Accounting & Books — the ledger writes itself

You run the business. Deetzo keeps the books.

Deetzo's books are a real double-entry general ledger, but you never post to it by hand for day-to-day work. When you finalise an invoice, Deetzo posts Sales, Output GST and Accounts Receivable. When you record a bill, it posts the purchase, the input credit and Accounts Payable. When money moves, the bank account and the party move together. Every entry balances, so the Trial Balance always ties and the Balance Sheet always balances — not because somebody checked, but because nothing unbalanced can be written.

Where it lives

Books has its own section in the sidebar, simply called Books, with two entries. It is visible to the owner, admins and managers, and to anyone who holds Settings, Manage bills, Record payments or View reports access. Setting the books up, rebuilding them and posting manual journals need owner, admin or manager rights; reading the statements needs only report access.

Reports that read the books — receivables and payables aging, the Day Book, General Ledger and Cash Flow Statement, the GST returns and the TDS reports — are under Reports. A customer's or supplier's own statement is the Statement tab on their profile.

How a posting happens

• One entry per document. Editing a document rewrites its entry; it never creates a second one. Cancelling posts a mirror entry, dated the day you cancelled, so the original stays in its month.
• Drafts, proformas and delivery challans post nothing. Only a finalised tax invoice or Bill of Supply, a recorded bill, a recorded payment or expense reaches the books. A bill waiting for approval is not in the books until it is approved.
• Accrual basis. Income is recognised when the invoice is finalised, expense when the bill is recorded — not when cash moves.
• If a posting cannot be made (for example, the date falls inside a locked period), the document is flagged, the Books health check lists it, and Rebuild from documents re-posts it once the cause is fixed.

One button, and the chart of accounts, opening balances and every document you already have are on the books.

Turning it on

Open Books → Books. The first time, you see a card headed Turn on your books. Press Set up my books. Deetzo then, in order:

1. creates a standard India chart of accounts (about 70 accounts, numbered 1000–5999), plus one ledger account for every bank and cash account you have added;
2. posts the opening balances of every customer, supplier, bank account and stock item, dated at the day your books start (see §02);
3. posts a journal for every invoice, bill, receipt, payment, expense and note you had already finalised, dated from each document;
4. loads the statements.

On the fresh tenant used for this guide the message was "Books ready — posted 4 journal entries": three opening balances and one invoice that had been finalised before the books were switched on. From then on every finalised document posts as it happens.

The chart of accounts

The Chart of Accounts tab lists every account as a tree, with its code. Assets are 1xxx, liabilities 2xxx, equity 3xxx, income 4xxx, expenses 5xxx. The accounts Deetzo posts to automatically are marked System account: you can rename them and change their code, but not their type or section, and they cannot be deleted.

erp.deetzo.com/books · Chart of Accounts

Adding your own accounts

Press New account on the Chart of Accounts tab. Give it an Account name, an Account type, a Section (which statement group it reports under) and, if you like, an Account code and a Description. For an asset, liability or equity account you can also type an Opening balance; it posts against Opening Balance Equity immediately, dated at the books' start.

On the run behind this guide, a "Security Deposits" account (1470, Other Current Assets) was created and a "Directors Loan" account (2510, Long-Term Liabilities) was given a ₹1,00,000 opening:

Each account row has View ledger, Edit and Deactivate (or Reactivate). A deactivated account leaves the pickers but stays on the chart, marked Inactive, for as long as it carries a balance — the statements still report it. Once an inactive account is empty it drops off the list; turn on the Show inactive chip beside the type filters to find it again and Reactivate it.

Rebuild from documents

The header of the Books screen has Rebuild from documents beside Refresh statements. It asks first, in words: it re-seeds the chart (adding any new standard accounts), posts any opening balances not yet on the books, and re-posts the journal of every finalised document under its existing entry from the document's current figures. Manual journals, production, payroll and asset entries, and anything dated inside the books lock are left alone. Run it after a Deetzo release note asks you to, or when the health check reports missing entries. It was run three times on the guide's tenant; the statements came out identical each time.

What you owed, were owed, held and owned on the day the books began.

Deetzo's books have a start date — the first day of the financial year in which you set them up (1 April 2026 on the guide's tenant). Everything that existed before that day comes in as an opening balance, dated on that day, with the other side of each entry in Opening Balance Equity. Once every opening is in, Opening Balance Equity is your net opening position — what an accountant would transfer to Owner's Capital with one manual journal.

Worked example

The guide's tenant opened with a customer owing ₹30,000, a supplier owed ₹40,000, ₹2,50,000 in the bank and 100 units of stock at ₹50. Setup posted four entries, all dated 1 April 2026:

The customer's opening was first typed as ₹25,000 and later corrected to ₹30,000. The correction rewrote the same entry — there is only ever one opening entry per party, and it keeps the start date.

Invoice, receipt, advance, credit note — and what each one does to the books.

Finalising an invoice

A quote or sales order posts nothing. The moment an invoice is finalised, Deetzo posts the sale, the tax and the receivable — and, for stock items, moves the goods out and charges their cost to Cost of Goods Sold at the item's moving-average cost, never at the selling price. An intra-state sale splits the tax into CGST and SGST; an inter-state sale posts a single IGST line. You never post these yourself.

INV/26-27/001 — 2 units × ₹100, 18% GST, same state, cost ₹50 each:

INV/26-27/003 — 1 unit × ₹100 with a ₹5 discount and ₹250 freight, another state: the discount reduces Sales, the freight goes to its own income account and is taxed, and there is one IGST line.

Bill of Supply. A business on the composition scheme issues a Bill of Supply, not a tax invoice. Finalise forces the tax to zero from the document type, so the entry is the sale with no output-GST rows (Dr Accounts Receivable 150 · Cr Sales 150, plus the cost lines) even if a line still stores the item's GST rate. It is filed under nil-rated/exempt, not B2B. The PDF prints the stored zero-tax amounts, hides the GST columns, and prints the composition declaration. An exempt customer is different: their document stays a tax invoice with no GST, and the page says the customer is tax-exempt.

Reverse charge on sales

For a few services — goods transport by a GTA is the common one — the customer pays the GST under reverse charge, not you (s.9(3)). Turn on Tax payable on reverse charge by recipient on the customer form and every new invoice for that customer starts with it on. The invoice form has a switch with the same name for a one-off case.

The invoice still shows the tax, labelled (payable by recipient), and prints "Whether tax is payable on reverse charge: Yes". But the tax is not added to the total, and no output GST is posted — the customer pays you the value only.

INV/26-27/006 — GTA freight service ₹1,000 at 5%, SAC 996511, to a registered customer. Total ₹1,000; CGST 25 and SGST 25 printed as payable by the recipient:

GSTR-1 reports it in B2B with Reverse Charge Y. In GSTR-3B it is shown as an information row, outside 3.1(a) and outside the tax you pay (§11). A credit note against such an invoice follows it: it reverses the value only, with no output GST.

Recording a receipt

Open Payments Received and record a receipt Against invoices. Beside each invoice you can enter the cash received and three ways of settling the rest: Discount (an agreed concession), Write-off (an amount you have stopped chasing) and TDS (tax the customer withheld). Bank charges deducted by the bank are a separate field. The receivable always clears at the gross figure; each of the other amounts goes to its own account so the P&L tells them apart.

RCPT/26-27/001 against INV/001 — ₹200 received, ₹6 bank charges, ₹30 written off:

A Discount goes to Discount Allowed instead, which shows as a negative line under Sales rather than as an expense. RCPT/26-27/006 settled ₹295 on INV/003 with ₹290 in the bank and a ₹5 discount: Dr Bank 290 · Dr Discount Allowed 5 · Cr Accounts Receivable 295, and the invoice header reads "written off / discount ₹5.00". TDS withheld by a customer debits TDS Receivable, the asset you will claim against income tax.

Customer advances

Switch the receipt to Advance (on account) and type an Advance amount. The money is a liability — Customer Advances — until an invoice uses it. On a later receipt for that customer, Apply from advance draws it down; Refund advance returns it. The receivable is never shown negative.

₹20,000 received on account, ₹11,800 applied to INV/002, ₹5,000 refunded:

Advances for services carry GST. Under GST, tax on a service is due when the advance is received, not when the invoice is raised. On the advance form, turn on GST on this advance (services) and pick the rate (5, 12 or 18%). The amount is treated as GST-inclusive: a ₹11,800 advance at 18% posts Dr Bank 11,800 · Cr Customer Advances 10,000 · Cr Output CGST 900 · Cr Output SGST 900 (or IGST for another state). When the advance is applied to the invoice, the tax already paid is drawn back out of Output GST so it is not paid twice, and GSTR-1 reports the advance in Table 11A and its adjustment in 11B. An advance for goods needs no GST; leave the switch off.

Credit notes

From the invoice, press Issue credit note, pick the lines and quantities, and choose Goods return or Value adjustment. A goods return mirrors the sale and its tax and, if restocked, brings the goods back at cost. A value adjustment is a price difference: it does not move stock, and it debits Discount Allowed and output GST. A note against a Bill of Supply or a reverse-charge invoice posts no GST, because the invoice posted none: Dr Sales · Cr Accounts Receivable for the taxable value. The Bill of Supply note's PDF and detail page show that taxable amount, not a GST-inclusive line total copied from the invoice.

CN/26-27/001 against INV/003, goods returned and restocked:

Freight is credited only if you say so. The invoice above carried ₹250 freight plus ₹45 IGST, so after this note ₹295 was still outstanding. When the invoice carries freight, the note form shows a Credit freight / shipping switch — off by default, because carriage already incurred is a separate commercial decision. Turn it on and the note also posts Dr Shipping & Handling Income 250 · Dr Output IGST 45 · Cr Accounts Receivable 295, and the invoice clears to zero.

E-invoicing (IRN and QR code)

E-invoicing is set up under Settings → General Settings → GST, in the card below your GSTIN. Fill in the Registration type, the date you were Registered on, your Business PIN code and City / location (they are printed as the seller's details on the e-invoice). Then choose E-invoicing:

• By turnover — enter your AATO (aggregate annual turnover, in ₹ crore). E-invoicing applies when it is above the ₹5 crore threshold (in force from 1 August 2023).
• Always on — every eligible invoice is an e-invoice.
• Off.

You can also set E-invoicing from, the date it starts. Save GST details stores it. The registration date matters on its own too: GSTR-1 leaves out invoices dated before it, and an invoice charging GST before it warns "This invoice is dated before your GST registration…".

E-invoicing covers finalised tax invoices and credit notes to registered, SEZ and export customers. On such an invoice, open E-invoice (in the invoice's header, or its More menu; on a credit note, the QR icon):

1. Download JSON for IRP — the file for bulk upload on the e-invoice portal (einvoice1.gst.gov.in). Deetzo checks it first and lists anything the portal would reject, such as a missing HSN, PIN code or state.
2. Upload it on the portal. The portal returns the IRN, acknowledgement number and date, and a signed QR code.
3. Record IRN — paste the IRN, Ack No, Ack Date and signed QR code, then Save IRN. The invoice shows an E-invoice — IRN generated card.

From then on the invoice PDF prints an e-invoice block with the IRN, Ack No, Ack Date and the QR code. For many documents at once, Bulk e-invoice JSON on the same Settings card builds one file for a date range and skips documents that already have an IRN.

Cancelling an invoice

Cancel invoice on the invoice posts an exact mirror of the original entry, dated the day you cancel. The original keeps its date, so a month you have already reported stays as reported. On the guide's tenant an invoice dated 15 September was cancelled on 24 September with the books locked to the 23rd: the September entry was untouched and the reversal landed on the 24th.

An invoice with an IRN must lose its IRN first. Cancel invoice then stops with Cancel the IRN first: the portal lets you cancel an IRN within 24 hours of its acknowledgement. Cancel it on the portal, record that with Record IRN cancellation in the E-invoice panel, then cancel the invoice. After 24 hours the IRN cannot be cancelled, so neither can the invoice — the message tells you to issue a credit note instead.

Order, receive, bill, deduct TDS, pay — stock and the liability arrive in two steps.

A purchase order is a commitment and posts nothing. Stock arrives at the goods receipt (GRN); the supplier's liability arrives with the bill. Between the two, the value sits in Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI), so your Balance Sheet never shows stock you have not yet been billed for as free.

Goods receipt

On the purchase order press Receive and enter the quantities. Stock is debited at the order's line cost; no tax yet.

GRN/26-27/001 — 40 of 100 units at ₹50:

Recording the bill

Vendor Bills → New vendor bill, or from the receipt. The Bill details card holds the supplier's number and date; the Input tax credit (ITC) chips decide the tax treatment — ITC eligible, Ineligible or Reverse charge. Record bill posts it (or Save as draft to keep typing later; a draft is not in the books).

VB-001 for the 40 received, 18% GST: the bill clears GRNI, claims the input tax and creates the payable. Inventory is never debited twice.

Ineligible credit (VB-003, canteen food ₹10,000 at 5%): the tax folds into cost — Dr Purchases 10,500 · Cr Accounts Payable 10,500 — and the return shows it under blocked credit, not under ITC availed.

Reverse charge (VB-004, advocate fees ₹20,000 at 5%): you pay the supplier the base only and self-assess the tax, so the same entry claims the input and owes the output:

TDS — deducted on the bill

Income-tax TDS is due at credit or payment, whichever is earlier. For a bill booked on credit that is the bill, so the bill form carries a TDS block inside Bill details: pick the TDS section (it defaults from the supplier's profile), and Deetzo shows the rate that applies and the TDS amount on the taxable value, which you can override. Choose No TDS to withhold nothing. The payable to the supplier is reduced by the TDS and the same amount is credited to TDS Payable, the liability you deposit with the government.

TDS-BILL-01 — consulting fees ₹10,000 + 18% GST under 194J, from a vendor with no PAN on file. The form warned "No PAN on file — the 20% no-PAN rate applies (s.206AA)", computed TDS ₹2,000 on the taxable value and showed "Payable to supplier after TDS ₹9,800":

The rates come from a TDS rate master at Settings → General Settings → Purchases → TDS rates (sections & rates). It is seeded with the FY 2025-26 list (194C 1% / 2%, 194J 10% / 2%, 194H, 194I, 194Q 0.1%, 194A, 194O, dividend) and each row carries a No-PAN rate — 20%, or 5% for 194Q and 194O — that applies automatically when the supplier has no PAN on file. Add section, Edit and Deactivate maintain it; nothing is ever deleted. The bill shows the deduction as its own row and the supplier's statement shows a credit on the bill date.

Paying the supplier

Payments Made → Record payment, Against bills. Allocate to bills (or Auto-allocate, oldest first); each line can carry a Discount the supplier allowed and any further TDS. When the bill already withheld TDS at credit, the payment withholds nothing more. For a buyer above the 194Q threshold, the 0.1% is prefilled here at payment time on purchases the bill did not already cover (Settings → General Settings → Purchases → TDS applicable (buyer u/s 194Q)).

A discount taken at payment posts Cr Discount Received (other income) and clears the payable in full.

A warning before the bank goes negative. Record payment, New or Edit expense and Refund advance check the paid-from account's balance in the books on the document's date. If this payment would take it below zero, the form says so — on the guide's tenant a ₹5,00,000 supplier advance showed "HDFC would go to −₹2,63,785.00 in the books. You can still save — check the account before paying." It is only a warning: you can still save, for example when the bank balance in Deetzo is behind the real one.

Supplier advances

Switch the payment to Advance (on account). The money is an asset — Vendor Advances — until a bill absorbs it; the payable is never shown negative.

₹10,000 advance, then the remaining 60 units received and billed (VB-005, ₹3,540) and settled from it:

After both bills, GRNI is exactly zero and drops off the Balance Sheet.

Editing a recorded bill

A bill with no money against it yet can be corrected in place. Open the bill, then the ⋮ menu in its header → Edit bill. The same bill form opens, titled Edit bill ‹number›, with a Save changes · ₹… button. You can change the supplier's bill number, the bill and due dates, the line quantities, rates and GST, the ITC treatment, the TDS at credit and the notes. The supplier and the purchase-order link stay fixed, and freight or duty charges are read-only.

Deetzo does not rewrite the original entry. It posts a correction entry for the difference, dated on the bill date, so the bill's entries always add up to its current figures. QA-E1 — 10 units × ₹100 at 18%, quantity corrected to 12:

Changing only the date moves the bill's entry to the new date instead. When the bill cannot be edited, Edit bill is greyed out and shows the reason in its place:

A bill that brought its own goods into stock, or whose charges went through a landed-cost voucher, can still be edited, but only its header — the lines are locked because the stock values were built on them. A bill that needed approval goes back for approval if the new total needs it.

Debit notes and cancelling

For goods going back to the supplier, Issue debit note for the lines being returned (the note is by quantity, whole lines), or Cancel bill to undo the whole bill. A debit note reverses the bill's purchase, tax and payable for those lines; DN/26-27/001 unwound the whole reverse-charge bill above, output and input legs included. Cancelling posts a mirror dated the day of cancellation.

Self-invoice for reverse charge from an unregistered supplier

When you buy under reverse charge from a supplier with no GSTIN, the law asks you to issue the tax invoice (s.31(3)(f)) and a payment voucher when you pay (s.31(3)(g)). On such a bill (ITC treatment Reverse charge), or an expense with reverse charge on, the ⋯ menu offers Self-invoice. Pick the date and Deetzo numbers it in its own series (SI/26-27/001…) and produces the PDF: your GSTIN as recipient, the supplier's name and address marked "Unregistered", HSN/SAC, taxable value, tax and place of supply, and "Whether tax is payable on reverse charge: Yes". Once issued, the menu also offers Payment voucher (PV/26-27/001…). Neither posts anything — the reverse-charge bill already booked the tax.

Money spent without a supplier bill — rent, fuel, a courier, a canteen — paid there and then.

An expense is a paid spend. Expenses → New expense: pick the Category (each category is its own P&L account), the Paid through bank or cash account (required), and under Tax & classification the GST treatment and, in India, the same TDS block the bill form has. Save expense posts it.

EXP/26-27/001 — office supplies ₹500 from the bank:

• With GST the input credit debits the Input GST heads and the bank pays the gross.
• Reverse charge (RCM) — the switch under Tax & classification — self-assesses the tax: Dr the category and Input GST · Cr Output GST and the bank for the base only.
• With TDS the bank pays the net and TDS Payable is credited for the deduction, exactly as on a bill.
• Deleting an expense (Delete on its detail, "Delete expense?") posts the mirror of what it had posted; the money returns to the bank account in the books.
• If the bank would go negative in the books on that date, the form warns you, as on a supplier payment (§04). You can still save.
• A category you have deactivated on the Chart of Accounts books to Operating Expenses instead. The picker still shows it, labelled "Office Supplies · account inactive, books to Operating Expenses", so old expenses keep their category. On the guide's tenant Office Supplies (5130) was deactivated and a ₹300 expense posted Dr Operating Expenses 300 · Cr Bank 300. Reactivate the account (Chart of Accounts → Show inactive → Reactivate) and new expenses go back to it.
• Reverse charge from an unregistered supplier — the expense's ⋯ menu offers Self-invoice and Payment voucher, as on a bill (§04).
• Changing the date moves the entry to the new date. If either date falls in a locked period the change is refused whole — on the guide's tenant, moving an expense to 15 August with the books locked to 31 August produced "The books are locked on or before 31 Aug 2026 — Expense EXP/26-27/001 dated 15 Aug 2026 cannot be recorded. Move the lock in Books settings or re-date it."

Inventory Asset is perpetual: it moves with every receipt, sale, return and adjustment, at cost.

Every stock-tracked item carries one moving-average cost, recomputed at each goods receipt, by a landed-cost voucher, and for a made item when its work order receives and completes. That cost is what the books use: a receipt debits Inventory Asset at it, a sale credits Inventory Asset and debits Cost of Goods Sold at it, a restocked return brings the goods back at it. So at any moment Inventory Asset on the Balance Sheet = quantity on hand × cost, and the Books health check (§10) proves it.

On the guide's tenant, after the opening 100 units, two receipts of 100, six sold, one returned and restocked, the ledger showed Inventory Asset ₹4,850 against 97 units × ₹50 on the shelf — variance ₹0.

From purchase to disposal: capitalise, depreciate month by month, sell or scrap.

The Fixed Assets tab is the register — gross block, accumulated depreciation, net block — and it must agree with the Balance Sheet; a banner says so if it does not. The Fixed Assets guide covers the register in depth; this section is about what each step posts.

Putting an asset on the books

There are two ways in:

• From a bill. On a recorded bill, Capitalise as an asset. The asset's cost moves out of whatever the bill debited (Purchases, or Inventory Asset) into the asset account; the bill, its GST and the payable are untouched. FA/26-27/002, a ₹10,000 machine from VB-002: Dr Furniture & Equipment 10,000 · Cr Purchases 10,000. A bill can be capitalised only up to its own value — a second asset from the same bill is refused with "Bill VB-002 has already been capitalised in full by FA/26-27/002".
• An asset you already own. New asset on the register, with its original cost, the depreciation already charged and the date it was put to use. Put it on the books posts Dr the asset account · Cr Opening Balance Equity (Save draft keeps it off the books for now). The CNC lathe on the guide's tenant: Dr Furniture & Equipment 1,20,000 · Cr Opening Balance Equity 1,20,000.

Each asset carries a Category with its Companies Act life, a method — Straight line or Written down value — a Useful life and a Salvage Value. Once the asset is active those money fields are read-only.

Running depreciation

Run depreciation on the Fixed Assets tab shows a preview — Depreciation for August 2026, one line per asset — and Post ₹… books it in one entry dated the month end. The first month is prorated by days from the date the asset was put to use.

The lathe: ₹1,20,000, 60 months straight line, ₹6,000 salvage, put to use 16 August. Monthly charge ₹1,900; August is 16 of 31 days:

Running the same month again says "Nothing to depreciate". Reverse latest run posts the mirror of the most recent run (and only that one) so a month can be redone.

Disposing of an asset

On an active asset, Dispose of this asset opens a dialog: Sold or Scrapped, the date (Disposed on), the Proceeds and the bank or cash account they were Paid into, and a Reason. A What this posts panel shows the cost, the depreciation still to catch up, the net book value and the gain or loss before you press Record sale or Scrap it. One entry does everything: it charges depreciation for the months since the last run, removes the asset at its gross cost together with its accumulated depreciation, books the proceeds, and puts the difference to Gain on Sale of Assets.

FA/26-27/002 — the ₹10,000 machine from VB-002, sold on 24 September for ₹8,000, no run posted yet. The dialog showed "Depreciation to catch up ₹36.94", net book value ₹9,963.06 and "Loss on disposal ₹1,963.06", then asked once more before posting:

Had a depreciation run already been posted for the asset, the entry would also debit Accumulated Depreciation for what those runs had built up, so the contra account nets to nil for the asset either way.

The asset then shows a Disposed chip and moves to a greyed Disposed section at the foot of the register; the net block drops on the register and the Balance Sheet together.

For the adjustments no document can make.

A security deposit paid to a landlord, a year-end accrual, a transfer of Opening Balance Equity to Owner's Capital, a correction — these are manual journals. On the Journal tab press New journal entry: a Date, a Narration (required), and lines picked from the chart with a debit or credit each. Add line for more. The totals are shown as you type; while they differ the form says Out of balance by ₹… and Post journal stays disabled.

MJ/26-27/001 — ₹25,000 security deposit paid from the bank:

Every manual journal gets a number in your financial-year series (MJ/26-27/001…) and records who posted it and when.

Lines on customer and supplier accounts

A line on Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Customer Advances or Vendor Advances must name the party — the form asks Which customer? or Which supplier? and will not post without one. The amount then shows on that customer's or supplier's Statement as "Journal adjustment — ‹your narration›", counts in their balance on the list and profile, and appears in receivables and payables aging marked ‡, so the ledger and the party never disagree. Bank accounts take no party: they are reconciled against a statement instead.

Reversing

A manual journal can be reversed once: the undo arrow on its row (Reverse this journal) asks for confirmation and an optional reason, then posts a mirror dated the same day, so the pair nets to zero and both stay on the books. The original is marked reversed. Document journals have no reverse — correct the document instead.

erp.deetzo.com/books · Journal

A filed month stays filed. A closed year carries its profit forward.

Transaction locking

On the Journal tab the lock chip reads Lock books when nothing is locked, or for example Locked to 31 Jul 26 +1 module. Press it to open Transaction locking. It has five rows, each with its own date:

Use Set or Change on a row to pick its date, × to clear it, and Save locks to apply. Each area is locked through the later of Lock all and its own date; where Lock all is the one that binds, the row says "Effective: ‹date› (Lock all)". So you can lock all of July after filing, then lock sales to 25 September after GSTR-1 while purchases stay open for late bills.

From then on nothing dated on or before the effective date can be posted in that area — a document or a manual journal alike. The lock is judged on the document's date, not today's, and the refusal names the area. On the guide's tenant, with sales locked to 25 September, an advance receipt dated that day was refused: "Sales are locked on or before 25 Sep 2026 — … cannot be recorded. Move the lock in Books settings or re-date it." When Lock all is the binding date, the message starts "The books are locked on or before …".

Owners, admins and managers can change the locks; everyone else sees them read-only.

Two kinds of entry are allowed inside a locked period on purpose: opening balances (which instead freeze once the lock reaches the start date, §02) and the year-end close itself. And cancelling a document that sits in a locked month is allowed, because the reversal is dated the day you cancel, not the day of the original.

Closing the financial year

Books → More book actions (⋮) → Close financial year. Deetzo works out the figures first and asks: "Transfers ₹… profit to Retained Earnings and zeroes N income and expense account(s) as at 31 Mar 2026. The books are then LOCKED on or before that date…". Close the year posts one entry moving every income and expense balance to Retained Earnings, dated the year end, and sets the lock there. If the year has no activity you simply see "FY 25-26 has nothing to close."

Need a late entry after closing? Move the lock back, post it, and close again: the dialog now reads Restate the FY … close? and the whole closing entry is rewritten so Retained Earnings carries the full profit — nothing is counted twice.

Balance Sheet, P&L, Trial Balance, ledgers — and the tools that prove they are right.

The three statements

The Balance Sheet and Trial Balance are as of the Statement date chip; the Profit & Loss is over the P&L period chip (default: the current financial year to the statement date). Change either and the statements recompute. Each statement has Export this statement (CSV), and the header has Refresh statements.

erp.deetzo.com/books · Balance Sheet

Here is the guide tenant's Balance Sheet at the end of the run — every figure is the sum of the entries in the sections above:

Drilling into an account

On the Trial Balance or the Chart of Accounts, View ledger opens an account's movements between two dates with opening balance, each entry's narration and a running closing balance. A very busy account shows the last 1,000 movements and says how many are hidden and what balance they carry forward.

Schedule III layout

Above the Balance Sheet and the Profit & Loss there is a Schedule III layout switch. It regroups the same figures into the Companies Act 2013, Schedule III (Division I) format — share capital, reserves and surplus, trade payables, short-term provisions, property, plant and equipment, revenue from operations, employee benefits, finance costs and so on. Each line expands to its accounts. The totals never change: on the guide's tenant both layouts showed a Balance Sheet total of ₹4,28,784.35. Deetzo remembers the choice on your device. Trade payables are one line; the MSME split is not made.

Day Book

Reports → Day Book (also Books → ⋮ → Reports) lists every journal entry in date order, with its Dr and Cr lines by account. Pick Today (the default), This week, This month or a custom range, and narrow it with the Source filter (invoices only, bills only, manual journals…). The header shows the number of entries, total debit, total credit and "Debits equal credits". Tap an invoice, bill or expense entry to open the document. Export CSV gives one row per line. On the guide's tenant, one day showed 2 entries, Dr 200 = Cr 200.

General Ledger

Reports → General Ledger is every account in one report: its opening balance, each movement with a running balance, the period's debits and credits, and the closing balance. Choose the period (This month by default), pick accounts or leave All accounts, and turn on Show all accounts to include accounts with no balance and no movement. With all accounts shown, the summary checks itself against the Trial Balance. For September on the guide's tenant: 30 accounts, period debits = credits ₹2,29,667.20, and "Closing balances tie to the Trial Balance at 25 Sep 2026". Print gives an A4 landscape PDF; Export CSV gives the working.

Cash Flow Statement

Reports → Cash Flow Statement uses the indirect method: it starts from net profit, adds back depreciation and any loss on disposal, adjusts for changes in receivables, stock, payables, GST and TDS balances and advances, then shows investing (buying and selling fixed assets, deposits) and financing (loans, capital, drawings). The last lines reconcile it: the net change (A + B + C) must equal the movement in Cash & Bank, including Undeposited Funds. When it does, the statement says "Ties to Cash & Bank (incl. Undeposited Funds)". On the guide's tenant the net change was −11,750, and Cash & Bank moved from 2,50,000 to 2,38,250.

Opening-balance entries — including an asset you already owned when the books began — are treated as the opening position, not as cash raised or spent. The ₹1,20,000 opening lathe is not reported as a capital purchase.

Audit trail

Books → ⋮ → Audit trail (also Reports → Audit trail) lists every change to a posted journal entry: a document edited and re-posted, a Rebuild that restated it, a reversal or a delete. Each change keeps the version it replaced — expand a row to see the Before and After lines side by side. Filter by All changes, Edited, Re-posted, Rebuild, Reversal or Deleted, pick a date range (the last 30 days by default), and Export CSV for your auditor. This is the edit log the Companies (Accounts) Rules ask for.

Only real changes are logged. Rebuild re-posts every document, but an entry that comes out identical is not a change and writes nothing. On the guide's tenant a full Rebuild produced exactly one audit row — the one entry whose lines had really changed.

Tie-outs you can make yourself

Books health check

The shield button in the header runs Books health check. It reports "Books look healthy" or "Needs attention" with the reasons: finalised documents with no journal (invoices, bills, notes, receipts, payments), reversals whose original is missing, bank-statement matches pointing at an entry that no longer exists, opening balances on the books twice, postings that failed and why, and the Inventory (perpetual) comparison — ledger balance against physical stock at cost, with the variance. Anything it lists as missing is fixed by Rebuild from documents.

Repair counters

More book actions (⋮) → Repair counters checks the running totals the app keeps on documents — sales-order quantities invoiced, credit applied to invoices, customer and supplier advances, item stock by store and lot — against the documents behind them. It shows the drift first ("Counters agree", or a list) and repairs only when you press Repair. It touches documents, not journals; the two tools are separate on purpose.

Banking

The Banking tab lists each bank account's book balance, the last statement imported and the unmatched lines. Import statement and Reconcile are the subject of the Bank Reconciliation guide. A reconciled entry is protected: a Rebuild will not drop it, and if a re-post stops touching that bank the statement line is unmatched rather than left pointing at nothing.

The returns are read from the same entries, so every head can be tied back to the ledger.

Rates

Since 22 September 2025 the GST rate card is 0 · 5 · 18 · 40. Item forms, invoice lines, purchase-order lines and the default rate in Settings offer those first, with 12% (legacy) and 28% (legacy) at the end for documents that must still carry the old slabs. Whether a sale is intra-state (CGST + SGST) or inter-state (IGST) follows the customer's place of supply against your business state.

GSTR-1

Reports → GSTR-1 export. Pick the period and Generate sections: B2B, B2CL, B2CS, CDNR / CDNUR (credit and debit notes), EXEMP, HSN, DOCS and — when service advances were taken — AT (Table 11A) and ATADJ (11B), as the CSVs the offline tool accepts. A Validation — fix these for a clean filing panel lists what would fail on the portal, such as items without an HSN code. Mark period filed records what you filed; a document changed afterwards is reported as an amendment in the next period. Credited freight rides inside the note's taxable value at the rate the invoice taxed it; a commercial credit note (§03) is left out. A Bill of Supply goes into EXEMP, not B2B. A reverse-charge sale (§03) goes into B2B with Reverse Charge Y. Invoices dated before your GST registration date are left out and flagged "Invoice dated before GST registration".

GSTR-3B

Reports → GSTR-3B summary builds the whole form for a month from your documents, so each head can be checked against a ledger movement. Every table has a Cess column. What goes where:

So blocked credit is now shown the way the portal expects: gross in 4(A)(5), then reversed in 4(B)(1). The net figure is unchanged. For September on the guide's tenant, 3.1(a) showed taxable 20,200 with IGST 1,800, CGST 918 and SGST 918 (including the GST on a service advance); 3.2 was empty because the inter-state B2C sale had been fully credited; the reverse-charge information row showed the ₹1,000 GTA sale. Download CSV exports every table in portal order.

Common credit reversal (Rule 42)

If you make both taxable and exempt supplies, part of the credit on common purchases must be reversed. Turn on Settings → General Settings → GST → Common credit reversal (Rule 42/43). GSTR-3B then works out exempt turnover ÷ total turnover for the month and reverses that share of the credit on non-capital purchases in 4(B)(1), showing its working. Your reverse-charge sales count as exempt turnover here, as s.17(3) says. On the guide's tenant 4(B)(1) read "Rule 42 ₹150.60 = 5.16% exempt turnover × common credit ₹2,916" — exempt ₹100 plus reverse-charge sales ₹1,000, out of ₹21,300. It is report-only: nothing is posted to the books. Deetzo has no "common use" flag, so all non-capital eligible credit is treated as common.

Summary of inward supplies

Reports → Summary of inward supplies is your purchase register by GST rate and treatment — eligible, ineligible, reverse charge, import — with document count, taxable value, CGST, SGST, IGST and cess. Approved bills and expenses count; debit notes reduce. Tap a row to see its documents. On the guide's tenant the 18% eligible row held 5 documents, taxable ₹26,200. Download CSV gives the working.

GSTR-2B reconciliation

GSTR-2B is what your suppliers reported. Reports → GSTR-2B reconciliation matches it against your bills. On the GST portal go to Returns → GSTR-2B, pick the month and download the JSON. In Deetzo pick the month, then Choose JSON file or Paste JSON. On the guide's tenant a pasted file gave "Imported 2 document(s) for September 2026".

An ITC summary compares the 2B credit with your books per head, and every document lands on one of these tabs:

On each card you can Link to bill (when the numbers differ), Open bill, or Mark accepted with a note explaining why a difference is fine. Download CSV exports the lot. After reconciling, each bill carries a chip — In GSTR-2B (Sep 2026) or Not in 2B (Sep 2026). The reconciliation posts nothing and does not change any bill; act on the bill yourself.

GST payment

Books → ⋮ → GST payment (also Reports → GST payment) settles a month. It opens on the previous month — the return you are filing now — and offers only months that have ended. From the ledger it shows the output tax, the credit available (including credit carried forward) and the Set-off (s.49 · Rule 88A) in the legal order: IGST credit first against IGST, then against CGST and SGST; CGST credit against CGST, then IGST; SGST credit against SGST, then IGST; never CGST against SGST. Reverse-charge tax is always paid in cash. Add any interest or late fee, pick the Paid on date and the bank account, and Record payment. One entry posts it:

Unused credit and unpaid liability carry forward to the next month by themselves. There is one payment per month; recording it again replaces it. When the month has nothing to pay, it says "No GST liability for this month — any credit simply carries forward."

GSTR-9 annual summary

Reports → GSTR-9 annual summary adds up the twelve monthly GSTR-3B calculations for a financial year into the annual return's tables: Part II outward supplies (4A–4N, 5A–5N), Part III input credit (6A–6J, 7 reversals), Part IV tax payable and paid, and the HSN summaries in 17 and 18. For FY 2026-27 on the guide's tenant: 4A supplies to unregistered persons ₹10,200, 4F advances ₹10,000 with IGST ₹1,800, 5C reverse-charge sales ₹1,000, 5D exempt ₹100, 5N total turnover ₹21,300. Download CSV gives your CA the working. The tables it does not produce are listed in §12.

TDS deducted (26Q)

Reports → TDS deducted (26Q prep) lists every deduction by the quarter it was made in, with supplier, section, rate and a Deducted at column reading "At credit" (on the bill or expense) or "At payment". Export CSV gives your CA the 26Q working. Its total is what you owe on TDS Payable.

Salary TDS is kept on a separate account (2390, for Form 24Q) by the Payroll module, so the two returns never mix.

TDS liabilities and challans

Reports → TDS liabilities shows, per quarter and per month, the TDS deducted, the TDS deposited, the balance and the due date — the 7th of the next month, and 30 April for March. An unpaid month past its due date is marked Overdue. When you pay the challan, press Record challan: the months it covers, the challan serial number, the tax deposited, any interest and late fee (234E), the Paid on date and the bank. It posts Dr TDS Payable (+ Interest on Taxes, Late Fees) · Cr the bank.

September on the guide's tenant: ₹2,020 deducted (₹20 on VB-001 and ₹2,000 on TDS-BILL-01), due 7 October; the challan was paid with ₹15 interest:

Q2 then read Deposited. A challan recorded by mistake can be cancelled from its row; that posts a reversal and keeps the challan listed as cancelled.

TDS receivable vs Form 26AS

When customers withhold TDS on your receipts, it sits in TDS Receivable until you claim it. Reports → TDS receivable (26AS) lists what your books say each customer withheld per quarter, beside what Form 26AS shows. Type each figure (Enter 26AS amount) or Paste 26AS figures straight from the 26AS "Part A" summary — one deductor per line: customer name or TAN, quarter, amount. Each row reads Matched (within ₹1), Short in 26AS, Not in books or 26AS not entered. On the guide's tenant a pasted line for a deductor with no receipts showed Not in books, −100.

If a customer deducted but never deposited, the credit is lost. Write off short TDS posts Dr Bad Debts Written Off · Cr TDS Receivable for the shortfall; Undo write-off removes it.

Revaluing foreign-currency balances

At a period end, open invoices in a foreign currency should be restated at the closing rate. Books → ⋮ → Revalue foreign balances: pick the date (Revalue as at), enter the closing rate for each currency (or Today's rate), check the preview — each open document at its booking rate and at the closing rate — and Post revaluation. It posts the unrealised gain or loss to Exchange Gain/Loss against Accounts Receivable, and reverses it automatically the next day, so the real gain or loss is still worked out when the customer pays. Running the same date again replaces both entries. A business with only rupee invoices sees "Nothing to revalue", as the guide's tenant did.

Being straight about the edges. None of this is built today.

• Automatic e-invoice generation. Filing an invoice straight with the e-invoice portal needs a connection to a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP), and there is no screen yet to link your portal login. Until then Generate IRN (API) is greyed out; use Download JSON for IRP and Record IRN (§03), which work today.
• QRMP. Quarterly filers' IFF (invoice furnishing facility) and PMT-06 monthly payments are not produced; the GST payment screen works month by month.
• Parts of GSTR-9. Table 8 (credit as per GSTR-2B against books), tables 15 and 16, and amendments made in the following year (tables 10–14, shown as 0) are not produced. Table 17 does not net credit notes.
• Rule 43 (reversal of credit on capital goods used for exempt supplies) is not computed. Rule 42 is shown in GSTR-3B but not posted, and there is no annual true-up.
• Input Service Distributor (ISD) documents — the 3B and 2B rows for them stay at zero or unmatched.
• Cash-basis reports — the books are accrual only.
• Cost centres or departments.
• Bank-feed matching rules. Statements are imported and matched by hand or by suggestion; there is no rules engine.
• A debit note against a bill that withheld TDS reverses the full payable; the TDS share of a return is a manual TDS Payable adjustment.
• A written-off asset status. Scrapping (no proceeds) is the path.

What each action posts, and where to find things.

I finalised invoices before switching the books on. Are they in?

Yes. Setup posts every finalised document you already had, dated from the document. The guide's tenant had one such invoice and it appeared under its own September date.

Why is there an "Opening Balance Equity" balance on my Balance Sheet?

It is the net of every opening balance you entered — what the business was worth on the day the books began. Once all openings are in, transfer it to Owner's Capital with a manual journal (Dr Opening Balance Equity · Cr Owner's Capital). Until then it is a perfectly honest equity line.

The Balance Sheet looks stale after I posted something.

Press Refresh statements in the header; the screen also refreshes when you come back to it.

Can I edit a journal an invoice posted?

No, and you should not need to. Edit or cancel the invoice; its entry follows. Manual journals are the only entries you post or reverse yourself.

I moved an invoice's date into a month I have already filed and it was refused.

That is the lock doing its job. Either give the document a date after the lock, or move the lock back temporarily under Books → Journal, make the change, and lock again — remembering that the filed return will then need an amendment.

Where does the TDS I withhold end up, and how do I record the challan?

On TDS Payable (2200). When you deposit it, open Reports → TDS liabilities and press Record challan; it posts Dr TDS Payable (plus any interest or late fee) · Cr Bank and marks the months deposited. Reports → TDS deducted (26Q prep) is the working for the return.

How do I record paying the month's GST?

Books → ⋮ → GST payment. Pick the month, check the set-off, enter the date and bank, and Record payment. Deetzo posts the liability discharged, the credit used and the cash in one entry, in the order the law sets (§11).

I made a mistake on a vendor bill I have already recorded.

If nothing has been paid or set against it, use ⋮ → Edit bill on the bill; Deetzo posts a correction entry for the difference. If it has a payment or a debit note, the menu tells you what to undo first (§04).

Can I lock sales without locking purchases?

Yes. Open Transaction locking from the lock chip on the Journal tab and set a date on the Sales row only. Purchases, Banking and Accountant stay open up to Lock all.

Inventory Asset does not match my stock valuation.

Run the Books health check; it prints the ledger balance, physical stock at cost and the variance. A small variance is normal with moving-average costs and manufactured items at standard cost. A large one usually means items sold with no cost price, or a product created before opening-stock rows existed — Rebuild from documents posts what the history can explain.

A supplier gave me a bill and a separate bill for freight. How do I get the freight onto the goods?

Record the carrier's bill or expense as usual, then Allocate to goods receipt from it. The Landed Cost guide has the whole flow; the books move the freight from the expense account onto Inventory Asset for the units still on hand and to COGS for the units already sold.

Who can see the books?

Anyone with Settings, Manage bills, Record payments or View reports access sees the Books section and can read the statements. Setting up, rebuilding, posting manual journals, locking and closing need owner, admin or manager rights.

Does any of this apply if my business is outside India?

The ledger, statements, openings, advances, assets, journals, locks, close, Day Book, General Ledger, Cash Flow and audit trail all work the same. The GST heads, TDS block, TDS rate master, e-invoicing and Indian returns are hidden; your tax name and financial year come from the business profile.

See also: Bank Reconciliation · Fixed Assets · Landed Cost · Sales & Invoicing · Purchasing · Payroll.