Understand the activity behind your numbers.
Your accounts, connected to the work that creates them.
See who owes you, what you owe and how the business is performing. Follow a balance back to its invoices and payments, with finance agents preparing checks for review.
Start with the transaction. Follow it to the accounts.
Review the entries behind a balance, the documents behind an exception and the work still needed for close. The details stay connected to the wider financial picture.
What makes up the balance in receivables?
Open the posted invoice and follow its entries into the accounts.
FinanceIllustrative records| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Trade receivables | £12,480 | — |
| Sales revenue | — | £10,400 |
| Output VAT | — | £2,080 |
The £12,480 balance has a source you can open.
The invoice records £10,400 of sales and £2,080 of VAT. A sales order alone does not create this receivable; the entries follow the applicable posting event.
See where you stand
Revenue, margin and cash come straight from the books, instead of from a report someone rebuilt on Monday morning.
Routine entries prepared for you
Bank lines, supplier invoices and journals are prepared as they come in. Anything unclear is left for a person instead of guessed at.
Reconciliation and control
Checks run again whenever the figures change, so a mistake is caught on the day it happens instead of at month end.
A quicker month-end
Accruals, prepayments and the month-end pack are drafted as the month goes, so most of the close is done before it starts.
Understand the numbers. Keep the evidence in view.
Bring financial performance and recorded carbon into the same review. Start with a management report, compare it with budget, then follow the detail back to the records behind it.
“Show September’s profit and loss against budget.”
A management view, with the totals and the differences kept together.
| Report line | Actual | Budget | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1,240 | 1,200 | +40 |
| Cost of sales | (742) | (720) | (22) |
| Gross profit | 498 | 480 | +18 |
| Operating expenses | (306) | (292) | (14) |
| Operating profit | 192 | 188 | +4 |
£4,000 ahead of budget, with the movement explained.
Sales added £40,000. Higher cost of sales absorbed £22,000, and operating expenses absorbed another £14,000. The remaining £4,000 is the improvement in operating profit.
From the group total to the detail
Review performance by company, project or cost centre. Ask what changed, then check the transactions behind a balance before deciding what to do next.
Carbon alongside the financial picture
The homepage example shows 286 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) against cost-of-sales activity and 148 against operating activity: 434 in total. These are separate carbon measures, not amounts to deduct from financial profit.
Evidence before an ESG statement
Keep the reporting period, source activity and calculation assumptions with the figures you review. The carbon example illustrates one part of environmental reporting; it is not a complete ESG disclosure or a claim of independent assurance.
The carbon figures above are illustrative, matching the homepage example. Reporting coverage depends on the records and methodology used; a missing measurement should not be treated as zero.
Books that sales, stock and purchasing update for you.
Orders, deliveries, invoices and accounting entries stay linked. Entries are created at the applicable posting step, not simply when an order is entered. Run your books in Cobalt or use the supported accounting connections, with reconciliation and period-end review still part of the process.
- Chart of accounts — organise the accounts your business needs. Entries follow posted invoices and applicable receipt, dispatch or journal events, not order entry alone.
- Bank & reconciliation — import your statement, match lines to open invoices, and raise a query on anything that doesn't match.
- VAT & tax — VAT return figures built from your current entries, with the VAT on each line checked.
- Journals & period close — accruals, prepayments and a month-end pack ready for review, and each area locked once its month is closed.
- Cost centres & budgets — compare recorded costs with budget from Scale. For project billing and profitability from Premier, see the project view.
- A full history of every figure — nothing is edited away. Corrections are added as new entries, so you can trace any figure back to what caused it.
- Unusual entries caught early — anything out of the ordinary is held with a note explaining why, instead of going through quietly.
- Duplicate invoices caught — supplier invoices that look like repeats are held before the payment run, with both shown side by side.
- Working with your accountant — export the records you need or use a supported accounting connection. See export options and plan requirements.
Is the work still delivering the margin you expected?
Review project billing and costs together, then look at the work still to be completed. A payment hold is a control on payment; it does not make a cost disappear or bring a project back within budget.
Start with the recorded activity
Use the project’s billing and cost records to understand its current position. Investigate a variance at its source before changing the forecast.
Include what remains to be done
Review the estimated cost to finish alongside costs already recorded. Check that outstanding work has not been omitted or counted twice.
Keep decisions separate from the figures
Compare the options before approving further spending or a change to the customer agreement. A revised forecast explains the effect; it is not an approval itself.
| Measure | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Agreed project value | £120,000 | Assumed full contract value |
| Costs recorded to date | £84,000 | Recorded project costs |
| Estimated remaining costs | £18,000 | Additional cost to complete |
| Forecast project margin | £18,000 · 15% | £120,000 − £84,000 − £18,000 |
The remaining work matters as much as the costs so far.
This example assumes the full agreed value will be earned and the remaining-cost estimate includes all unfinished work. It is a planning illustration, not a revenue-recognition calculation or a customer result.
Cost centres and budgets are included from Scale. Project billing and profitability are included from Premier. See the full plan comparison for the distinction.
Agree what moves between the systems—and who checks it.
Keep your accountant’s review connected to the records behind the numbers. Choose between ordinary data exports, an enhanced accountant handoff and a supported accounting connection.
CSV exports on every plan
Export customers, products and invoices for further review or transfer. Check the receiving system’s format and reconcile totals after import; a file export is not a live connection.
Accountant handoff from Growth
Advanced accountant CSV handoff and account mapping for Xero, QuickBooks and Sage exports are available from Growth. Agree the account mapping, reporting period and records to include with your accountant.
Direct connections from Growth
Xero and QuickBooks have supported direct connections. Sage uses exports, not a direct API connection. Confirm the transaction coverage, opening balances and reconciliation responsibilities before connecting systems.
Your accounting provider may charge its own subscription. Review the supported integrations and plan requirements before deciding how the systems will work together.
Four finance agents, each with its own job.
They work in the background, spotting problems, preparing entries and getting routine work done before you ask. When something needs a decision, it reaches you with the reasons already written down.
Bank Recon Agent
Imports the bank statement, matches lines to open invoices, and raises a query on anything that doesn't match instead of forcing it.
Invoice Agent
Reads supplier invoices, checks each one against the purchase order and what arrived, and holds anything that looks like a duplicate.
GL Advisor
Watches the books for unusual entries and explains what looks odd about each one.
Close Agent
Prepares accruals, prepayments and the month-end pack as the month goes, and keeps track of the checklist until it is done.
Related pages.
Frequently asked questions.
Is Cobalt ERP's ledger a replacement for Xero or QuickBooks?
Cobalt’s in-app ledger is available now. You can also retain Xero or QuickBooks using the supported connections from Growth up. Review reporting, tax requirements, opening balances and the scope of any connection with your accountant before deciding where to keep your books.
What happens to my existing accounting software?
Keep it. Cobalt ERP syncs directly with Xero and QuickBooks, produces VAT-ready invoices and gives clean exports for Sage, so your accountant keeps working the way they do now.
Can an agent post to the books without me?
No, and there is no setting that allows it. A finance agent prepares the entry, attaches the evidence and puts it in a queue. A person with the right permission posts it. The same rule applies to approving controlled transactions, making payments, changing bank details and closing a period.
Can someone change a figure after it is posted?
Not quietly. Posted entries are never edited. A correction is added as a new entry that points back to the original, so you can always see how a figure came to be what it is.
Does it handle VAT?
Yes. Your VAT return figures are built from current entries, and the VAT on each line is checked when the document is created, so there is nothing to rebuild at quarter end.
If your books are in Xero or QuickBooks today.
How the day-to-day work and the books split between Cobalt ERP and the tools you may use now.
Stop rebuilding the numbers every month.
Keep posted transactions connected to the sales, purchases and stock movements behind them. Book a demo and see it with your own figures.
Book a demo