Accounting documents

Water charges, customer credits, supplier expenses and adjustments are all accounting documents. Each has a record number, a subject, a document type, the business partner it concerns, the document date and the gross amount, and each belongs to one organization. Its lines carry the quantity, unit price, tax, net amount and the ledger account each amount books to.

A document moves from draft to review, then to approved, posted, reversed or rejected. Every change raises its revision number. Reviewers and posting both check the revision they expect, so if a preparer edits a document after a reviewer opened it, the reviewer’s decision is refused instead of approving something they never saw.

The accounting preparer builds documents; the reviewer approves them; the controller posts them.

• Lines that add up. Line arithmetic is checked before approval, so quantity times price plus tax matches the net and gross amounts.
• Evidence attached. Meter runs, contracts and correspondence are attached to the document as evidence, marked internal or shared.
• Owned by a person. Each document has an owner, so questions about it go to one person.

Agree the document types you use and the ledger accounts each normally books to. Agree numbering for record numbers, which documents need evidence, and who may send a document for review. Prepare examples of a monthly water charge, a leak credit, a supplier expense with tax and a correcting adjustment.

A preparer builds a credit for a customer whose meter was misread. The document carries one line booking the credit to the water revenue account, with the corrected reading attached as evidence. While it waits in review, the preparer spots a typo and edits the subject, which raises the revision. The reviewer, who opened the earlier revision, tries to approve and is told the document has changed. They reopen it, see the current version and approve that, so the decision on record matches what was approved.

• My accounting documents — The preparer’s own documents and their status.
• Document register — All documents by type, partner, amount and status.

• Document approval and posting: From draft to a posted, balanced journal.

Check the data model before importing documents.