#Books

Every invoice, bill, payment, receipt, delivery, expense claim, payroll run and POS session in Tamra writes a journal entry. Books is where those entries live and where they add up into statements. If the other chapters are about running the business, this one is about proving it. Most people open Books for three things: a report, a manual entry, and the month-end.

#The map

The Books menu is grouped:

• Journals & ledger — Journal Entries, Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Reconciliation.
• Receivables & payables — Payments, Partner Ledger, Aged Receivable, Aged Payable.
• Reports — the hub: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Cash Flow, Changes in Equity, Budget vs Actual, Executive Summary, General Ledger, Audit Trail, Tax Returns, VAT audit file.
• Fixed assets — Assets, Asset Dashboard, Asset Categories, Depreciation Runs.
• Planning & setup — Budgets, Multi-Currency, Products (accounting view), Audit Trail.

Dashboard and Executive Summary open with the numbers a manager wants first: revenue and expenses this period against last, cash, receivables, payables, and the trend.

#Journal entries

Books → Journal Entries. Every entry has a number (JE-), a date, a currency, a reference, a narration, and lines — each with an account, a debit or a credit, an optional partner, and for foreign-currency entries the amount in that currency and the rate. Debits must equal credits; the editor won't post otherwise.

The Source column says what made the entry — Manual, Invoice, Bill, Credit Note, Payment, Expense, Stock Move, POS Order, POS Session, Payroll Run, Mfg Order, Reversal — and View source document opens it. Automatic entries are corrected from their source document (unpost the invoice, void the payment), never by hand.

Manual entries are for what no document covers: accruals, prepayment releases, loan interest, corrections between accounts. Write a narration a stranger would understand. Post locks it; Reverse creates the mirror entry dated today (the standard way to undo an accrual next month); Unpost returns a manual entry to draft when nothing depends on it. Post drafts from the list posts several at once. Posting, unposting and reversing need Journal Entries post. Journal Entries reverses and unposts manual entries; it also reverses what Move to Tamra brought in without a document of its own — the opening trial balance, and a customer's or vendor's opening credit. Those are reversed on their own date, the day before the cut-over, so the opening position is corrected and this year's figures don't move: import the corrected trial balance, or bring the right balance in, as at the same day. While that day is on or before the Books Lock Date they can't be reversed: move the lock back in Accounting Basics (a reason is asked), reverse, bring the corrected one in, and lock again. A bank set up after the trial balance gets its whole opening balance back when the trial balance is reversed; an opening credit used on an invoice or bill is taken off there first (its Payments tab, Remove). An invoice's, bill's or payment's entry is changed from its document. An entry that was ever posted isn't deleted: reverse it.

Who reads the books. Journal entries and the ledgers need Journal Entries view, and the reports Financial Reports view. A line that names a staff member — an expense claim, pay — shows who and what only to people who see everyone's claims or payroll, and to that person; its amount is always there, so the ledger adds up. The entry of a payroll run or of your own claim shows its number to whoever can open the run or the claim.

#Chart of accounts

Books → Chart of Accounts is the list of every account, with a code, a name, a type — asset, liability, equity, income, expense — a parent for grouping, a reconcile flag for accounts you match against statements (bank, cash, clearing), and a deprecated flag for accounts you no longer use but can't delete because history posted to them. A deprecated account with postings still shows on the P&L and the group reports. An account can't be deprecated while a product, category, tax, bank or till still posts to it: the message names which.

The country pack gives you a chart in the local shape. Add accounts under the right parent when you need a new revenue line or a cost centre; codes must be unique within the company. Which account a transaction posts to is decided by Account Mapping (company defaults), the product (its own income, expense, inventory or COGS accounts), and on service lines, the account chosen on the line — in that order of override.

#Ledgers and aging

• General Ledger — every posted line, filterable by account, period and partner; the running balance per account, starting from the balance brought forward before the period (shown even when the period has no lines). Click any line for its entry, and from there the source document.
• Partner Ledger — the same view for one customer or vendor: their invoices, bills, notes and payments as lines on their receivable and payable accounts, with a running balance: what they owe you or you owe them. A line in another currency also shows its amount in that currency (debits add, credits take away), added up per currency at the foot. The bank side of a payment is left out, so a vendor you've paid in full comes to zero. For a partner in another currency, an FX revaluation shows too, on its date. What you check when a statement is disputed.
• Aged Receivable · Aged Payable — open balances bucketed by age (current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, over 90), per partner, in base currency, as at any date: on a past date each document shows what it owed that day, even if it was paid later. A customer you owe, or a vendor who owes you, keeps the minus sign on the screen and in the CSV. An advance invoice is usually paid when it's made, so it owes nothing and isn't listed; one still owed (its payment voided) is, as it is in receivables in the ledger. Debit notes reduce payables.

#Reports

Books → Reports opens the hub. Each report takes a period (this month, quarter, year, custom) and, where it makes sense, a comparison period; each exports. This Year and Last Year follow your fiscal year (Settings → Company).

#Fixed assets

Equipment, vehicles, furniture, buildings — anything you own that loses value over years rather than being expensed at once.

Asset Categories define the defaults for a kind of asset: the asset account, the accumulated depreciation account, the depreciation expense account, the method and the life in months. An Asset has a name, category, cost, acquisition date, in-service date (depreciation starts here), method, life, and notes; the page shows its monthly and annual depreciation, accumulated to date, and net book value. Assets come from bills: an asset account set to make assets (Chart of Accounts) turns each bill line posted to it into an asset when the bill is posted, and Fixed assets in a posted bill's ⋮ menu makes an asset from a line on an asset account or capitalizes a line that went to expense (Dr the asset, Cr the expense, dated on the bill). Added by hand, an asset is either an opening balance (Dr the asset, Cr Opening Balance Equity) or already in the books (no entry). A new asset's salvage follows its category's share of the cost until you type one, whichever you fill in first. A debit note on the bill lowers the asset's cost.

Depreciation Runs post one month at a time: preview the entries for every in-service asset, then post. Each asset is depreciated once a month; months an asset missed come in the next run; Land is never depreciated — a run leaves an asset in a Land category at its cost, whatever salvage it was saved with. A run is reversed in its own month (or on the first open day when that month is locked), once: an asset disposed of in that month since, whose disposal already took the month's charge back, is left out. Sell an asset through a customer invoice — it carries the VAT and the customer — or write it off; the depreciation is brought to the disposal day first and Tamra posts the gain or loss. While the sale stands, its invoice line can't be credited: for money back on the asset, post a journal entry to its gain or loss on disposal. A draft asset added by mistake is deleted, not disposed of. The Asset Dashboard shows the register's value, this year's charge, and what's fully depreciated. The (i) link How does depreciation work? on an asset explains the arithmetic.

#Tax returns

Books → Tax Returns. For a UAE company the VAT 201 return is built for a period from the posted documents: invoices and credit notes, till sales and refunds, bills and supplier debit notes, and approved expense claims. Each line goes in the box its rate's VAT treatment points to (Settings → Tax): standard-rated in Box 1 for sales and Box 9 for purchases, zero-rated in Box 4, exempt in Box 5, and a reverse charge in Boxes 3 and 10. Out-of-scope lines are in no box. A credit note or debit note lowers the period it is dated in, an invoice's shipping counts at its own rate, and a document's discount lowers its amounts and its VAT. Opening balances brought in with Move to Tamra are left out. Box 12 is the VAT due, Box 13 the VAT you recover and Box 14 the difference, each document rounded once, in its own currency's decimals (a dinar bill's VAT to the fils, then into dirhams at its rate). Summary by rate shows each rate's base and tax; Documents lists every invoice, bill and note behind a box so any figure can be traced. A line with no rate, or a rate with no treatment set, is named above the boxes so you can put it right.

The emirate. Standard-rated supplies are reported in the emirate you supply from, your company's (Settings → Company Profile → State / Emirate), whoever the customer is. Until it is set, the return says so.

The period. The quarter buttons follow Settings → Tax → VAT quarter starts in: January, February or March, from your FTA tax period, and every third month after. Figures follow the document date; a claim counts on the date its approval posted. Tourist refunds (Box 2) and goods cleared through customs (Boxes 6 and 7) aren't captured: enter them in EmaraTax if they apply.

VAT you can't recover, and the reverse charge. On a rate with a share of its VAT not recoverable, such as Standard Rated (5%), not recoverable for client entertainment, a bill or claim books that share as part of the cost, and the return leaves it out of Boxes 9 and 13; an expense with none of its VAT recoverable is left out of Box 9 altogether. A bill from a supplier abroad on Reverse Charge (5%) carries no VAT: posting books the VAT due and the VAT recoverable in one entry, and the bill fills Boxes 3 and 10. A sale on a reverse-charge rate at 0% (the domestic reverse charge on gold, diamonds or electronic devices sold to a registered business) is in no box: the customer accounts for the VAT.

The books check. Above the boxes, one line says whether the return agrees with your VAT accounts: what the period's documents booked there, beside Boxes 12 and 13 (or Box 14, when one account holds both). When they differ it shows by how much; a document changed after it posted, or a rate's treatment changed since, is the usual cause. Entries that don't come from documents, such as a manual journal or a VAT payment, are listed under it.

Till sales count too. A sale at the till belongs to the day it was rung up — that day in your company's time zone — and, like every supply, to your company's emirate. Every sale that posted counts, also one refunded later (it stays in its own period); a till refund lowers the period it was made in, like a credit note. Drafts and voided sales never count. The period's last day counts whole, and a busy period is read in full, however many documents and lines it has. The Audit File (FAF) export produces the file the authority can ask for. How is this return calculated? on the page walks through the boxes.

#Budgets

Books → Budgets: a budget per fiscal year with amounts by account and month. Budget vs Actual then compares each line with the ledger — a group account with everything under it, income and costs each with their own sign, and a budget in another currency at the rate on file. Budgets don't stop anything; they inform.

#Multi-currency

The Multi-Currency page shows every foreign-currency account and open document, its book value at the reference rate, its value at today's rate, and the unrealised difference. Realised differences post by themselves when documents are paid.

Revalue posts the unrealised difference at a date you pick, usually a month-end, so the balance sheet shows foreign balances at that date's rate (Settings → Exchange Rates; the latest rate on or before the date). It lists one line per customer, vendor and foreign bank or cash account (archived ones still holding money included): what the ledger holds in the currency on that date, credit notes, payments and advances applied included, against what it cost in your currency. The difference goes to Unrealized FX Gains/Losses, receivables and payables in one entry, bank and cash in another (each only when it has lines). By default they reverse the next day, so a payment later still books its realised difference from the original rate; untick Reverse it the next day to keep it until your next revaluation, which replaces it (until then it stays in receivables and payables, also for a document paid in between).

• Posting again on the same date replaces the revaluation already there, and Reverse it takes it out: each counts once. A revaluation entry is reversed here, not from Journal Entries.
• An invoice, bill or note in another currency that a revaluation took in can't be unposted while that revaluation is in the books, also one set to reverse the next day: unposted, the document would leave the revaluation on the customer's or vendor's balance with nothing under it. The message names the revaluation by its date and entry number. Reverse it here (pick its date, Reverse it), unpost, then revalue that date again — or correct the document with a credit note (a debit note for a bill) instead.
• The date can't be in the future, or on or before the Books Lock Date.
• A balance booked at 1.00 with no rate (before 1.81), or with entries that have no amount in their currency, is named and left out: correct it first.
• Bank reconciliation leaves revaluation lines out, and a foreign bank account's balance in its own currency doesn't move. Cash Flow shows them as Exchange rate changes on cash.

What the page counts. A foreign bank account's balance in its own currency is what its entries hold in that currency (an entry with no amount in it and no rate is named, never guessed). Receivables count open credit notes against what is owed, and payables count open debit notes against, with each bill less the debit notes set against it.

How foreign documents clear. A payment is booked at the newest rate on file on or before its date (the document's own rate when there is none); the payment window shows it, and, when the bank keeps another currency, takes what actually landed or left. A document paid in parts clears exactly what it booked — also when a payment in the middle is voided and paid again — and nothing above what is owed is accepted. A credit or debit note set against a document at another rate, and an advance used on an invoice, take each off at its own rate, with the difference as a realized gain or loss; a deposit is released at the advance invoice's own rate. Statements show payments at the rate the document was cleared at, so a fully paid foreign invoice nets to zero, and a refund as money paid out. A foreign deposit or prepayment used in part shows exactly as the ledger holds it, each use at its own rate, so a statement from the beginning and one from a later date close on the same balance. A customer's statement as at a day before a deposit was used shows the deposit still held and the invoice still open, as a vendor's does for a prepayment.

Decimals. Dinars and the Omani rial keep three decimals, the yen and similar none, everything else two: documents, payments, statements, printouts and the amount in words follow the currency.

#The audit trail

Every post, unpost, void, reversal, and every change to a setting is recorded with who, when and what. Audit Trail is searchable by user, document and date. Nothing in Books is deleted; things are reversed, and the reversal is itself a record.

#Month-end and year-end

A practical order of work:

1. Reconcile every bank and cash account for the month; close their periods.
2. Post manual entries — accruals, prepayments, depreciation via the run.
3. Multi-currency revaluation if you hold foreign balances.
4. Review Aged Receivable and Aged Payable for anything to chase or write off. The books check at the top of each says whether the ledger agrees with the documents; if it doesn't, Show where lists the customers or vendors that differ and any invoice marked sent without being posted.
5. Run the VAT return if the period ends a tax quarter; check Documents behind any surprising box.
6. Read the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet; the Trial Balance if something looks off.
7. Set the Books Lock Date (Settings → Accounting Basics) to the month-end so nothing dated in the closed month can change. A posting someone makes while you set it can't land in the month you lock.

Year-end is the same. Tamra posts no closing entry when the fiscal year turns: each year's profit stays on the income and expense accounts, and the Balance Sheet shows it in equity in two lines, split at the fiscal year start in Settings → Accounting Basics: earlier years' profit as retained earnings, and net income this year. So nothing needs posting for the year's result to show in the right place. If your accountant closes the year with a journal entry into Retained Earnings, date it the last day of the year: that account then carries the amount and the earlier years' line goes to zero.

#Common questions

Can I edit a posted journal entry? No — reverse it and post the correct one. The trail shows both, which is what an auditor wants to see.

Why doesn't the P&L match the bank balance movement? Because P&L is on the accrual basis: invoices count when posted, not when paid; bills likewise; depreciation is a cost with no cash. Cash Flow is the report that follows the money.

Which account should a new expense go to? Look at the parent group in the Chart — Operating expenses, Cost of sales, Administrative — and add a child under it. Ask your accountant if the answer affects tax.

Why are advances not in Aged Receivable? An advance invoice is usually paid when it's made, so it owes nothing and isn't listed. One still owed — its payment voided — is listed, as it is in receivables in the ledger, and the Sales dashboard and the Home money card count it too.

I posted a revaluation at the wrong rate. Correct the rate under Settings → Exchange Rates, open Revalue on the same date and post again: it replaces the first. Or Reverse it to take it out.

Does the General Ledger show every line? Yes: the General Ledger and the Partner Ledger read an account's lines a page at a time, oldest first, so the newest line and the closing balance are there. Past 200,000 lines in the dates you pick, the screen says so; narrow the dates.

Can I run reports for last year? Any period; nothing is archived away. Comparison periods help.

A supplier abroad sent an invoice with no VAT. Enter it as a bill on Reverse Charge (5%): the bill shows no VAT, posting books the VAT you account for yourself, and the return puts it in Boxes 3 and 10. A claim can't use that rate.

How do I keep entertainment VAT out of the return? Put the line on Standard Rated (5%), not recoverable. The VAT becomes part of the cost, and Boxes 9 and 13 leave it out.

#If something goes wrong

• Trial balance doesn't balance → it always balances; if a report looks off, the filter is excluding accounts or the period is wrong. Clear filters.
• A figure in the VAT return looks wrong → start with the books check above the boxes, then Documents behind the box: almost always one line on a rate with the wrong treatment. The return reads each rate's treatment as it is set now, so correct the rate in Settings → Tax, or the document with a credit or debit note if it's posted, and rerun.
• The return says the books differ → a document was changed after it posted, a rate's treatment changed since, or a document posted before the 1.85 update booked VAT a rate now treats differently. Documents behind the box shows the documents; the difference is the amount to look for.
• Depreciation didn't post for an asset → its in-service date is after the run's month, or it's fully depreciated or disposed.
• A manual entry won't post → debits and credits differ, an account is deprecated, the date is on or before the lock date, or your role can't post journals. The message says which.
• The Balance Sheet shows a difference line → opening balances were entered on one side only. Post the opening-balance entry to the opening-balance equity account so it balances.