Configure Finance Settings and Account Mappings

Finance Settings is the one configuration that makes the whole “one set of books” work. It holds the accounting basis, the base currency, and — most importantly — the default account mappings: the table that tells each subledger (billing, stock, procurement, payroll, assets, blood bank) which account to post Accounts Receivable, Revenue, Cash, Accounts Payable, Cost of Goods Sold and the rest into. Get this right and the automatic postings simply flow.

Who / when: mapping accounts is a controllership decision — only the Finance Manager can edit Finance Settings (the Accountant posts within the configuration; the Auditor reads it). You do this once, early, before relying on automatic postings — and revisit it whenever you add a subledger you want posting.

We will follow the Finance Manager, configuring the books for a freshly provisioned facility.

A few terms first

• Accounting basis — Accrual recognises revenue and expense when earned or incurred; Cash recognises them when settled.
• Base currency — the single currency every statement reports in.
• Account mapping — a pointer from a role (for example “Accounts Receivable”) to the actual chart-of-accounts account that role uses.
• Subledger — a module that posts into the ledger (billing → receivables, stock → inventory, procurement → payables, payroll → expense, assets → depreciation).

Set the basis and base currency

1. Finance Manager — open Finance & Ledger → Finance Settings. In Basis & Currency, choose the Accounting Basis (Accrual for most hospitals) and confirm the Base Currency (a three-letter code; it seeds from your country pack).

Map the default accounts

2. Finance Manager — in Default Account Mappings, set each mapping with a searchable picker of postable accounts. The key ones, and why each matters:

   • Accounts Receivable — where patient and insurer invoices debit.
   • Revenue — where invoiced services credit.
   • Cash and Bank — where receipts and payments land.
   • VAT Output / VAT Input — tax charged on sales / paid on purchases.
   • Stock In Hand — the inventory asset that goods receipts raise and dispenses relieve.
   • Cost of Goods Sold — where consumed stock is expensed.
   • Goods Received Not Invoiced — the clearing account between receiving goods and receiving the supplier invoice.
   • Accounts Payable — where supplier invoices credit.
   • Salary Expense — where approved pay runs post the gross.
   • Depreciation Expense and Accumulated Depreciation — where the monthly depreciation run posts.
   • Retained Earnings — the target the year-end close posts profit/loss to.
   • Exchange Gain / Loss — where FX revaluation differences (and tiny base-rounding adjustments) are booked.
   • Rounding — where FX rounding differences settle.

3. Finance Manager — press Save Settings. The whole form persists in one step. Leave a mapping empty to clear it.

Caution

This is the single most important caveat in the whole journey. Automatic postings are best-effort: if a subledger needs an account that is not mapped here, that posting silently skips — the clinical or operational action still succeeds, but no ledger entry is written, and your books will be quietly incomplete. Map every account a subledger uses before you rely on the ledger. A few mappings are also hard prerequisites: the year-end close refuses without Retained Earnings, and the FX revaluation refuses without Exchange Gain/Loss.

What happens next

With the basis, base currency and mappings in place, every event across the hospital — invoices, dispenses, receipts, supplier bills, pay runs, depreciation, blood-unit issues — flows into the one ledger automatically, exactly as laid out in One Set of Books. That is the whole journey, closed: configure once, and the books keep themselves.

Follow the trail

• Previous: Read the Fixed-Asset Register in Finance
• Related: One Set of Books — How Money Moves Through Veona · Set Up and Browse the Chart of Accounts · Open, Close and Lock Fiscal Years and Periods