Accounting periods and working papers

Periods

Each accounting case covers a period you set when you create it. Within the case, the Case Agent assigns each document and the transactions it finds to that period or flags them as outside it. This makes it easy to see what belongs to a quarter or a year, and what has strayed in from the wrong month.

Gaps and duplicates

When asked to organise a period, the agent reports:

• Gaps, such as a bank statement that ends on the 14th when the next one starts on the 20th, or a numbered invoice sequence with a missing number.
• Duplicates, such as the same invoice uploaded twice or a receipt that matches a card transaction already recorded.
• Outstanding items, such as a transaction on a statement with no supporting document.

Each item references the document and page it came from, and each is a proposal: you decide whether it is a real gap or an explained one.

Working papers

Working papers are the drafts the agent prepares: summaries of a period, schedules of transactions by category, lists of exceptions, and notes. They live inside the case and are versioned, so you can see what changed between drafts.

A working paper is marked draft until a member of the case reviews it. Marking it reviewed records who did so and when. Practices often use this so that one person prepares and another signs off.

What the agent does not do

• It does not post entries to an accounting system or bank feed.
• It does not calculate or file VAT or tax returns. UK VAT assistance is planned and will be released after validation.
• It does not give tax or accounting advice. Figures and categories are proposals for a person to confirm.

Exporting

Schedules and summaries can be exported from the case for use in your accounting software or to send to a client, after review.