Guide for business owners and accountants
Write down what happens in your business in plain words. The app keeps the accounts, and gets them ready for your accountant.
1. What this app does, and what it does not
- You write each sale, purchase, expense and payment as a sentence you know: "I sold goods", "A customer paid what they owed", "I paid a business expense".
- The app turns each one into proper double entry and sorts it into the standard books: the cash book, the day books, the journal and the ledger.
- From these it prepares draft final accounts in four accepted layouts, for your accountant.
Please read this. The app makes your accountant's work faster, but it does not replace them. A qualified accountant must check the figures, make the year-end adjustments and sign the accounts. Every statement says "Draft". The app cannot promise that auditors or the tax office will accept them.
2. Starting
- Type the business's name, the owner's name, what it does and where it is.
- Choose the month the business's year starts. Most small businesses use January.
- Choose the first day you will write in the app.
- Opening balances: write what the business had on that day: cash, mobile money, bank, the stock on the shelves (at what you paid for it), equipment, customers who owed you, suppliers you owed, and loans. The app works out the owner's capital. A brand-new business can skip this and use "I put my own money into the business" instead.
Your free month starts by itself. Nothing needs paying until it ends.
3. Writing an entry
Press Money in, Money out, Move money or Year end and other, choose the sentence that fits, and fill in the boxes:
- Date and how much.
- Where the money went or came from: cash, mobile money or bank. If you sold or bought on credit, choose that instead, and choose the customer or supplier.
- For an expense, what it was for (rent, wages, electricity…). If none fits, add your own heading in Settings.
- A receipt number and a note, if you like.
At the bottom, "In the books this becomes" shows the debits and credits the app will write. You never need to read it; it is there for your accountant.
Which sentence?
| What happened | Choose |
|---|
| You sold goods or a service | Money in → I sold goods or services (cash, MoMo, bank, or on credit) |
| A customer paid off what they owed | Money in → A customer paid what they owed |
| You bought goods to sell, or materials | Money out → I bought goods to sell |
| You paid rent, wages, light, transport, data… | Money out → I paid a business expense |
| You got a bill to pay later | Money out → I paid a business expense → On credit |
| You bought a freezer, machine, kiosk, phone, vehicle | Money out → I bought something the business will keep for years |
| You took money or goods for home | Money out → I took money or goods for myself |
| You banked cash, or cashed out MoMo | Move money |
| You put your own money in | Money in → I put my own money into the business |
| You took a loan, or repaid one | Money in → I borrowed… / Money out → I repaid a loan |
Money you take for home is not an expense of the business. Writing it as "I took money for myself" keeps your profit true.
Changing or removing an entry
Tap the entry. Change it and save, or remove it. Earlier versions and removed entries are kept and listed for your accountant, so the record stays honest. A removed entry can be put back from See every entry.
4. Customers, suppliers and stock
Customers and suppliers shows what each one owes or is owed. Open one to see their statement, and send it to them by WhatsApp.
Stock counts: on the last day of your business year, count the goods on your shelves and write what they cost you. List each item (how many × cost each), or type the total. Without a count the profit cannot be right.
5. The year end
With your accountant, under Year end and other:
- Stock count on the last day.
- Depreciation: the accountant gives you the figure for each item.
- Accruals: expenses had but not yet paid. Prepayments: expenses paid for next year. Both reverse themselves the next day, so the bill is entered as normal when it is paid.
- Bad debts: money a customer will never pay.
When the accountant has finished, close the books up to the year's last day (Settings), so nothing in that year changes by mistake.
6. Sending to your accountant
Send to my accountant → choose the period (usually last business year) →
- Send all the files: every book as a file for Excel, through WhatsApp or email.
- Make the accountant's pack: one long document of everything, then Print or save as PDF. On the print screen choose Save as PDF (Android: "Save as PDF" as the printer; iPhone: Share → Save to Files).
7. For the accountant
- Basis. Sole trader, historical cost, Ghana cedis. Purchases are expensed (periodic method); inventory comes from the owner's stock counts at cost. Before the first count, the opening-balance stock is used.
- Chart of accounts. Fixed codes (1000 cash … 6200 loan interest), shown in Settings. Owner-added headings take codes in the same ranges. Each PPE class has its own accumulated depreciation account.
- Capital. Never closed off. Opening capital for any period is computed from all earlier entries, adjusted for the stock count.
- Trial balance. Balance-sheet accounts at the period end; income and expenses for the period; inventory at the start; capital at the start plus capital introduced.
- Layouts. Traditional (WASSCE/UK); IFRS for SMEs by function; IFRS for SMEs by nature; US-style balance sheet. Plus changes in capital and a direct-method cash flow statement. Expenses carry a function (distribution / administrative) and a nature.
- Known simplifications, listed in the notes of every draft: asset disposals are recorded as proceeds only (code 4150); loans are shown as non-current; owner's income tax paid from the business is in drawings; VAT is one control account (2200).
- Audit trail. Entries are numbered. Changes keep earlier versions; removals are kept. See Changed and removed entries.
- Import. All entries as a journal (date, number, code, account, debit, credit) suits most accounting software's journal import.
- Several businesses. The Accountant plan (GH₵700 a year) keeps up to 20 businesses' books on one phone.
7a. Partnerships (being checked)
A business owned by two or more partners can keep its books here too. This is still being checked by an accountant,
so it is offered only at a special address for now.
- Setting up. Choose A partnership, then type each partner's name and their share of profit (2 and 1 means
two thirds and one third). In the opening balances, type each partner's capital; leave them empty and the app shares the
capital in the profit-sharing ratio.
- Money put in or taken out asks Which partner?, and so does a partner's own income tax paid from the business.
- The agreement (Settings): each partner's share, interest on capital, a yearly salary, and interest on drawings.
- For the accountant. Each partner has a capital account (3000), drawings (3100) and a current account (3200), told
apart by partner. Capital accounts are fixed; the appropriation is worked out afresh for every period and credited to the
current accounts. Salaries and interest on capital are taken for the part of the business year the period covers; interest
on capital is on the capital account at the start of the period; interest on drawings runs from the day of each drawing.
Residual profit or loss is shared in the ratio, any odd pesewa to the last partner. A journal line on 3000, 3100 or 3200 must
name its partner. Changing the agreement changes past periods too.
8. Keeping the records safe
Your records stay on your phone and are never sent anywhere. That also means the phone is the only copy. In Settings, press Save a backup every week and send the file to yourself by email or WhatsApp. On a new phone, Restore from a backup brings everything back.
A password
In Settings → Password, choose a password of four or more letters or figures. From then on the app asks for it:
- when the app opens;
- when it has been left alone for five minutes (or at once, with 🔒 Lock now on the home screen);
- before a saved entry, stock count or the opening balances is changed or removed, before closed books are opened again, before a backup is brought in, and before a business is erased. After you type it, you can go on making changes for five minutes without being asked again.
When you set it, the app shows a recovery code once. Write it on paper and keep the paper away from the phone. If you forget the password, press I have forgotten my password, type the code, and choose a new password. If you lose both, only your backup can bring your records back. After several wrong tries, the app makes you wait before trying again.
A password for a helper
If a shop assistant or family member writes sales for you, give them a password of their own: Settings → Password → Set a helper's password. With it they can open the app, add new entries and look at the books. They cannot change or remove anything already saved, open Settings, send files to the accountant, switch business, change a customer's details or write year-end entries: each of those asks for your password. Every entry they write is marked "by helper" in the lists, so you can see who wrote what. When you take the phone back, press 🔒 Lock now and open it with your own password.
If you used the old four-figure lock, those four figures are now your password and still open the app. Make a recovery code when the home screen asks.
How safe are my records?
- Nothing is sent anywhere. The records are kept only on your phone. We never see them; nobody on the internet can reach them.
- The password is kept scrambled, never as you typed it.
- The password is a lock on a door, not a safe. It stops a family member, a shop assistant or a visitor from opening or changing your books. It does not scramble the records themselves, so a person with your unlocked phone and a computer's special tools could still read them. That is why the phone's own screen lock matters most: set a PIN, pattern or fingerprint on the phone.
- The real danger is losing the phone, not someone reading it. A lost, stolen or broken phone takes your only copy with it, unless you have a backup. Save one every week and send it to yourself.
- A backup file holds all your figures and has no password. Send it only to yourself and your own accountant.
- No change is ever hidden. A changed entry keeps its earlier versions and a removed one is kept, so your accountant can see what was altered, by accident or otherwise.
- Nobody from Wake will ever ask for your password or recovery code.
On an iPhone, if you add the app to your home screen, do it before you start, or restore your backup inside the home-screen copy.
9. What it costs
- Free for the first 30 days.
- GH₵15 a month, or GH₵150 a year, for one business.
- GH₵700 a year for an accountant or bookkeeper: up to 20 businesses.
When a plan ends, nothing is lost. You can still see, print, send and back up everything; only new entries wait until it is renewed.
Sharing the app: on the home screen (or the first screen), 📣 Share this app sends it by WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Telegram, text message or email, shows a QR code anyone can scan, and opens a one-page poster to print. Nothing about your business is in what is sent.
Help: WhatsApp 059 401 3026 · wakelearningapps@gmail.com