Finance Workflows Guide

Purpose

This guide explains how to run finance operations in Kraal with repeatable quality — from client onboarding through day-to-day accounting to month-end close.

Workflow categories

1) Client onboarding

When you create a new client in Kraal:

1. Go to Settings > Clients and create the client record.
2. Kraal provisions a dedicated ERPNext instance automatically.
3. Choose data intake in guided setup:
   • Statement upload for any client.
   • Plaid as an optional paid add-on for live bank and credit-card feeds.
   • QuickBooks for clients migrating historical data or running in parallel.
4. Set up the chart of accounts — apply a standard template, build with AI, or sync from ERPNext.
5. Configure a close template for the client's month-end workflow.

The client is now ready for recurring operations.

2) Bank feeds

For banking intake:

• Upload bank statements manually as PDF or CSV for any client.
• Connect optional Plaid bank feeds when the client wants automatic intake.
• New transactions appear in the Banking view.
• Each transaction includes date, description, amount, and account information.

3) Bank reconciliation

To reconcile bank transactions:

1. Open the Reconcile view.
2. Select a bank account and date range.
3. Kraal runs smart matching to suggest reconciliations:
   • Algorithmic matching — scores matches based on amount, reference, and date.
   • Auto-rules — automatically matches common patterns like bank fees, interest, and recurring charges.
   • AI-assisted matching — handles ambiguous transactions that don't have a clear algorithmic match.
4. Review the suggestions and approve correct matches.
5. Matched transactions are linked to payment entries or journal entries in ERPNext.

Reconciliation best practices

• Reconcile regularly — weekly is better than monthly.
• Set up auto-rules for recurring transactions (bank fees, subscriptions).
• Use the AI assistant to help with bulk reconciliation: "Help me reconcile the bank."
• Review unmatched transactions promptly.

4) Account reconciliation

Use the Reconciliation Hub to review balance-sheet support across a client and period:

1. Select the client, entity, and period end.
2. Review the balance-sheet coverage summary. Every material subject should be covered by a current reconciliation, a current manual certification, or an explicit unresolved item.
3. Compare the ledger balance, supporting balance, reconciling items, and unexplained difference for each subject.
4. Resolve missing or stale evidence, open blockers, overdue timing items, and client requests.
5. Rerun the reconciliation after source documents, mappings, or ledger activity change.
6. Record preparer signoff, then route the current work to an authorized reviewer for approval or revision.

Bank transaction matching remains a separate prerequisite for bank accounts. A zero unexplained difference also does not replace evidence review or signoff. See Account Reconciliation for the full workflow and status guide.

5) QuickBooks migration

For clients moving off QuickBooks Online:

1. Connect QuickBooks through Integrations.
2. Run the sync — Kraal imports:
   • Chart of accounts
   • Customers and vendors
   • Items
   • Invoices and bills
   • Payments
3. Monitor progress in the Logs tab.
4. Review imported data in the Mappings tab to verify what has been synced.
5. Parallel-run option — keep both QuickBooks and ERPNext in sync during the transition period, then cut over when ready.

6) Day-to-day accounting

Use Kraal's interface for routine accounting tasks:

• Invoices — create sales invoices for clients' customers.
• Bills — enter vendor bills and purchase invoices.
• Payments — record payment entries against invoices and bills.
• Journal entries — create manual adjustments, accruals, and reclassifications.

All entries are stored in the client's ERPNext instance using proper double-entry accounting.

Receivables collections lifecycle

The receivables workspace connects AR aging review to the work needed to collect and clear balances:

1. Review aging rows by customer, due date, and balance.
2. Open the related customer invoices directly from the aging decision row.
3. Record a receipt with the customer and amount context carried forward.
4. Reconcile the bank deposit once the receipt appears in banking.

This keeps the workflow tied to the same customer, amount, and aging reason instead of forcing the user to re-find the invoice in a separate screen.

Payables payment-run lifecycle

The payables workspace connects AP aging review to payment preparation:

1. Review supplier balances by age and priority.
2. Open the related vendor bills from the aging decision row.
3. Prepare a payment entry with the supplier and amount context carried forward.
4. Reconcile the withdrawal once the payment clears the bank.

This is the first-class payment-run path for routine vendor payments. Kraal still requires the normal review and posting controls before ledger activity is recorded.

Sales tax data readiness

Sales tax review depends on the quality of the accounting data captured during daily work. Before a client relies on invoice data for sales-tax filing or a future sales-tax automation provider, make sure the client record, customer records, item records, and invoice lines are complete enough to support calculation.

Minimum readiness data:

• Entity context — which legal entity made the sale and where it is registered.
• Customer location — complete bill-to and ship-to address when applicable.
• Customer tax status — taxable, exempt, or pending certificate review.
• Item taxability — clear item or service category on each invoice line.
• Transaction timing — invoice date, posting date, and credit memo relationship to the original invoice.
• Data quality status — imported or ambiguous records should be reviewed before tax-sensitive reporting.

Do not store tax-provider credentials, certificate files, or sensitive taxpayer information in free-form notes. Use the designated settings, document, or compliance workflows when available.

7) Month-end close

The close engine manages period-end workflows:

1. Create a close period — set the date range and accounting basis.
2. Run the templated checklist — steps include:
   • Verify all transactions are posted.
   • Complete bank reconciliation.
   • Review trial balance.
   • Enter accrual adjustments.
   • Post any reclassifications.
   • Review financial statements.
3. Dependency gating — steps wait for their prerequisites. For example, trial balance review waits until all transactions are posted, and reconciliation is complete.
4. Build and review the financial package — assemble the candidate client deliverable from the current statements, reconciliations, adjustments, and workpapers. Submit that exact evidence set for review and approval.
5. Finalize and lock — complete final approval, then lock the period. The Close Binder archives the supporting evidence for the audit record; the approved financial package is the client deliverable.
6. Keep the package fresh — if the books or evidence change after generation or approval, the package is flagged Stale or Superseded. Regenerate and repeat the required review before delivering; see Package stale.

Close workflow customization

• Templates can be customized per organization or per client.
• Skip non-required steps or add client-specific steps.
• Reuse templates across clients for consistency.

8) Reporting

Generate financial reports pulled from ERPNext:

• Profit & Loss (P&L) — revenue and expense summary for a period.
• Balance sheet — assets, liabilities, and equity at a point in time.
• Cash flow statement — cash inflows and outflows.
• AR/AP aging — outstanding receivables and payables by age.
• Budget vs. Actual — account-level plan variance against submitted ERPNext budgets.
• General ledger — detailed transaction listing by account.

Reports include AI-powered explanations to help interpret trends and anomalies.

Budgets and plan variance

The Finance Budget page tracks actuals against the active budget and is where plans are built and edited — the Overview keeps only a compact plan summary. To build a starting plan from a client's prior actuals — with explicit growth assumptions and an approval-gated path into ERPNext — see Budgets.

Operating standards

Naming conventions (recommended)

• Include client short-name + period in task titles (e.g., "Acme — Mar 2026 Bank Rec").
• Use action-oriented verbs (e.g., "reconcile", "review", "generate").

Escalation flow (recommended)

Escalate when:

• A core dependency is missing (e.g., bank feed not connected).
• A critical step repeatedly fails.
• Output quality cannot be validated.

Quality control checklist

• [ ] Inputs verified (bank feeds connected, data synced).
• [ ] Workflow completed without unresolved errors.
• [ ] Outputs reviewed by owner or reviewer.
• [ ] Next actions assigned.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Starting close work before bank reconciliation is complete.
• Treating AI output as final without human validation.
• Running period workflows with inconsistent date windows.
• Leaving failed sync tasks unresolved without documented follow-up.
• Not setting up auto-rules for recurring bank transactions.