs actual” tab |
| Project costing (estimate at completion · margin) | The “Project costing” tab |
| Project profitability from the ledger | Exported from the reports tab |
| VAT return and the tax register | The Taxes / e-invoice tabs |
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Most of these reports are exported to Excel and PDF. And “Project costing” and “Budget vs actual” link the books to your projects: the actual cost of each project against its budget.
07 Periods and closing
The Periods tab closes the books and runs the monthly rent posting. And closing is at two levels — don't confuse them.
- Closing the months
- A twelve-month grid per year; closing a month makes the rule prevent any posting in it (and reopening is available to editors). From the same tab, the monthly rent posting for each active contract (and what's already posted is skipped).
- The annual close
- A journal dated 31 December zeroes the revenue and expense accounts to retained earnings, then all the months are closed. Undoing is by reversing the closing entry.
- Two different levels of closing
- Closing the accounting period (here) closes the books at the company level. Whereas closing the billing period (at the project level, from the billing module — Ch. 4) freezes the “work in progress” snapshot for that period. Don't confuse them.
- Project closeout
- There is no single “close project” button; it is achieved in practice by three: (1) releasing the project's retentions, (2) closing its billing periods, (3) the annual close of the books.
08 Permissions — and the summary
| Action | Owner | Admin | Manager | Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viewing payables/receivables, journals, and reports (read) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supplier invoices — create/approve/pay | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Manual journals — create/post | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Chart of accounts · periods · assets | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Payment/journal approval over the limit · releasing retentions | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| The sensitive tabs (opening · bank · provisions · audit · custody · periodic · cost centers) | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
The rule: operations (invoices, journals, accounts, periods) are for editors (Owner/Admin/Manager); and the sensitive approvals (payment approval, journal approval, releasing retentions) and the policy tabs are for Owner and Admin only — a segregation of duties to protect the money and the books.
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Summary of the book so far: from registration and the company (Ch. 1), to the library and pricing (Ch. 2), to execution and monitoring (Ch. 3), to money and payment certificates (Ch. 4), to the books and closing (Ch. 5) — a full project cycle from the bid to closeout. The spending and support modules (procurement, warehouses, contracts, HR…) remain for later chapters.