BlueDuka logoBlueDuka

User guide › Accounting books (Business plan and above)

Accounting books (Business plan and above)

  • Accounting (Operations) keeps double-entry books by itself. Every sale, payment, customer return, expense, delivery, supplier bill and payment, return to a supplier, stock count or adjustment and till shortage becomes a balanced journal entry. Nothing extra to type; older records are added the first time the books open.
  • Overview: this month's sales, gross profit, expenses and net profit, and the money in cash, M-Pesa, bank and other accounts.
  • Statements: profit and loss, balance sheet and trial balance for any period. Tap an account to see its entries with a running balance, and an entry to see its lines.
  • Journals: every entry. Manual journal (accounting.journal permission) is for what the shop's records don't cover: a loan, the owner putting money in or taking it out, depreciation, suppliers' VAT invoices, corrections. Debits must equal credits. Entries are never edited or deleted; Reverse cancels a manual journal with an opposite entry.
  • Accounts: the chart of accounts. Add your own (e.g. a second bank account). BlueDuka's own accounts keep their type.
  • Reconcile: upload the M-Pesa statement (M-PESA business portal, export as CSV) or a bank statement saved as CSV. Each line is matched to a payment, expense, supplier payment or refund by its transaction code, or by the same amount within 2 days. Lines not in the books can be posted to an account (e.g. M-Pesa charges to "Bank and M-Pesa charges") or ignored. The page also lists money recorded in BlueDuka that is missing from the statement, often a mistyped M-Pesa code.
  • Tax: for the chosen month, VAT (output VAT from sales, input VAT from what was posted to "VAT on purchases") for VAT-registered shops, or Turnover Tax (1.5% of gross sales) for the others, the due date (the 20th of the next month) and, only for shops that connected KRA eTIMS, how many sales KRA has accepted. A summary to help filing, not a filing.
  • Questions: the accountant asks about an entry or anything else; the shop answers here.
  • Close a month (accounting.close): its figures then never change. Anything recorded later with an earlier date goes into the first open day, keeping its real date. Only the owner can reopen.
  • Export the books: a ZIP of CSV files (trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet, general ledger, chart of accounts, and journals in the layout Xero, QuickBooks and Sage import).
  • Your accountant: in Team & Roles, Invite someone and choose Outside accountant (owner only). They see the books and reports, post journals, match statements and close months, but cannot sell or change stock. They use no staff place, and one accountant can do the books of several shops (up to 3 outside accountants per shop). Staff can also be given the Accountant Set role, which now includes the books.
  • Not included yet: payroll deductions (PAYE, SHIF, NSSF, Housing Levy). Record them as manual journals.

← Credit score and certified reports (owner) · All topics · M-Pesa and other connections (owner) →

Download the whole guide (PDF)

Need help? Call or WhatsApp the BlueDuka team on +254 727 177 155.