Getting Started with Accounting

Enable the accounting module, understand the dashboard, and learn how your financial data is organised.

The Accounting module is Helium's built-in double-entry bookkeeping system. It handles your chart of accounts, journal entries, financial reports, invoicing, bank reconciliation, VAT returns, and more — all without leaving the platform.

Accounting

Enabling accounting

Before you can use any accounting features, the module needs to be switched on for your organisation. This is a one-time setup step.

Open the Accounting dashboard

Navigate to Accounting → Dashboard in the sidebar. If accounting has not been enabled yet, you will see a setup prompt.

Click Enable Accounting

Click the Enable Accounting button. This creates your initial configuration, sets up a default chart of accounts with standard UK account codes, seeds your currency settings, and generates fiscal periods for the current financial year.

Review the result

Once enabled, the dashboard displays your configuration summary and quick-access cards for each accounting area. If any part of the setup could not be completed, a message explains what happened and you can retry.

Permissions required

Enabling accounting requires write-level access to the Accounting module. If you do not see the Enable button, ask your organisation administrator to check your permissions.

The Accounting dashboard

After accounting is enabled, the dashboard becomes your central hub. It shows:

Configuration summary — Your base currency, VAT scheme, and financial year start date
Quick-access cards — One card for each area of accounting (Chart of Accounts, Journal Entries, Reports, Banking, and more), each linking to the relevant page
MTD badge — If Making Tax Digital is enabled, a badge appears on the dashboard

How accounting is organised

The accounting module is split into several areas, each accessible from the sidebar:

Area	What it covers
Chart of Accounts	Your list of general ledger accounts — assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses
Journal Entries	Individual financial transactions recorded as debits and credits
Reports	Financial statements including Trial Balance, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow
Accounts Receivable	Customer invoices and credit notes — money owed to you
Accounts Payable	Supplier invoices and payments — money you owe
Credit Control	Monitoring customer credit limits and overdue balances
Banking	Bank account connections, statement import, and reconciliation
Settlements	Marketplace settlement reports from Amazon, eBay, and Shopify
VAT Returns	Preparing, reviewing, and submitting VAT returns
Budgets	Budget creation and variance analysis against actuals
Fixed Assets	Asset register with automatic depreciation calculations
FX Dashboard	Foreign currency exposure and exchange rate gains or losses

Key concepts

Double-entry bookkeeping

Every financial transaction in Helium is recorded as a journal entry with at least two lines — one debit and one credit. The total debits must always equal the total credits, keeping your books balanced.

Amounts in pence

All monetary values are stored internally as whole pence (or cents for other currencies) to avoid rounding errors. The system displays them as pounds and pence automatically.

Base currency

Your organisation has a single base currency (typically GBP). Transactions in other currencies are converted to the base currency using the exchange rate at the time of the transaction.

Fiscal periods

Your financial year is divided into monthly periods. Journal entries are automatically assigned to the correct period based on their transaction date.

What to set up first

After enabling accounting, we recommend completing these steps:

Review the Chart of Accounts — Check that the default accounts suit your business, and add any missing ones
Configure VAT — Set your VAT scheme and registration number in Accounting → Settings
Connect your bank — Link your bank account via open banking or add it manually in Accounting → Banking
Set automation preferences — Choose whether journals should auto-post or require approval in Accounting → Settings