Chart of accounts
- Accounts with type, normal balance and status
- Dimensions such as entity, department, product and project
- Mapping to reporting lines and to each entity's local chart
Custom Accounting Software
Custom accounting software development
When a product platform writes thousands of entries a day, or a group closes its books across many entities, packaged accounting starts to bend. Agnotic Technologies builds custom accounting software: the ledger, subledgers, close and consolidation your finance team and auditors need.
Double-entry general ledgerProduct subledgersPeriod closeMulti-entity consolidation
Trusted by global innovators
What is custom accounting software?
Custom accounting software is a general ledger and its subledgers built around one company's chart of accounts, transaction volume and entity structure, instead of configured inside a packaged product. Agnotic Technologies builds custom accounting software with double-entry journals, period close, multi-entity consolidation and the audit trail that internal control testing relies on.
Most companies should not build a general ledger from scratch. The table below is how we decide, and the most common answer is to keep the packaged ledger and build a subledger beside it.
Fund NAV and investor capital, lease accounting and AP invoice matching each have their own page. This page is about the ledger itself.
Build, extend or buy
Should you keep, extend or replace your packaged ledger?
The decision table from our scoping calls. It is a starting point: your controller and your auditor have the final say.
| Situation | Keep the packaged ledger | Extend it with a subledger | Build a custom ledger |
|---|---|---|---|
| One entity on standard accounting rules | Yes, configure it well | Rarely needed | No |
| Many entities with intercompany flows and several currencies | Often enough on a multi-entity edition | Add a consolidation and elimination layer if close runs long | Only when the entity structure changes constantly |
| Industry revenue rules the package cannot model | Keep it as the general ledger | Build a revenue subledger that posts summarized entries | When revenue logic and ledger cannot be separated |
| High transaction volume from a product platform | Keep it for the general ledger | Build a transaction subledger that posts daily summaries | When the product must hold balances itself, as payments or lending platforms do |
| Your product offers bookkeeping to its own customers | Not suitable | Not suitable | Yes: the ledger is part of the product |
Whichever column applies, the chart of accounts and the posting rules are designed first. They decide more about the outcome than the choice of platform.
Ledger design
What sits inside a custom general ledger?
Six parts, each one testable on its own.
Journal engine
- Every entry balanced, debits equal to credits, checked before saving
- Posted entries never edited; corrections are reversals
- Source, user and approval kept on every entry
Subledgers
- Billing, payments, inventory and payroll detail kept outside the GL
- Summarized entries posted on a schedule
- Drill-down from a GL balance to the source transactions
Periods and close
- Open, soft close and hard close per entity
- Close checklist with owners and evidence
- Adjusting entries only with approval after soft close
Consolidation
- Intercompany matching and eliminations
- Currency translation and revaluation
- Group reporting by entity and in total
Reporting
- Trial balance, balance sheet and income statement
- Reports rebuilt from journals, not from stored totals
- Exports for auditors and tax advisers
Subledgers
How do product subledgers post to the general ledger?
The pattern that lets a high-volume platform keep a packaged general ledger and still give auditors every transaction.
Billing and revenue
- Invoices and credit notes
- Deferred revenue schedules
- Revenue recognized under your ASC 606 policy
Payments and cash
- Card, ACH and wire receipts
- Processor fees and chargebacks
- Settlement batches matched to deposits
Inventory and cost
- Receipts, issues and adjustments
- Cost method per item
- Cost of goods sold by period
Payroll
- Gross pay, taxes and deductions
- Accruals at period end
- Postings by department
Audit readiness
What do auditors test in an accounting system?
Internal control over financial reporting is tested on the system as well as on the people. We build these controls in, so audit evidence is a report rather than a project.
Challenge
Someone edits a posted journal entry.
Agnotic approach
Posted entries cannot change. Corrections are reversing entries linked to the original.
Challenge
Manual journals go in without review.
Agnotic approach
Manual entries above a threshold need an approver other than the preparer before they post.
Challenge
Users hold access they should not have.
Agnotic approach
Roles separate entry, approval and period control, and an access report lists who can do what.
Challenge
A balance cannot be traced to its source.
Agnotic approach
Every GL balance drills down to the journals and subledger transactions behind it.
Challenge
Configuration changes go unnoticed.
Agnotic approach
Changes to accounts, mappings, period status and approval rules are logged with the user and time.
Period close
What happens at month-end close?
The close as the system runs it, so the controller sees what is done and what is late.
Cut off subledgers
Billing, payments, inventory and payroll post their final summaries for the period.
Reconcile
Bank, subledger and intercompany balances are reconciled against the GL, and each difference gets an owner.
Accrue and adjust
Accruals, prepaid releases and depreciation post as approved adjusting entries.
Revalue and eliminate
Foreign currency balances are revalued, and intercompany entries are eliminated for the group.
Review
Variance reports compare balances with the prior period and budget, and reviewers sign off each step.
Lock the period
The period hard closes. Any later change needs a reopen approval, which the audit trail records.
Multi-entity
What does multi-entity accounting need?
Groups add entities faster than packaged ledgers adapt. These are the parts we design in from the start.
- Each entity with its own functional currency, calendar and local chart, mapped to the group chart
- Intercompany transactions entered once and posted to both entities
- Intercompany balances matched automatically, with differences flagged before consolidation
- Eliminations generated from matched intercompany entries
- Currency translation at the rates your policy names, with the rate source stored
- Entities added, merged or closed without rewriting history
Standards and rules
Which standards and rules shape custom accounting software?
US GAAPASC 606ASC 83017 CFR 240.13a-1517 CFR 229.30826 CFR 1.6001-1
Facts and sources
Facts behind custom accounting software
The SEC and IRS rules the journal engine, audit trail and record retention design answer to, each linked to its primary source.
SEC rules define internal control over financial reporting to include policies and procedures for keeping records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect transactions, and for reasonable assurance that receipts and expenditures are made only as management and directors authorize.
Source: 17 CFR 240.13a-15(f) (eCFR)Regulation S-K Item 308 requires management's annual report on internal control over financial reporting, including its assessment of that control, and management may not conclude that control is effective if there are one or more material weaknesses.
Source: 17 CFR 229.308(a) (eCFR)A taxpayer must keep permanent books of account or records sufficient to establish gross income, deductions and credits, and must retain them for as long as their contents may become material in administering any internal revenue law.
Source: 26 CFR 1.6001-1(a) and (e) (eCFR)The IRS says records that support an item on a tax return should generally be kept until the period of limitations for that return runs out: 3 years in most cases, and 7 years for a claim for a loss from worthless securities or a bad debt deduction.
Source: IRS, How long should I keep records?
Who it is for
Who do we build custom accounting software for?
Companies whose books no longer fit the shape of a packaged product.
Payments and lending platforms
Products that move money and must keep a ledger of balances for every customer account.
High-volume product companies
Platforms whose billing or usage creates more entries than a packaged general ledger should hold.
Multi-entity groups
Companies with many subsidiaries, currencies and intercompany flows to close each month.
Vertical software companies
Products whose own customers need their books kept inside the product.
Engagement
How does a custom accounting build run?
The ledger model is agreed with your controller before any screen is built.
1.
Scoping call
We go through your entities, chart of accounts, transaction sources, close calendar and recent audit findings.
Scope2.
Ledger core and one subledger
The chart of accounts, journal engine and one subledger posting to it, reconciled against your current books.
Build3.
Close, consolidation and migration
Close tooling, consolidation, migration of historical balances and support after launch.
ScaleScope
What sizes a custom accounting software build?
These drivers set the scope we price on the scoping call.
Entities and currencies
How many legal entities, functional currencies and local charts of accounts.
Subledgers
Which billing, payment, inventory, payroll and product subledgers post to the ledger.
Transaction volume
Entries per day at peak, and how much detail must stay searchable.
Revenue rules
The contract types and recognition patterns your ASC 606 policy covers.
Migration
Opening balances only, or years of journal history to bring across.
Controls and reports
Approval rules, access roles and the reports auditors and tax advisers need.
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually not. Most companies keep a packaged ledger and build a subledger for the transactions it cannot handle. A custom ledger makes sense when the ledger is part of your product, as in a payments or lending platform, or when your volume and rules fit no package.
A subledger keeps transaction detail, such as every invoice or payment, and posts summarized entries to the general ledger. The GL stays small and fast, while auditors can still drill from a GL balance down to each transaction.
Yes. We model your contract types and performance obligations as rules your finance team configures, generate revenue schedules and post recognized revenue each period. Your auditor reviews the policy; the software applies it the same way every time.
Posted entries are never changed, only reversed. Manual journals need an approver other than the preparer, periods lock after close, and every change to accounts, roles and settings is logged. Auditors get reports instead of screenshots.
Yes. Options run from opening balances only to full journal history. We reconcile trial balances period by period after migration, so the new ledger starts from numbers finance has signed off.
It can. The ledger can sit beside the ERP as a subledger, or the ERP can keep purchasing and inventory while the custom ledger becomes the book of record. We agree which system owns each balance during scoping.
Those have their own pages: fund accounting software for NAV and investor capital, and lease management software for lease schedules. This page covers general ledger work.