shuleos

Accounts, categories and expense settings

Set up the cash box and bank accounts, the categories spending is grouped under, and whether expenses need approval.

Checked on the ShuleOS demo school Who: Bursar, school admin 8 min read

Three small screens prepare the ground for recording expenses.

Accounts

An account is where the school's money is kept: the cash box, or a bank account.

  1. Open Expenses → Accounts. You see each account with its type, bank, Balance and whether it is active.

    Accounts

  2. Click New account and fill in:

    The new account form

Field What to enter
Name For example Cash box or CRDB Bank, operations. It must be different from other accounts.
Type Cash or Bank account.
Bank, Account number Shown for bank accounts.
Opening balance How much is in it now. Later changes are made with Add money or Correct balance.
Active Inactive accounts are kept for history but no longer offered for new expenses.

What you can do to an account

Action What it does
Add money Record money put into the account, such as a deposit or cash from fees. It adds to the balance.
Correct balance After counting the cash or checking the bank statement, enter what is really in it. The difference is recorded, with an optional reason.
History Every movement in and out.
Edit, Make inactive Change details, or retire the account.
Delete Removes the account completely, and only while nothing has moved on it.

Print statement opens a printable statement for one account, or all, between two dates.

Categories

Categories group spending: Utilities, Repairs and maintenance, Food and kitchen and so on.

  1. Open Expenses → Categories. Each shows its sub-categories and how many expenses it holds.

    Expense categories

  2. Click New expense category, enter the Name, and optionally add Sub-categories (for example Electricity and Water under Utilities). Click Create.

    The new expense category form

  3. Make inactive retires a category without losing its history. Import categories loads many from a file.

The Salaries category is used by payroll.

Expense settings

Open Expenses → Settings.

Expense settings

  • Expenses need approval:
    • Off: an expense is paid as soon as it is recorded and taken from its account straight away.
    • On: it waits as Waiting for approval and is only taken from the account once approved.
    • Expenses already recorded are not affected when you change it.

Click Save settings.

If something goes wrong

What you see What it means
This school already has an account with that name Use another name.
An account cannot be deleted Money has moved on it. Make it inactive instead.
A category is missing when recording an expense It is inactive.

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