Financial Accounts
Manage your chart of accounts, journal entries, and running account balances.
Overview
Financial Accounts is the foundation of TotalApp's Finance module. It provides a chart of accounts, a double-entry journal for posting transactions, and a per-account ledger view showing the complete transaction history and running balance for any account.
Every other Finance screen — Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Profit & Loss — reads from and writes to the accounts you define here. Establishing a clean chart of accounts before using the other Finance screens will save significant cleanup work later.
Set Up Accounts First
Before running payroll or creating invoices, you need at least: one Bank/Cash account (Asset, e.g. code 1010), one Revenue account (e.g. code 4000), and one Payroll Expense account (e.g. code 5100). Other modules will prompt for account selection and need these to exist.
Account Types
Every account belongs to one of the five standard accounting types. The type determines how the account appears in financial statements and whether it has a debit or credit normal balance:
| Type | Normal Balance | Appears In | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Debit | Balance Sheet | Bank, Accounts Receivable, Equipment (codes 1000–1999) |
| Liability | Credit | Balance Sheet | Accounts Payable, Loans Payable, Deferred Revenue (2000–2999) |
| Equity | Credit | Balance Sheet | Owner's Equity, Retained Earnings (3000–3999) |
| Revenue | Credit | Profit & Loss | Service Revenue, Product Sales, Other Income (4000–4999) |
| Expense | Debit | Profit & Loss | Payroll, Rent, Travel, Software Licences (5000–5999) |
Creating an Account
- Click Add Account in the screen header.
- Enter an Account Code — use a numbering convention like the ranges above (e.g.
1010for Checking Account). The code must be unique. - Enter an Account Name (required) — a clear, descriptive name that will appear in journal entries and reports.
- Select the Type (Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense).
- Enter an Opening Balance if the account already has a balance as of your start date. Leave at
0for new accounts. - Select the Currency — defaults to your base currency. Multi-currency accounts show balances in both original and base currency.
- Click Save. The account appears in the chart of accounts table.
Use a Standard Numbering Scheme
Adopt a consistent code range from the start. Assets: 1000–1999. Liabilities: 2000–2999. Equity: 3000–3999. Revenue: 4000–4999. Expenses: 5000–5999. This makes the chart of accounts readable at a glance and keeps Profit & Loss in the right order.
Journal Entries
Journal entries are the mechanism for recording financial transactions. Every entry must balance — the total debits must equal the total credits. TotalApp enforces this rule and will not save an unbalanced entry.
Creating a Journal Entry
- Click New Journal Entry (or navigate to the Journal tab).
- Set the Date — the transaction date, not today's date unless they are the same.
- Enter a Description — for example "Monthly rent payment" or "Invoice #INV-0042 payment received".
- Add at least two lines — one debit and one credit. Each line needs: an Account (selected from your chart), a Debit amount or a Credit amount (not both).
- The running total at the bottom shows whether the entry balances. It must show zero difference before Save becomes active.
- Click Save to post the entry. Posted entries appear in the ledger of each affected account.
Journal Entries Cannot Be Deleted
Once posted, a journal entry is permanent. This is standard accounting practice — it maintains an auditable history. If you made an error, create a reversing entry (same amounts, debit/credit swapped) with a note referencing the original entry number, then post the correct entry.
Account Ledger
Click any account name in the chart of accounts to open its ledger. The ledger shows every transaction that affects the account, in chronological order, with a running balance after each transaction.
- Filter by date range — use the date pickers to narrow the ledger to a specific period (e.g. Q2 2026).
- Running balance — the balance after each transaction is shown in the rightmost column. The final row always shows the current account balance.
- Transaction source — each row shows whether the transaction came from a manual journal entry, a payroll run, an invoice payment, or another module.
- Export — click Export in the ledger view to download the filtered ledger as Excel for external reporting or audit purposes.
Dual Style Modes
Financial Accounts supports both visual styles. The Workstation style uses the standard dark glass panel with ghost/glow buttons — consistent with the rest of TotalApp. The Enterprise style uses white backgrounds, slate borders, and solid filled buttons — familiar to users coming from traditional accounting software like QuickBooks or Sage.
Switch at any time via Settings → Appearance → Screen Style. The underlying data and functionality are identical in both modes — only the visual presentation changes.
No Need to Switch Back
The style setting is persistent. Once you set it to Enterprise for a client deployment, it stays Enterprise until you change it. You do not need to toggle it for every session.