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- Small Business Accounting
- Bank feeds
- Payments and document delivery
- Tax and reporting
Accounting for Small Business keeps day-to-day books for an owner-managed business with a finance team or outsourced bookkeeper. Customer invoices, supplier bills, incoming and outgoing payments, expense claims and bank activity feed a double-entry general ledger.
Journal entries in one list
| Journal entry number | Date | Description | Entry type | Total debit | Total credit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JE-57139 | 21 Oct | Monthly rent for workshop | Standard | 570 | 70 | |
| JE-86659 | 12 Oct | Customer payment on April invoice | Adjusting | 920 | 210 | |
| JE-90230 | 15 Oct | Supplier bill for packaging | Reversing | 280 | 150 | |
| JE-13895 | 16 Oct | Payroll funding transfer | Recurring | 570 | 130 | |
| JE-12168 | 16 Oct | Bank fee for outgoing wire | Standard | 180 | 910 |
Review supplier bills and payment instructions before releasing funds.
Every feature works on the same records. Pick one to see the screen your team works in.
Keep a traceable ledger behind daily transactions and financial statements.
Approval conditions
| Journal entry number | Date | Description | Total debit | Total credit | Prepared by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JE-29031 | 22 Oct | Monthly rent for workshop | 350 | 350 | Sara Nguyen | |
| JE-98273 | 16 Oct | Customer payment on April invoice | 630 | 630 | Idris Hassan | |
| JE-87145 | 15 Oct | Supplier bill for packaging | 440 | 440 | Felix Weber | |
| JE-35141 | 22 Oct | Payroll funding transfer | 170 | 170 | Noor Alami | |
| JE-49973 | 09 Oct | Bank fee for outgoing wire | 760 | 760 | Felix Weber |
Follow customer invoices from issue through receipt allocation.
Invoices
Review supplier bills and payment instructions before releasing money.
Approval waits for the controller / CFO
| Bill number | Vendor | Bill date | Due date | Total amount | Prepared by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-71316 | Willowbrook Cleaning Co. | 21 Oct | 27 Oct | 770 | Amara Diallo | |
| BLL-57568 | Blue Heron Printworks | 20 Oct | 23 Oct | 910 | Mina Sato | |
| BLL-14368 | Blue Heron Printworks | 17 Oct | 21 Oct | 460 | Amara Diallo | |
| BLL-90104 | Juniper Lane Bakery | 12 Oct | 20 Oct | 730 | Sara Nguyen | |
| BLL-47216 | Northbank Office Supply | 19 Oct | 27 Oct | 190 | Idris Hassan |
Explain the difference between bank activity and posted books.
Bank transactions
| Bank account | Transaction date | Description | Counterparty | Amount | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tax reserve savings, ending 1944 | 13 Oct | Monthly rent for workshop | Juniper Lane Bakery | 890 | Unmatched | |
| Equipment reserve, ending 3058 | 18 Oct | Customer payment on April invoice | Northbank Office Supply | 390 | Unmatched | |
| Petty cash drawer | 16 Oct | Supplier bill for packaging | Willowbrook Cleaning Co. | 340 | Unmatched | |
| Tax reserve savings, ending 1944 | 12 Oct | Payroll funding transfer | Tidal Ridge Couriers | 870 | Unmatched | |
| Merchant settlement, ending 6620 | 10 Oct | Bank fee for outgoing wire | Crescent Mill Carpentry | 770 | Unmatched |
Keep employee expenses and close decisions attached to their supporting records.
Approval waits for the controller / CFO
| Payee number | Employee | Entity | Currency | Effective from | Prepared by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-42460 | Mina Sato | Harborstone Packaging Co. | Canadian dollar (CAD) | 18 Oct | Clara Bennett | |
| EP-23546 | Clara Bennett | Northbank Office Supply | British pound (GBP) | 30 Oct | Idris Hassan | |
| EP-41798 | Mina Sato | Tidal Ridge Couriers | British pound (GBP) | 11 Oct | Noor Alami | |
| EP-44724 | Sara Nguyen | Clara Bennett | New Zealand dollar (NZD) | 25 Oct | Evan Brooks | |
| EP-78923 | Ravi Mehta | Ravi Mehta | New Zealand dollar (NZD) | 16 Oct | Amara Diallo |
Read financial statements with a path back to their source entries.
Journal entries
| Journal entry number | Date | Description | Source | Total debit | Total credit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JE-54461 | 10 Oct | Monthly rent for workshop | Manual | 760 | 760 | |
| JE-27322 | 12 Oct | Customer payment on April invoice | AR | 550 | 550 | |
| JE-54420 | 09 Oct | Supplier bill for packaging | AP | 430 | 430 | |
| JE-60339 | 15 Oct | Payroll funding transfer | Expense | 770 | 770 | |
| JE-26246 | 20 Oct | Bank fee for outgoing wire | Bank | 540 | 540 |
Transaction to financial statements ships ready to use. 3 steps need a named approval before the work moves on: Approve work (Controller / CFO), Reconcile (Controller / CFO) and Close period (Controller / CFO).
Check the supplier identity, invoice reference, expense account and duplicate-document conditions before submitting the bill and supporting evidence.
Independently approve the current document revision and authorized payment instruction. Bank submission remains distinct from clearance, and unresolved outcomes keep their original instruction identity.
A preparer matches each bank row once and explains timing items. Independently approve only when the adjusted statement balance equals posted books; retain source statements and match references.
Resolve pending work, reconcile subledgers and bank balances, then close the period atomically with posting locks. Reopening needs a reason and a retained decision.
Produce entity-scoped statements from posted ledger lines and aging from open document balances. Preserve reporting basis, dates and supporting drill-down; separate external filing acknowledgments.
Open any journal entry to see its expense claims, the roles that work on it, its process stages and its approvals on one page.
Date, Total debit, Total credit and Prepared by.
Each line is linked to this journal entry.
Controller / CFO, each with their own permissions.
Every status change, in order.
Approve work and Reconcile, with who decides.
Standard
| Claim number | Employee | Claim date |
|---|---|---|
| EC-57481 | Amara Diallo | 22 Oct |
| EC-77932 | Idris Hassan | 26 Oct |
| EC-21977 | Luis Ortega | 30 Oct |
Signed in as Controller / CFO
| Decision | Approver | |
|---|---|---|
| Approve workIndependently approve the current document revision and authorized payment instruction. | Controller / CFO | |
| ReconcileA preparer matches each bank row once and explains timing items. | Controller / CFO | |
| Close periodResolve pending work, reconcile subledgers and bank balances, then close the period atomically with posting locks. | Controller / CFO | |
| Approve Bills, payments made, expense claims, vendor payees, employee payees and bank reconciliations within authority | Controller / CFO |
Everyone opens Small Business Accounting to the work that is theirs. Pick a role to see what it starts with.
Admin works within the record, field and action scope below.
Controller / CFO works within the record, field and action scope below.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Journal entries · Controller / CFO
| Journal entry number | Date | Description | Entry type | Total debit | Total credit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JE-57139 | 21 Oct | Monthly rent for workshop | Standard | 570 | 70 | |
| JE-86659 | 12 Oct | Customer payment on April invoice | Adjusting | 920 | 210 | |
| JE-90230 | 15 Oct | Supplier bill for packaging | Reversing | 280 | 150 | |
| JE-13895 | 16 Oct | Payroll funding transfer | Recurring | 570 | 130 | |
| JE-12168 | 16 Oct | Bank fee for outgoing wire | Standard | 180 | 910 |
AP Clerk works within the record, field and action scope below.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bills · AP Clerk
| Bill number | Vendor | Bill date | Due date | Total amount | Prepared by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-19767 | Blue Heron Printworks | 18 Oct | 23 Oct | 880 | Evan Brooks | |
| BLL-79263 | Tidal Ridge Couriers | 16 Oct | 23 Oct | 370 | Sara Nguyen | |
| BLL-51243 | Juniper Lane Bakery | 02 Nov | 10 Nov | 950 | Luis Ortega | |
| BLL-76424 | Crescent Mill Carpentry | 13 Oct | 15 Oct | 30 | Sara Nguyen | |
| BLL-32712 | Blue Heron Printworks | 31 Oct | 09 Nov | 620 | Felix Weber |
AR Clerk works within the record, field and action scope below.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Invoices · AR Clerk
Viewer works within the record, field and action scope below.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Invoices · Viewer
Read operational and financial results with their source context.
This quarter
How far records got this quarter
| Stage | Reached | Step | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft | 49 | ||
| Submitted | 27 | 55% | |
| Approved | 12 | 44% | |
| Posted | 7 | 58% |
Sample totals per stage
All GL accounts for a selected period with opening, debit/credit movement, and closing balances. Drills from summary account down to source journal entry lines. The anchor report — every other statement derives from it.
Assets, Liabilities, Equity rolled up to summary accounts as of a selected date. Comparative current vs. prior period.
Revenue, COGS, Operating Expenses, Other Income/Expense, Net Income for a date range. Month, QTD, YTD columns with prior-period comparatives.
Indirect method: operating, investing, financing activities derived from Balance Sheet movement plus non-cash reconciliations. Period and YTD.
Open invoices bucketed 0–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ days past due, by customer. Drives the dunning queue.
Open bills bucketed 0–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ days, by vendor. Drives the pay-run scheduling view.
Every posted journal entry line for a selected account and date range with running balances. The audit-trail report — used at close and at year-end.
See how Small Business Accounting fits your kind of team.
Businesses that need reliable books without running a group consolidation programme.
Service businesses managing customer invoices, supplier costs and employee expenses.
Businesses reconciling customer receipts, supplier payments and bank accounts.
Each stage of transaction to financial statements names the role that acts and the status it records, so a change is never anonymous.
Each stage, the role that acts and the status it records
Use Proto to configure and maintain the same product described on this website.
Set up connections through ERP.AI and Proto workflows, with every change logged.
Every record lives in a table you can see, extend and export. Add fields or whole tables in Proto.
Browse all 26 tablesStart with one team and one process, then add the rest once the basics are running.
Use Proto to select the business entities, core processes and responsible roles.
Resolve identities and preserve original document references, dates and opening positions.
Apply permissions, approval rules, calculated fields and any required integrations.
Exercise ordinary work, denied access, a correction, a conflicting edit and a repeated command.
Begin with the agreed business scope and reconcile the first operating cycle before extending it.
$0per user
The base account and everyday work in the ERP.AI app are free, for every user.
| Usage | Per $1 |
|---|---|
| Record reads (list, filter, get) | 20,000 |
| Search or aggregate queries | 4,000 |
| Record writes | 4,000 |
| Imported or synced records | 200,000 |
| Workflow runs | 2,000 |
| AI agent runs | 2,000 |
| Scheduled jobs or webhooks | 20,000 |
| File uploads (MB) | 2,000 |
| CSV or PDF exports | 100 |
Click Get started to create your ERP.AI account, then use Proto to configure your chart of accounts, periods, customers, suppliers and bank mappings. Reconcile opening balances and review one invoice, bill and bank statement with the person responsible for your books.
Yes. Customer and supplier transactions feed the local double-entry ledger. Posting validates balanced lines, accounts, entity and the open period together. Financial statements use posted entries with references back to the documents that created them.
Yes. Receipt allocation lines record how much of a confirmed receipt is applied to each invoice for the same customer, entity and currency. Partial payments leave the correct remaining balance, while excess money stays unapplied until its destination is identified.
The AP Clerk prepares the bill and supporting document. An authorized Controller / CFO independently reviews the submitted amount and payment instruction. Changing protected details requires review again; an AP Clerk’s approval-limit field does not grant approval authority.
An approved expense claim uses a reviewed employee reimbursement destination for its actual claimant. The payment checks that destination before release and completes reimbursement only when settlement is confirmed. Vendor payments and employee reimbursements keep distinct payee identities.
Retain the statement balance, add deposits in transit and subtract outstanding checks to explain timing differences. Post authorized fees or interest in the local ledger. The controller approves the reconciliation when adjusted statement and book balances agree.
Keep the original bank instruction and investigate its outcome before another payment is released. A scheduled or accepted request does not establish clearance. Reconciliation uses the bank’s verified result, preserving the link to the original bill or claim.
Ordinary posting, imports and background actions all respect the period lock. Use an authorized later-period correction or the recorded reopening procedure. Posted entries remain in history rather than being silently edited after statements have been shared.
Assign the permitted read-only reporting role. The reviewer can inspect scoped statements and supporting results without editing transactions or tax rates. Report periods, currency and the selected entity remain explicit when results are shared.
It provides entity-level books, statements and tax-reporting workpapers. Group consolidation, eliminations, budgeting and external tax filing are separate configured systems or services. Preserve the applicable tax rules and actual filing evidence with your reporting process.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.