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Beam Machine Accounting, Ledger, Reports, and Close

Detailed SOPs for chart of accounts, journals, general ledger review, financial statements, and month-end close activity.

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Keeping the Ledger Clean and Closing the Month

This page shows finance users how to check the chart of accounts, post journals, inspect the ledger, run core reports, and close periods without damaging the books.

Product: Beam Machine
Module: Accounting
Role: Accountant, Bookkeeper, Finance Manager, Reviewer
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 15 minutes first read, 5 minutes repeat
Last Updated: 2026-03-10
Version: Current Beam Machine app build in this repo

Before You Start

  • You need the correct entity and accounting period.
  • You should know whether you are posting, reviewing, reporting, or closing a period.
  • Keep supporting documents ready before you create or approve a journal.

What is accounting, ledger, and close work?

This is the part of Beam Machine that controls the financial truth of the business. On paper, this would be your chart of accounts, journal book, general ledger, financial statements, and month-end checklist. In Beam Machine, that work sits mainly in Accounting.

If the structure or postings are wrong here, every report after that becomes a cleaner-looking version of bad data.

When do you use this?

Use this page when you need to create or review journals, explain a balance, generate core accounting reports, or close a period safely.

You should also use it when someone says, "the report is wrong," because the answer is usually in the ledger before it is in the report.

Where do you find accounting work?

Primary path: Accounting in the left sidebar.
Main screens: Chart of Accounts, Journals, General Ledger, Reports, and Month End.

How to keep the books sane

Screens you will use

Screen Route What it does
Accounting home /dashboard/accounting Summary cards and entry points
Chart of Accounts /dashboard/accounting/chart-of-accounts Account structure and classifications
Journals /dashboard/accounting/journals Manual journal review
New Journal /dashboard/accounting/journals/new Create a journal entry
General Ledger /dashboard/accounting/ledger Detailed transactions with running balance
Accounting Reports /dashboard/accounting/reports Trial Balance, Income Statement, Balance Sheet entry points
Month End /dashboard/accounting/month-end Checklist, open and close periods, financial year close

Check the chart of accounts before posting

  1. Open Accounting > Chart of Accounts.
  2. Confirm the account exists before you post a line.
  3. Confirm the account number and account name match the intended classification.
  4. Stop and fix the structure first if the account setup is wrong.

✅ Checkpoint: You should be able to explain why the selected account is the correct home for the transaction.

Create a journal entry

  1. Open Accounting > Journals > New.
  2. Confirm the entity, date, and period.
  3. Enter the journal header information.
  4. Add the debit and credit line items.
  5. Check that the journal balances.
  6. Write a description that explains why the journal exists.
  7. Save the journal.

✅ Checkpoint: Another reviewer should be able to understand the journal later without asking you what it was for.

Review the general ledger properly

  1. Open Accounting > General Ledger.
  2. Select the account you need to inspect.
  3. Review the account number, account name, transaction detail, and running balance.
  4. Compare unusual movement to the source journal or source process.

✅ Checkpoint: You should be able to trace the report balance back to specific ledger movements.

Generate core accounting reports

  1. Open Accounting > Reports.
  2. Confirm the period and entity context.
  3. Open the required report such as Trial Balance, Income Statement, or Balance Sheet.
  4. Review the output before you export or circulate it.

✅ Checkpoint: If the numbers look strange, go back to the ledger before you send the report to anyone.

Run month-end without being reckless

  1. Open Accounting > Month End.
  2. Confirm the active financial year and current period.
  3. Run the checklist for the open period.
  4. Read each checklist item instead of trusting the color alone.
  5. Resolve failed items first.
  6. Close the period only when the supporting work is complete.
  7. Reopen a period only when you have a valid reason and control approval.
  8. Close the financial year only after all periods are closed.

✅ Checkpoint: A closed period should be defensible. If you cannot explain why it is closed, it is not ready to be closed.

Use the close checklist for what it is meant to do

The month-end checklist is there to stop common failure points such as:

  • unposted journal entries,
  • period activity problems,
  • reversed-journal review gaps,
  • and premature close actions.

Common Questions & Issues

"I’ll post to a rough account now and fix it in reporting later"

Why this happens: Users try to solve a source-data problem at report level.

Fix: Stop and correct the account structure or posting now. Reporting is not a cleanup tool.

"The report looks wrong, so the report page must be broken"

Why this happens: Most report issues start in the ledger or in missing postings.

Fix: Check General Ledger, the journal source, and the active period before blaming the report.

"We reopened the period because it was faster"

Why this happens: Teams use reopen as a convenience instead of a controlled exception.

Fix: Reopen only with a valid reason and review trail. Casual reopening weakens auditability fast.

"The PRD describes richer close automation than I can see"

Why this happens: Some deeper report-pack and close-automation behavior is still partial or planned.

Fix: Document the current screens as the live process and use 99-functionality-gap-map.md for the rest.

What's Next

Related Pages

SA Compliance Reference

  • Reliable accounting records support South African tax submissions, financial reporting, and audit readiness.
  • Month-end and year-end close discipline matter because later VAT, income-tax, payroll, and assurance workflows depend on these books being correct.
  • Use Beam Machine as the system record for the current build, and do not assume planned automation is already enforcing every control.

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