Part 4 · Using software and AI · Chapter 4.6
Accounts and tax in software
Draft: the wording may change.
The idea
In good software, nobody "does the accounts" as a separate job. Each document posts its own balanced entry the moment it is saved, and the ledgers, trial balance and GST reports are calculated from those postings. The accountant's work moves from typing entries to checking them.
At the counter: one day's documents
On 5 October the office saves these documents. Nobody opens a journal.
| Document | Kind | Postings the software writes |
|---|---|---|
| 42 sales bills | Money and stock | Debit each customer, credit Sales and GST Output |
| 3 credit notes (returns) | Money and stock | The reverse of the bill lines, and stock back in |
| 2 purchase bills | Money and stock | Debit Purchases and GST Input, credit the company |
| 31 receipts | Money only | Debit Cash or Bank, credit the customer |
| 1 rent payment | Money only | Debit Rent, credit Bank |
| 1 GRN | Stock only | No accounting postings — stock moves only |
That is 80 documents and a few hundred postings, every one tied to its document and every document balanced. This is the bill is the entry (chapter 1.5) running all day.
What the accountant does now
- Checks exceptions, not every entry. The software lists documents without postings, postings without documents, and edits made today (chapter 1.18).
- Matches the bank. Bank statement lines are matched to receipts and payments; whatever is left over needs a document.
- Passes journal vouchers only where no document exists — depreciation, opening balances, year-end provisions. If you are writing many journal vouchers, a document is being skipped.
- Locks the month once checked, so nobody edits a period that is closed or filed (chapter 1.14).
GST reports, ready
Because every bill carries its customer's GSTIN, the product's HSN code and the tax rate from masters (chapter 4.3), the outward supply details for GSTR-1 come straight from the bills. Purchase bills give your input credit.
But "ready" means ready to check, not ready to file:
- Match your purchase bills against the inward details the GST portal shows from your suppliers' filings (what people call 2B matching). A purchase bill the supplier has not reported is credit you may not get yet.
- Check e-invoice and e-way bill rules for your turnover and your goods; the limits change, so check the current figure on the GST portal.
- Read the summary before filing: total sales, tax by rate, credit notes. If October's tax is twice September's, find out why first.
Common mistake
Fixing a report with a journal voucher. GSTR-1 shows ₹2,000 less than the sales ledger, so someone passes a journal entry to "make it match". Now the books agree and nobody knows why they disagreed. Find the document behind the gap — a bill with no GSTIN, a credit note on the wrong date — and fix that document. The reports correct themselves.
Where you'll use this
This chapter automates the bill is the entry (chapter 1.5), the five link rules (chapter 1.18) and replace, never patch (chapter 1.14). The GST side is the relay race (chapter 1.15) and the monthly exam (chapter 2.6): the software prepares the paper, a person still sits the exam.
Check yourself
- Does a GRN create accounting postings?
- You are writing ten journal vouchers a week. What does that suggest?
- GSTR-1 and the sales ledger differ by ₹2,000. What is the right fix?
Answers
- No. It moves stock only; the purchase bill creates the postings.
- Real documents — bills, credit notes, receipts — are being skipped and replaced by journal entries.
- Find the document that causes the gap and correct it. Never pass a journal entry just to make two reports agree.