Statements when the client keeps books on Achekam
How a firm prepares annual statements for a client keeping its own books on Achekam: the shared ledger, trial balance, adjustments and locking.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Year end used to start with an e-mail: "Please send us your trial balance and general ledger export." A week later a spreadsheet arrived, already out of date because the client had posted three more invoices. The firm prepared the statements from a snapshot, posted its adjustments in its own working papers, and the client's books and the issued statements went their separate ways until next year's opening balances failed to agree.
When the client keeps its own books on Achekam and appoints the firm, that snapshot is no longer needed. The firm works in the same ledger the client uses. This changes the year-end routine in useful ways, and brings a few decisions the firm has to make deliberately. This article walks through them.
Working in the client's own ledger
The link starts with the client. A business on Achekam appoints its accounting firm, and the firm accepts or declines the invitation; on accepting, it links the business's books to one of its client records. How to handle that step is covered in accepting a client's appointment.
From then on, the firm works directly in the business's own ledger. No copy is made, so anything the firm posts appears straight away in the business's own accounting screens. That is the main benefit, and also the main thing to manage. A year-end journal posted by the firm is visible to the owner the moment it is saved, before anyone has explained it. Agree with the client, before year end, which entries the firm will post in the books and when, and send a short note with each batch.
Taking the trial balance at year end
The trial balance in Achekam shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date, and says whether debits equal credits. For annual statements, take the balance sheet accounts at the year-end date and the income and expense accounts for the financial year.
Opening figures do not need an export either. The Migration Centre, under Settings, lets a firm bring a client's ledger in from exported CSV or Excel files, or read opening figures directly from the client's own books on Achekam. For a linked client, reading them directly removes an export-and-import step and the version confusion that comes with it.
Before taking the final trial balance, check the year is complete: bank accounts reconciled to the year-end statements, receivables and payables reviewed, payroll and depreciation posted, and nothing waiting in the posting queues.
Adjusting entries: in the books or in the statements
Every set of statements has year-end adjustments: accruals the client missed, provisions, corrections of misallocations, sometimes depreciation. The firm can put them in the client's books, or record them only in the statements.
In the statements Studio, staff can post a year-end adjusting entry, and a wrong adjusting entry is reversed with who did it and why, never deleted. Achekam does not calculate depreciation in the statements; it presents the depreciation in the trial balance and flags when the charge does not agree with the movement in accumulated depreciation.
| Post in the client's books | Record only in the statements | |
|---|---|---|
| Books and statements agree | Yes, immediately | Only after the client posts them next year |
| Client sees the entry | At once, in its own screens | When the statements are delivered |
| Next year's opening balances | Agree automatically | Must be agreed by journal |
| Best for | Corrections the client accepts | Estimates still under discussion, presentation reclassifications |
A practical rule: post in the books the corrections the client has agreed, and keep in the statements only the presentation changes, such as reclassifying a loan between current and non-current, that do not belong in the ledger. Either way, tell the client in writing which entries exist where.
Profit that has not been closed
One feature of Achekam's books affects every year end. There is no year-end closing entry: profit is not closed to retained earnings and shows as its own line on the balance sheet. When the trial balance is mapped for the statements, the person approving the mapping must make sure this year's income statement contains only this year, and that opening retained earnings agree to last year's issued statements. The details, and how to explain it to the client, are in retained earnings when the books have no year-end close.
From the mapped trial balance, the Studio builds a draft set of annual financial statements with every figure calculated in code: the directors' report, the four primary statements, policies, notes and a detailed income statement. The practitioner's report follows the level chosen, whether audit, independent review, compilation or none. Many linked clients are compilation engagements. IFAC's article on ISRS 4410, the standard for today's compilation engagements explains why compilation work under ISRS 4410 (Revised) matters to small practices as more small entities become exempt from audit, and how the standard is structured.
Locking the year
Because the firm and the client share one ledger, the year must be protected once the statements are prepared, or the client's next posting into the old year will undo them. Months in Achekam can be soft-closed, hard-closed and locked. A closed month refuses postings from every source, and reopening a hard close needs a second approver.
Agree the timing with the client: the firm closes the last month of the year once its adjustments are posted, hard-closes the year when the statements are approved, and locks it when they are issued. Tell the client's own staff, so a late invoice for the old year is posted in the new year with an explanation rather than refused at a bad moment.
A worked example
A design studio keeps its books on Achekam and has appointed the firm. At year end, the manager checks the bank reconciliations in the studio's own ledger, posts an agreed accrual for the year's accounting fee and a correction of a misposted asset purchase, and tells the owner by e-mail. She takes the trial balance at year end, maps it, agrees opening retained earnings to last year's statements, and builds the draft compilation in the Studio. Once the owner approves the draft, she hard-closes every month of the year, and locks them when the statements are issued.
The conversation to have in advance
Before the first year end on a linked client, agree three things with the owner: which entries the firm will post in the books, when the year will be closed, and who to call if they need to post into a closed period. With those settled, a shared ledger is the simplest year end a firm can have.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
