Accounting
The general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable and job cost on the same tables the shop floor writes to. It starts at the chart of accounts and stops at the closed period and the job cost sheet.
Most shops keep the books somewhere the floor cannot see. Hours sit on timecards, material sits on receiving paperwork, and a job's real cost surfaces at month end if it surfaces at all. WorkCell holds the chart of accounts, the journal, the bills, the invoices and the payments in the same database as the work order that caused them. A posting rule maps a role such as WIP or COGS to an account, so the entry is produced by the event rather than typed afterwards. Every line can carry a Job, a work order, a resource and a department, which is why job cost is a screen you open rather than a spreadsheet someone rebuilds.
A Real General Ledger
Ledger accounts carry a type, a normal balance and a parent, so the chart nests. Journal entries post into a fiscal period, balance before they land, and a correction is a reversing entry that points back at the one it reverses.
Postings From The Work
A posting rule maps a role — WIP, COGS, inventory, burden absorbed, accounts payable — to a ledger account, globally or by a narrower scope. The source event posts once and only once, so a receipt or a shipment cannot double post.
The Job Cost Sheet
The job cost sheet sets actual against standard and breaks the gap down by work order, operation, person, material and order line. Every journal line that touched the job is behind it, because the Job is stamped on the posting.
Payables And Receivables
Supplier invoices, customer invoices and credit memos each carry their own lines, and payments apply against them document by document. Both subledgers post into the same general ledger, so what is owed each way nets into one set of books.
Multi-Currency Postings
An exchange rate is stored per currency pair and effective date. A posting in a foreign currency keeps the transaction amount alongside the functional amount and the rate used, and it refuses to post when no rate covers that date.
Periods That Close
Fiscal periods are numbered within a year and carry their own dates and status. Closing one records who closed it and when. Every journal entry belongs to a period, so a figure for a closed period stops moving.
The ledger is in the product rather than wired to one. Chart of accounts, posting rules, journal, fiscal periods, payables and receivables are WorkCell records on the same database as the job.
MESShops bolt a shop floor system onto accounting software and reconcile two counts of the same work. The hours and quantities reported at the machine become the journal line here.
Jobs and work orders are where cost comes from. The Job is the cost object every posting is stamped with, and it starts here.
PurchasingSupplier invoices begin as a purchase order and a receipt, so the payable carries the quantities and prices already agreed rather than retyped ones.
SalesA quote becomes an order, a shipment becomes an invoice, and the receivable posts from the shipment rather than from a note on someone's desk.
ERP SoftwareWhat enterprise resource planning actually means for a discrete manufacturer, and which parts of the quote, the job and the ledger WorkCell runs.
Do I still need separate accounting software?
No. The general ledger is in the product, not integrated into one. Ledger accounts, posting rules, journal entries, fiscal periods, supplier invoices, customer invoices, payments and credit memos are all WorkCell records, and the job cost sheet reads the same postings. Your accountant works in the same system the floor reports into.
How does a cost get onto a job?
Every journal entry line can carry a Job, and the modules that create cost set it. Material issued, labor reported at the terminal and a receipt against the job all post with that stamp. The job cost sheet then groups the same lines by work order, operation, person, material or order line.
Can I change a journal entry after posting?
A posted entry is a record, not a draft. You post a reversing entry, and it stores a link back to the entry it reverses, so both sit in the history with the correction visible. Entries produced from a source event also post once per event, which is what stops a receipt being booked twice.
How does a purchase in another currency post?
You load an exchange rate per currency pair with an effective date. A posting in a foreign currency looks up the rate on or before the posting date, keeps the transaction debit and credit beside the functional ones, and stores the rate it used. If no rate covers the date, the posting is refused rather than guessed.
What does closing a fiscal period do?
A period has a fiscal year, a number, a start and end date and a status. Every journal entry belongs to one. Closing a period records who closed it and when, so the figures inside it stop moving and a report run next quarter returns what it returned at the time.
One database, every module.
Tell us how your shop closes a month and what it takes to learn a job's real cost, and we will show you where those numbers come from here.