How to build an accounting system with AI

These are the parts a accounting system needs before it is useful. Each one is something the plan covers.

• Entities and consolidation groups: Model each legal entity separately with its own books and base currency, grouped for consolidation.
• Chart of accounts: A governed list of accounts per entity with a standard roll-up for reporting.
• General ledger and journals: Every transaction is a balanced journal; reports are derived from journal lines.
• Fiscal periods and close: Lock closed periods so history cannot move, and run a repeatable month-end checklist.
• Accounts payable: Capture vendor bills, route them for approval, and pay them in controlled runs.
• Accounts receivable and invoicing: Issue invoices, apply cash and chase overdue balances.
• Approval chains: Amount- and role-based approval of bills, journals and payment runs.
• Segregation of duties: The person who creates a payment or journal cannot also approve it.
• Financial audit trail: Show who posted, approved, changed or reopened anything, in order, tamper-evident.

• Statement and ledger import: Load opening balances, bank files and vendor lists with a dry run.
• Tax codes and returns support: Apply VAT/GST/sales tax by code and report the tax position.

Each table below becomes part of the Postgres database that belongs to your app.

• entities: status: active|dormant|closed; tax id is encrypted; base_currency is immutable once journals exist.
• gl_accounts: type: asset|liability|equity|revenue|expense; accounts with postings are deactivated, never deleted; currency set for bank and foreign-currency accounts.
• journals: source: manual|ap|ar|bank|fx|intercompany|consolidation|opening; status: draft|pending_approval|posted|reversed; posted rows are immutable; CHECK (approved_by is distinct from created_by) for manual journals.
• journal_lines: CHECK (amount_minor > 0), direction D|C; deferred trigger enforces sum(D)=sum(C) per journal in transaction currency and in functional currency; immutable once posted.
• fiscal_periods: status: open|soft_closed|closed; trigger rejects journals into closed; reopen requires two approvers and is audited.
• vendors: bank detail changes need a second approver and open a 48 h payment hold for that vendor.
• bills: status: draft|submitted|approved|scheduled|paid|void; CHECK (approved_by is distinct from created_by); amounts in integer minor units.
• invoices: status: draft|issued|part_paid|paid|void|credited; issuing allocates the number inside the transaction; issued invoices are immutable, corrections are credit notes.
• receipts: allocations to invoices live in receipt_allocations rows (invoice_id, amount_minor) summing to at most the receipt amount.

• No filing of tax returns or statutory accounts; the app produces the numbers and exports.
• No editing or deleting of posted journals; reversals only.
• No floating point money or FX rates.
• No holding of customer funds; payment execution is via the bank file or a licensed processor.
• No payroll calculation (see hr-payroll).
• Intercompany and consolidation: plan for it, build it later.

Forge64 matches your description to one of 25 reference architectures, writes the plan and data model into the project, generates the app, and runs a quality gate over the code before you see it. Each app gets its own Postgres database and sign-in with no per-user fee. Hosting on Forge Cloud and Forge Payments are rolling out.

This is a reference design for the category, not a promise that every item is generated today. Built-ins such as background jobs, file uploads and search are rolling out; email sent from your app is coming soon, so anything here that needs it is something you add yourself for now.

What does an accounting system need first?

Entities and consolidation groups, chart of accounts, general ledger and journals, fiscal periods and close, accounts payable and accounts receivable and invoicing. The plan for a accounting system covers all of these before it generates code.

What should I leave out of the first version of an accounting system?

No filing of tax returns or statutory accounts; the app produces the numbers and exports. No editing or deleting of posted journals; reversals only. No floating point money or FX rates.

Which products define the accounting system category?

Well-known examples include Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Odoo Accounting and Sage Intacct. Use them to decide which features your users expect, then describe your own version.

• Accounting system architecture
• Example prompt for an accounting system
• Accounting system security checklist
• Accounting system scaling checklist
• Often combined: ledger app
• Often combined: approval workflow app
• All app types