Choose your role

PHP Ledger for small businesses: decide what you need first

Start with the work your business must finish each week. Then check whether this preview supports that work and who will maintain the installation.

PHP Ledger can demonstrate core bookkeeping and a cash POS showcase with fictional data. Its starter covers invoices, bills and optional one-location stock; payroll, advanced warehouses and regional tax filing remain outside the preview. You can evaluate it without moving your real books.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Write down the task that is causing trouble before choosing software by its screenshots or feature names.

You may need to know whether the cash record agrees with the bank, which customer invoices remain unpaid, what stock is available or what information your accountant needs. Those are different tasks. A product that handles one well may not handle the others. “Accounting software” is a broad label, so ask for the exact workflow rather than assuming every familiar feature is included.

Choose a few ordinary examples from your business and turn them into fictional test cases. Change names and amounts so no real personal or financial information enters a public demo. Ask the person who keeps your books what the expected result should be.

What can the simple example teach you?

It shows how a recorded receipt and expense reach the cash balance, while keeping the assumptions small enough to check.

In the library’s original example, a fictional business starts with no balances, receives 1,000.00 for a completed service and pays a 125.00 operating expense. With no tax or other activity, cash is 875.00. The daily cash guide follows that kind of record through the application.

Now ask what would happen if the 1,000.00 came from a loan. Cash would still arrive, but it would not be new sales income. That question is more useful than memorising a dashboard number. It explains why the business needs a record of the reason for each movement, not just a list of amounts.

What does the current preview let you inspect?

You can inspect the core path from saved drafts to posted entries and account reports, within the published preview boundaries.

The existing core includes company and account setup, receipts and expenses, general-journal drafts, linked reversals, period administration, bank CSV reconciliation and basic reports. The public demo restricts some administration and uses isolated synthetic records. A posting changes the books; a saved draft does not. That distinction helps you understand whether an action has affected a balance.

Version 0.4.0 builds invoice, bill, payment, credit and ageing workflows on the earlier party, currency and correction foundations. AR/AP are included in the core. A simple business can hide unused navigation; optional Purchasing and Inventory share the same customer and supplier balances. Check the product page for the exact current scope.

How should you try the demo?

Use fictional data and follow one complete path rather than clicking through many screens without a question.

1. Open the synthetic demo and read its scope notice.
2. Choose a simple receipt or expense example.
3. Save the draft and check that you understand its status.
4. Review the amount, account and date before posting.
5. Open the posted journal and the relevant account ledger.
6. Compare the result with the amount you expected.

The demo resets regularly and is not a place to retain business records. Do not enter customer names, bank details, tax identifiers or real invoices. If you want a longer evaluation, ask your technical operator for a separate local installation using synthetic records.

Who needs to be involved before real use?

The owner, bookkeeper or accountant, and hosting operator need to agree on the scope and their responsibilities.

The owner knows which business tasks matter. The accounting reviewer knows what records and policies those tasks require. The hosting operator maintains the application, database and backups. One person may fill more than one role, but none of the responsibilities disappears. If no one knows how to restore a backup, self-hosting is not yet a complete plan.

Use the accountant’s evaluation and the software-house guide to prepare that conversation. Ask each person what evidence they would need before approving a move from your current system.

What does self-hosting mean for you?

The application runs on hosting you control or arrange, and someone must maintain that environment.

You need compatible PHP and MySQL hosting, HTTPS, private configuration and a tested backup process. You do not have to administer it personally, but you need to know who does. A hosting invoice is not evidence that the service meets the software’s exact requirements or that your records can be recovered after a failure.

Read the hosting requirements with the operator before selecting a plan. If managing software updates, server access and recovery is outside your team’s capacity, a supported managed product may be the better choice.

How should you judge a successful trial?

A successful trial answers your chosen business questions and exposes the work the product cannot yet do.

Do not count a feature as available because someone can imagine building it or because a database table exists. If your staff cannot complete the necessary task in the supported workflow, record it as missing for your adoption decision. A preview can still be worth following while another product remains the right operational choice.

What should you keep from your current records?

Keep the original records and agree a reviewed cutover before entering real opening balances into a new system.

An opening balance needs evidence. Unpaid customer or supplier amounts may already be included in the old closing figures and must not be posted again as new business. The cutover lesson explains this without assuming that the application can migrate every historical record automatically.

Do not stop using a working system because a demo looked promising. A safer evaluation can run separately while the team checks requirements and recovery. The timing of any real move should follow the business’s reviewed plan.

When PHP Ledger is not the right choice

Use another product today if you need finished invoicing, supplier bills, stock costing, payroll, tax filing or a hosted service without server administration.

Start with the category comparison and the Akaunting comparison, then verify candidates against your actual needs. Waiting for a later release is a reasonable outcome. An honest “not yet” is more useful than moving your business into a workaround you cannot maintain.

Coordinate the decision with your team

Read the companion guidance for accountants, for software houses and for business owners. A workable installation needs agreement between the person maintaining it, the person entering records and the person reviewing the accounting.

Project evidence

This guide describes the inspected repository and release scope as of 16 September 2026. The project repository, release package and product scope are the primary project references. Technical tests do not establish accounting approval, independent security review or a service commitment.