Accounting & Automated Bookkeeping

The books post themselves

Almost every accounting entry in Qvian originates from an operational event. This is the central idea: you run the business, and the accounting follows.

Revenue is recognised when it is earned

Taking money is not the same as earning it. When a guest pays for a stay in advance, that money is a liability — you owe them a service. It becomes revenue only when the service is delivered:

• On payment — cash or a receivable increases, and Customer Deposits increases. No revenue yet.
• On delivery — Customer Deposits reduces and Revenue is recognised.

This is why a busy booking period can show large deposits and modest revenue. Both figures are correct; they are measuring different things.

Common Tasks

How to Read Your Profit and Loss (P&L, income statement, am I making money, profit report)

The report that answers whether the business made money over a period.

Required permission: Accounting read

1. Go to Accounting → Reports in the left sidebar
2. Open Profit & Loss under Financial Statements
3. Set the period you want
4. Read revenue, cost of goods sold and the resulting gross margin, then operating expenses below

Result: You see revenue against expenses for the period, and the profit or loss.

Note: Gross margin is only meaningful if cost of goods sold is being captured. If margin looks impossibly high, check that goods receipts are being recorded and stock is being consumed rather than sold from a catalogue with no cost.

How to Read Your Balance Sheet (balance sheet, what is the business worth, assets and liabilities)

The position at a point in time, rather than performance over a period.

Required permission: Accounting read

1. Go to Accounting → Reports and open Balance Sheet
2. Set the date you want the position as at
3. Review Assets — resources owned, including cash, receivables and inventory
4. Review Liabilities — obligations owed, including payables, deposits and tax
5. Review Equity

Result: You see what the business owns and owes at that date.

Note: Customer Deposits sitting in liabilities is money received for services not yet delivered. A large balance is normal for a hotel with forward bookings — it is not profit.

How to Trace a Figure Back to Its Transactions (general ledger, drill down, what makes up this number, audit an account)

Every reported figure is traceable to the transactions behind it.

1. Go to Accounting → Reports and open General Ledger
2. Choose the account and the period
3. Review each transaction with its date, description and running balance
4. Open a transaction to see its full journal entry and the operational document behind it

Result: You can attribute an unexpected balance to specific transactions rather than guessing.

Note: This is the first place to go when an account looks wrong. Almost always the answer is a small number of transactions, not a systemic problem.

How to Write a Manual Journal Entry (manual entry, adjustment, journal entry, accrual)

For genuine adjustments — accruals, depreciation, corrections agreed with your accountant — that no operational event produces.

Required permission: Journal entry create (accountant or manager)

1. Go to Accounting → Journal Entries in the left sidebar
2. Click Create Journal Entry
3. Set the date and a description explaining why the entry exists
4. Add the debit and credit lines. The entry cannot be saved until they balance
5. Save

Result: The entry is posted and appears in the general ledger and the financial reports.

Note: Write a description someone can understand in a year. Adjustment tells a future reader nothing; Accrue December electricity, invoice not yet received tells them everything.

How to Find Out Who Owes You Money (receivables, AR aging, outstanding invoices, who owes us)

See outstanding customer balances and how overdue they are.

Required permission: Accounting read

1. Go to Accounting → Reports and open AR Aging under Account Reports
2. Review balances grouped by how long they have been outstanding
3. Use AR/AP Summary for the combined position and net figure

Result: You see which customers owe what, and for how long.

Note: To act on it rather than just read it, use Collect Payment, which turns the aging into a working list.

How to Add an Account to the Chart of Accounts (new account, chart of accounts, add ledger account)

Add an account where the standard set does not cover something you need to report on separately.

Required permission: Accounting (manager or administrator)

1. Go to Accounting → Chart of Accounts in the left sidebar
2. Create a new account
3. Give it a code that fits the existing numbering, and a clear name
4. Choose its type — Revenue, Expense, asset, Liability or Equity
5. Save

Result: The account is available for journal entries, mappings and reports.

Note: Add accounts sparingly. A chart with a hundred barely-used accounts is harder to read than one with thirty, and every extra account is another thing to map if you sync to external accounting.

How to Check the Books Balance (trial balance, do the books balance, check accounting)

A quick integrity check before closing a period.

1. Go to Accounting → Reports and open Trial Balance
2. Confirm total debits equal total credits
3. Scan for accounts with balances on the wrong side — an asset in credit, or a liability in debit

Result: You have confirmed the ledger is internally consistent and spotted any account behaving unexpectedly.

Note: An asset account with a credit balance is usually the interesting one — it often means a payment was recorded twice, or against the wrong account.

The reports available

Related areas

• Registers & Reconciliation — how the trading day reaches the ledger
• Tax Statements — GST returns and the Output Tax Summary
• Green Tax — the Maldives environmental levy
• Bank Reconciliation — matching the ledger against the bank
• Business Units — separate books per unit, and settling between them
• QuickBooks — syncing to external accounting