What is Accounting?
Accounting simplifies your company's bookkeeping. You do not need an accounting degree to use it: you record income and expenses, link them to accounts (which are categories) and Pilot generates readable reports.
What accounts are
In Pilot, an account is a category where you group money movements. When you record an expense for a client lunch, you link it to the 'Entertainment expenses' account. When you receive payment for an invoice, you link it to 'Service income'.
Pilot comes with preloaded accounts so you can get started quickly. You can edit them.
Record a transaction
- Click 'New transaction'.
- Choose the type: Income or Expense.
- Enter the amount.
- Choose the account (category) it belongs to.
- Optional: related client or supplier, associated invoice, attached file (photo of the receipt).
- Save.
A concrete example
On Wednesday you took the owner of the company that might hire you out to lunch. You paid ₡35,000 with your business card.
- New transaction → Expense.
- Amount: ₡35,000.
- Account: 'Entertainment expenses'.
- Related client: 'Inversiones del Pacífico' (the one from the meeting).
- Attach a photo of the restaurant invoice.
- Save.
It is now recorded. At the end of the month, when you look at entertainment expenses, you see how much you invested in closing opportunities. And your accountant has the invoice as backup.
Accounting reports
- Profit and loss statement (P&L): income − expenses = result for the period.
- Expenses by category: a pie chart showing how much goes to each expense account.
- Income by client: a ranking of who brings in the most money.
- Cash flow for the period: how much came in and went out, day by day.
- Simple balance sheet: assets, liabilities, equity (a simplified version for your accountant to validate).
How it connects with other modules
How it connects: Accounting
If something does not work
If something fails
The P&L statement does not match my bank.
Some transactions may have no category. Look at the 'Uncategorized' view in the top left and assign them an account.
I pay a recurring bill every month — is there a way not to enter it manually?
Yes: set up a recurring transaction (the 'Recurring' button in the new transaction form). It is entered automatically each month.
