Less is Better
This principle applies to Collections, Books, Groups, and Accounts and is based on three key points:
Fewer choices to make for agents and users, which speeds up operations.
Less maintenance, especially for reports and integrations.
Leverage Bkper’s flexibility when more detail, granularity, or units are needed.
For example, you can start tracking your results with just two accounts: Revenues (Incoming type) and Expenses (Outgoing type). As your business grows, you can add more detail to your Chart of Accounts, such as creating a Revenue group with accounts like Services and Subscriptions, and an Expenses group with accounts like Rent, Salary, and Insurance.
Create Bkper Components (Collections, books, Groups, Accounts) referring to one unique entity (a Business, an Asset, etc.).
Avoid Periods or Dates in Components Names
Don’t create Bkper elements that refer to periods or dates (e.g., “Books for My Business 2024” or “My Business 2025”). This might seem practical at first, but over time, your list of books will grow, and if applied to account will turn your chart of accounts in to a mess, making reporting complicated.
Instead, create one book for a specific entity, such as “My Business”, or one account for a specific expense, such as “Transport”.
To retrieve balance values for a specific date or period, use the search conditions as outlined in the Query Guide.
For example, instead of creating a separate receivable account for each customer per month (e.g., “Customer_A_0125,” “Customer_A_0225”), create one receivable account Customer_A. To search for its outstanding balance for a specific date or period, use Bkper’s query language:
Query: Customer_A on:01/31/2025
Query: Customer_A after:12/31/2024
Avoid Units on Component Names
If you track different units, such as currencies or quantities and values, do not create separate accounts for quantity and value of the same asset in one book (e.g., Material_A_qt, Material_A_value). Instead, keep one book for the asset’s value and another book for its quantities.
For example, for a stock portfolio, track the quantity of instruments in one book and the value of each instrument in another.
Note: You might think that having many years of transaction history in one book could affect performance over time. However, this is not the case with Bkper! No matter how many transactions are in your book, the search speed remains unaffected.
Unusual Transactions
Unusual transactions happen when income, expenses, assets, or liabilities are posted to the wrong type of account, skipping logical intermediary accounts. This can cause confusion and distort your financial records. It’s best to avoid unusual transactions to maintain accurate records.
Income booked directly to an outgoing account: Normally, income first passes through an asset account before it’s booked to an expense account.
Incorrect: Sales >> Transport
Correct:
Sales >> Bank account
Bank account >> Transport
Outgoing booked directly to an incoming account: an expense does not turn into income.
Income booked directly to a liability account: Income typically passes through an asset account before being booked to a liability account.
Incorrect: Sales >> Supplier
Corect:
Sales >> Bank account
Bank account >> Provider
However, if a customer pays off a liability in return for a service, the transaction would be:
Service >> Customer
Customer >> Provider
Liability booked directly to income: A liability does not turn into income.
Outgoing booked directly to a liability or asset account: This situation occurs when you receive a refund
Materials >> Supplier
or
Materials >> Bank Account
By ensuring transactions follow the correct flow, your financial records will remain clear and consistent.