Finance
A complete finance suite — accounts, payroll, reconciliation, forecasting, and P&L reporting.
What's Included
TotalApp's Finance module covers the full financial cycle of a small-to-medium business — from maintaining a chart of accounts to generating a real-time profit and loss statement. All 8 Finance screens share the same underlying data store, so a payment recorded in Accounts Receivable immediately shows up in Profit & Loss.
Cross-Module Data Flow
Approved overtime from HR flows into Payroll. Approved HR expenses flow into Expenses & Budget. Paid invoices from Accounts Receivable flow into Profit & Loss. No manual data transfer is ever required between modules.
| Screen | Primary Purpose | Key Action |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Accounts | Chart of accounts and journal entries | Create accounts, post transactions |
| Payroll | Monthly salary processing | Calculate, review, and approve payroll |
| Accounts Receivable | Customer invoices and collections | Create invoices, record payments |
| Bank Reconciliation | Match bank statements to books | Import transactions, auto-match, finalise |
| Budget & Forecasting | Annual planning and variance tracking | Enter planned figures, track actuals |
| Expenses & Budget | Departmental spend control | Set department budgets, review usage |
| Profit & Loss | Income statement | View P&L by period, export |
Finance Screen Guide
Financial Accounts
The chart of accounts is the foundation of every other Finance screen. Create account codes, classify them as Asset/Liability/Equity/Revenue/Expense, and post journal entries.
Payroll
Monthly payroll workspace. Base salary plus approved overtime minus deductions equals net pay. Auto-populated from HR data. Approve individually or in bulk.
Accounts Receivable
Create customer invoices, track outstanding balances, record payments, and monitor the aging report to catch overdue accounts early.
Bank Reconciliation
Two-column layout — bank statement transactions on the left, book entries on the right. Auto-match by amount and date; manually pair anything the algorithm misses.
Budget & Forecasting
Set annual budget targets per category. Actuals pull in from Financial Accounts. Variance column shows over/under budget in green or red. Year-end forecast calculated automatically.
Expenses & Budget
Departmental spend vs. budget limit. Approved HR expense claims feed in automatically. Usage bars turn amber at 80% and red at 100% of budget.
Profit & Loss
A live income statement: Revenue − COGS = Gross Profit; Gross Profit − OpEx = Operating Income; ± Other = Net Income. Monthly, quarterly, or annual view.
Dual Style System
Finance screens support two distinct visual modes, switchable from Settings → Appearance → Screen Style. Choose the mode that best fits your team's preference or client expectations:
Workstation (Default)
- Dark glass panels with backdrop blur
- Ghost + glow primary buttons (border + subtle shadow)
- Indigo/emerald accent palette
- Preferred by developers and internal power users
Enterprise
- White panels with subtle shadow borders
- Filled solid buttons (bg-emerald / bg-indigo)
- Slate/grey secondary palette
- Preferred by accountants and traditional ERP users
Switching the setting takes effect immediately and applies to all Finance screens at once. There is no per-screen setting — it is a single global toggle.
Client Deployments
If you are deploying TotalApp for a client who comes from a traditional ERP background (SAP, Sage, QuickBooks), set the style to Enterprise before their first demo. The familiar light corporate aesthetic reduces the "this looks different" objection and lets them focus on functionality.
Data Persistence
All financial data in TotalApp is stored in server-backed JSON files. This means:
- Survives page refresh — refreshing your browser tab never loses financial data.
- No local storage — data is never stored in browser memory or localStorage, which can be cleared accidentally.
- Single source of truth — multiple users on the same network see the same data. One person approving a payroll run is immediately visible to another user checking the payroll screen.
- Future-ready — the storage layer is designed for Firebase migration. When cloud sync is needed, only the service layer changes; every screen and interaction stays the same.
Getting Started
Follow this recommended setup sequence to get the Finance module operational:
- Set up your chart of accounts — go to Financial Accounts and create your core accounts: at minimum a Revenue account (code 4000), a Payroll Expense account (code 5100), and a Bank account (code 1010).
- Run your first payroll — go to Payroll, select the current month, review the pre-populated employee rows (pulled from HR), and click Approve All.
- Create your first invoice — go to Accounts Receivable, click New Invoice, fill in the customer and line items, and set the due date.
- Check Profit & Loss — go to Profit & Loss and select the current month. You should see payroll expenses and any paid invoices already reflected in the statement.