Practical accounting and reporting guides
Follow a source into the ledger, reconcile the result and keep the evidence that explains it.
PHP Ledger guidance: use this page with the matching release notes and evaluate the workflow using synthetic records.
Which walkthrough should you start with?
Choose a guide that matches the question you are trying to answer and the evidence you have.
| Your question | Walkthrough | Evidence used |
|---|---|---|
| How does a receipt affect reports? | First week on the books | Two events in an empty fictional company |
| Where did this bank movement come from? | Daily cash check | Installed Cedar Studio sample |
| What explains the month-end result? | Monthly closing | Installed sample adjustments and reports |
| How do quarters connect to year end? | Quarterly and yearly review | Installed sample period comparisons |
| How do financial statements connect? | Retail two-year statements | Separate synthetic documentation fixture |
| How do I move an existing position? | Opening balances and cutover | Reviewed opening CSV and unpaid evidence |
| Does the ledger agree with the bank? | Bank reconciliation walkthrough | Synthetic statement and posted movements |
| How do I preserve a correction trail? | Correcting a posted entry | Original, reversing and replacement entries |
Keep the example baselines separate
The new Accounting starter playground, four existing multi-year histories, empty-book exercises and documentation fixtures serve different learning purposes.
The daily, monthly and quarterly/yearly guides use the reconciled Cedar Studio sample. Start a private sample company through the demo’s supported flow to inspect that history and its practice entries. Its accounts already contain data. Adding the first-week exercise to that company will not produce the same totals as an empty book, because the starting position is different.
The first-week, opening, reconciliation and correction walkthroughs use explicitly fictional figures to explain an operation. Some require permissions available in a private self-hosted installation but restricted in the public demo. The retail statements page is a separate documentation fixture with supplied two-year figures. It is not an installed retail company, a report export or a complete transaction dataset. Read each page’s baseline before comparing a screen with its expected numbers.
How should you work through a guide?
Write down the expected result first, then trace the source and journal before checking the report.
- Confirm the company, book, currency and date range.
- Identify the source evidence and whether the record is draft or posted.
- Calculate the expected account movements independently.
- Inspect the linked journal and the corresponding report.
- Explain any difference before creating another entry.
A trial balance can balance while an account or date is wrong. A bank balance can be correct while a statement remains unreconciled. These guides therefore ask you to follow references and timing as well as totals. Keep concise nonsecret notes so that another reviewer can repeat the check. Avoid using real customer records in a public demonstration.
What does the current preview provide?
The 0.4.0-preview release adds a bounded accounting starter over the earlier internal foundations.
You can evaluate the existing receipt, expense and general-journal paths, reports, period controls and the documented opening and bank workflows. The starter adds invoices, bills, partial payments, credits, ageing and reviewed opening conversion. Optional Purchasing and Inventory handle receipts, matched bills, stock cost and returns. Core tax codes and rates are manual; regional filing and group consolidation remain future work.
A page explaining a concept is not a product capability declaration. Where a guide discusses a backend mechanic, it says so. For installation and upgrade work, follow the exact package instructions and the self-hosting guides. For a concept before an operation, use the learning pages and glossary.
When are these guides the wrong source?
Use reviewed business records and qualified advice for decisions that depend on a real reporting obligation.
What should you do next?
These are synthetic learning and evaluation materials. They do not establish statutory compliance, a tax calculation, independent accounting acceptance or complete operational readiness. If the needed workflow is absent from the preview, choose a product that currently supports it rather than improvising with unrelated entries. A successful exercise is useful evidence of the path you checked, with the assumptions and limits recorded.
Start with one question from the table, complete its checks and keep the result. Then move to the related guide that answers the next question. This makes the books understandable a step at a time without confusing a worked illustration with a complete business implementation.
Questions before you continue
Check these boundaries before applying the procedure to a business installation.
Do all guides use the same sample company?
No. The installed Cedar Studio sample, empty-book exercises and retail documentation fixture have different baselines.
Can I perform every operation in the public demo?
No. Opening import and bank-reconciliation writes are restricted there; use an isolated self-hosted installation for those exercises.
Sources and next steps
Technical references and project behavior were checked on 16 September 2026; hosting access remains plan-specific.
The linked project files describe the current preview. Follow the instructions inside your exact downloaded package if a later release changes a command. Technical testing does not establish statutory compliance or independent accounting acceptance. See the project and preview limits.