An accounting workflow checklist is a list of decisions, not a shopping list of modules. If you cannot answer a line, that line is a conversation with your team or your advisor before it becomes a software requirement. Anywhere Anytime uses the same questions when scoping customized online accounting. Nothing here is a tax opinion.
How to work through the list
Fill it with two people: the person who writes the daily documents, and the person who answers for the books. A manager working from memory will miss the diary, the round-off, and the party who is both a customer and a supplier. Leave blanks. A blank is the agenda for a scoping conversation. It is not a reason to delay a first call, and it is not a failure.
When a line mentions tax or a statutory report, write only what your advisor has already confirmed. Do not guess a rate or a form name in order to look complete. A guessed compliance line becomes a false requirement.
What belongs in a first scope
A first scope should cover the transaction types you marked as daily, the bill formats you issue every week, and the single report someone checks before they trust the numbers. Period-end adjustments, rare documents, and unnamed future connections stay on a later list. If a statutory output is required, name its columns and the person who will check a sample. If nobody can check it, keep that output outside the build.
Counting ticked lines will not produce a price. Two ticked lines can hide a complicated allocation rule, and ten ticked lines can be simple registers. Cost and time follow that complexity, which is why the FAQ does not publish a rate.
Business type
- Describe what you sell or provide, in one paragraph, including whether you buy to resell, make, or only serve.
- Note the legal name you print on documents and any trade name staff actually say.
- Say whether more than one location creates entries. Do not assume each location needs the same screen.
Customers and suppliers
- List how a party is identified so two similar names are not merged by accident.
- Mark whether a party can be both a customer and a supplier, and whether those balances are separate.
- Decide which contact details are required. Optional details that nobody maintains should stay optional.
Party behavior is specified further in party ledger management.
Opening balances
- Choose the opening date.
- Name the person who certifies customer dues, supplier dues, and account balances on that date.
- Decide whether open bills are listed one by one or only as a single brought-forward figure.
- Record where the paper or file evidence for that figure will be kept.
Transaction types
- List each event that must create an entry: sales, purchases, receipts, payments, returns, adjustments, and anything that is not one of those words.
- For each event, name the source document and whether it is mandatory.
- Say which events are typed daily and which are typed only at period end.
Billing formats
- Attach or describe each distinct bill layout.
- Note units, discounts, and round-off.
- Say whether a saved bill can be edited, cancelled, or only reversed.
Use how to choose billing software if the bill is the hard part.
Taxes and compliance
- List the taxes that appear on your documents, after confirmation with your advisor.
- Say whether amounts are entered inclusive or exclusive.
- Mark which statutory reports are in this project and which stay outside it.
- Do not tick a report you cannot describe column by column.
Payment records
- Say how a receipt is matched: to a bill, to the oldest balance, or left on account.
- Repeat the question for supplier payments.
- Note the modes you use, such as cash, bank, or adjustment, in your own names.
Collection and payment lists are scoped under receivables and payables.
Reports
- Write the three questions someone asks every week.
- For each question, list the columns required.
- Say who receives an export, and how often.
User roles
- Name the roles, not every future employee: for example entry, review, and view-only.
- Say who may edit a line after the day it was entered.
- Say who may export party balances.
Data imports
- Identify source files that are consistent enough to map.
- Identify records that must be typed because the paper is ambiguous.
- Name who will clear the rejection list.
Access requirements
- List the places people must open the system: office, godown, or elsewhere.
- Say whether a phone is required. If you do not know, leave it out of the first scope.
- Do not write “online” as a substitute for these sentences. See mobile access in the FAQ.
Backup and recovery expectations
- State how recent a restored copy must be.
- Name who will test a restore.
- State whether copies may leave the premises.
Future integration
- List systems that must not be connected in version one.
- List any later connection, such as from bills to a formal ledger, as a separate future item.
- Leave unnamed “API integration” off the list until there is a specific system and a specific field to exchange.
After you finish
Bring the answered lines, one sample of each daily document, and a short list of exclusions. Those three things are enough for Anywhere Anytime to say what a first workflow could contain and what should wait. A filled checklist is also the raw material for implementation preparation. If most lines are still blank, use the contact page anyway and treat the blanks as the meeting agenda.