Accounting Module Functionality and Expectations

1         What Accounting rules?

User must be able to select the applicable accounting rule as "none", "cash" or "accrual" at a product level.

The user is expected at the time of product definition to select the “type” of accounting for the product and select his appropriate General Ledger (GL) “Detail account” for the placeholders Mifos X accounting module provides

Page 10 of attached accounting summary document gives useful basic distinction between cash and accrual accounting.

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2         The COA

Continue having the same design with five main account "Types":

• Assets

• Liabilities

• Income

• Expenditure

• Equity

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Allow adding new accounts of any one of these types from the UI.

New accounts can be either "header" or "detail" accounts to make things simpler for a user. "Header" accounts would be used purely for grouping together

related accounts etc. An organization would not log journal entries against the same (Journal entry screens would not list "Header" accounts).

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Question: Would you be interested in hearing what COA nirantara and GK accountants use (or any other MFI in community)? On document pages 23, 24 is content about the 'classification of transactions' through chart of accounts and a sample chart of accounts for MFIs. How does nirantara and gk COA differ and why would be good to know.

2.1        Scope

For simplicity (for the first cut) have COA at organization level and run accounting reports at the branch level

• So system should associate all journal entries to branch which owns the entity that caused the entry (Example: Loan account on which a disbursal occurred)

• All user defined journal entries should also be associated with a branch

3         Journal Entries

The 'accounting cycle' image provided on page 22 of attached accounting summary document provides a good visualization of steps involved from 'economic activity step (transaction)' to closing books for a given cycle period (weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly)

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The Journal entries view would look similar to the below mock up

3.1        Automated Journal Entries

Mifos X to automatically log (log each transaction as a separate journal entry....no need of daily consolidation etc.)

• Disbursals

• Repayments

• Rescheduling

• Write-Off

• Adjustments

These journal entries should not have permissions to be altered from the accounting UI (like manually created journal entries which can be reversed etc.)

They should link back to the entity that generated them (the loan transaction etc. so that a user can analyse the same).

They may only be altered with events generating from the system (Example: a user reverts a loan disbursal etc.)

3.2        Manual Journal Entries

For a manual entry, allow "m" debit and "n" credit entries for a "Journal Entry entered by a user" as long as the sums of all debits and credits match.

Allow journal entry reversal (system automatically logs reversal entries of corresponding debits and credits).

This means each journal entry batch must have a batch Id (so all individual entries under it can be identified for easy reversal).

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4         Accounting rules for Loans

4.1        Cash based accounting Scenario:

4.1.1        COA Snippet

4.1.2        Posting Rules

4.2        Accrual Based accounting Scenario

Would only involve posting to three new accounts (Receivables "Income Type").

4.2.1        COA Snippet

4.2.2        Posting Rules

4.2.3        Examples

4.2.3.1        Flat Interest Type

When Interest Type is flat, prepayment does not write off any interest. The entire interest is recognized and “receivable” as soon as the loan is disbursed.

The entire interest (for complete duration of the loan) is recognized immediately after disbursal.

There are quite a few conflicting views on if this special treatment is required. However, leaving it in here for now till we get feedback from a few accountants.

The sample loan shown here follows a monthly repayment cycle.

*Note: A Batch Id is shown in Brackets

4.2.3.1        Declining Interest Type

In the case of Declining Balance, we have loans involving interest recalculation. The interest is accrued at the date of each repayment.

The system needs to have a job for posting the same

Note: If any interest is accrued till date while doing a prepayment, the application should automatically log a system generated journal entry

for recognizing the same while doing a prepayment.

4.2.4  Month end and year End Closing

We should also have an option for Month end closing and year end closing at a branch level (basically a bulk “apply accrued interest” till date job for all loans of declining Interest type)

This is must for regulatory requirements. We should have the option of turning the same “on” and “off” from the user interface

*This section needs to be revisited in detail

5       Accounting rules for Savings

5.1        COA Snippet

5.2        Posting Rules

6         Closure Dates

Allow setting closure dates at branch level after which accounting transactions cannot be posted.

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7        Reports

The three basic reports 

• Balance sheet

• Profit and Loss Statement

• Trial balance

Some context for reporting

“Golden” rules of accounting:

• Real account: Debit what comes in and credit what goes out.

• Personal account: Debit who receives and Credit who gives.

• Nominal account: Debit all expenses & losses and Credit all incomes and gains

7.1   Balance Sheet

A balance sheet summarizes an organization or individual's assets, equity and liabilities at a specific point in time. 

Formula : Assets = Liabilities + Equity

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7.1.1 Sample Query

The below query is for assets, the queries for liabilities and equity would be same but for the calculation of balance (would be credit - debit refer verbiage in section 6)

select debits.glcode as 'glcode', debits.name as 'name', (ifnull(debits.debitamount,0)-ifnull(credits.creditamount,0)) as 'balance'
from
(select acc_coa.gl_code as 'glcode',name,sum(amount) as 'debitamount'
from acc_journal_entry,acc_coa
where acc_coa.id = acc_journal_entry.coa_id
and acc_journal_entry.type='DEBIT'
and acc_coa.category in ('ASSET')
group by name
order by glcode) debits
LEFT OUTER JOIN
(select acc_coa.gl_code,name,sum(amount) as 'creditamount'
from acc_journal_entry,acc_coa
where acc_coa.id = acc_journal_entry.coa_id
and acc_journal_entry.type='CREDIT'
and acc_coa.category in ('ASSET')
group by name) credits
on debits.name=credits.name

union

select credits.glcode as 'glcode', credits.name as 'name', (ifnull(debits.debitamount,0)-ifnull(credits.creditamount,0)) as 'balance'
from
(select acc_coa.gl_code as 'glcode',name,sum(amount) as 'debitamount'
from acc_journal_entry,acc_coa
where acc_coa.id = acc_journal_entry.coa_id
and acc_journal_entry.type='DEBIT'
and acc_coa.category in ('ASSET')
group by name
order by glcode) debits
RIGHT OUTER JOIN
(select acc_coa.gl_code as 'glcode',name,sum(amount) as 'creditamount'
from acc_journal_entry,acc_coa
where acc_coa.id = acc_journal_entry.coa_id
and acc_journal_entry.type='CREDIT'
and acc_coa.category in ('ASSET')
group by name
order by glcode) creditson debits.name=credits.name;