Set-up of Procountor Solo: accountant's instructions

This article describes the Procountor Solo set-up process from the point of view of the accountant.

 

Set up a new environment view

The Procountor Solo environment is set up in Procountor under Management > Set up a new environment.

• Another option is to change the current Procountor environment into a Solo environment. The instructions can be found here.

1. Go to the Set up a new environment view.

2. Enter the information and select Procountor Solo as the product version.

3. Select either Procountor default account scheme as the chart of accounts or copy the chart from another Solo environment.

Please note! It is very important to choose the correct chart of accounts when setting up a new environment since the chosen chart of accounts can't be changed after the environment has been created.

4. Select the product register. If you wish, you can copy the product register from an existing Solo environment or select the default register.

• Copying the chart of accounts and product register from an existing Solo environment facilitates the set-up of new Solo environments.
  • Copying from an existing environment is recommended if you use a modified chart of accounts or purchases product register.
  • If you copy the chart of accounts from another environment, you must copy the product register from the same environment in order to keep the default posting settings.
  • More instructions on the importance of the product register are here. 
• If you select the default chart of accounts, you can select either sole trader or limited liability as the product register template and Finnish or English as the language.
  • The differences between the product registers for sole traders and limited liability companies are:
    • The product register for sole traders includes the product "Private/own withdrawal", whereas the Ltd register has "Own purchase/shareholder loan"
    • The sole trader's register refers to the employee's salary, whereas for limited liability companies, the name is the entrepreneur's or employee’s salary

5. Copy the usage settings.

6. After setting up the environment, create a new username for the Solo entrepreneur or add the entrepreneur's existing username to the environment.

• It is particularly important to add the entrepreneur with the user role Procountor Solo entrepreneur so that they receive the login instructions for the Procountor Solo user interface.
• If you add an existing entrepreneur's username to the environment, you must ensure that the entrepreneur has added their phone number and e-mail address to their own information and settings. If this information has not been added, the login instructions cannot be sent to the entrepreneur.
• You can only ad one entrepreneur with the Procountor Solo entrepreneur role to the environment.
• If the entrepreneur already has a username in Procountor financial management, they do not need a new username. They can use their existing username to log into Solo if the user role is changed into Procountor Solo entrepreneur.
• The Solo entrepreneur logs into the entrepreneur's user interface through the Solo login window. The Solo entrepreneur does not need the Procountor password list or confirmation through the Key application when they log in.
• Solo entrepreneurs use the Key application to confirm payments in the Solo user interface. If the Solo entrepreneur's username is also linked to a Procountor Financials or Procountor Ledger environment, they can use the same Key smartphone application for confirming payments in the Solo user interface and logging into the Procountor environments. This can only be done if the username is the same in all of these environments – the Key application cannot be linked to several usernames at the same time.

 

Setting up privileges

The accountant and the entrepreneur must be given full privileges in the new Procountor environment. Management > Users and privileges. 

• The Users and privileges view of Procountor must have at least two users: the entrepreneur and the accountant.

 

User roles

Accountant 

The accountant's user role is Accountant. 

• The accountant who sets up the environment automatically receives privileges to the company's user management.
• If several accountants or payroll accountants are added to the environment, at least one of the users must have User management privileges. 

Procountor Solo entrepreneur 

The entrepreneur's user role is Procountor Solo entrepreneur. 

• When the user role is set up as Procountor Solo entrepreneur, the program automatically sends the user an e-mail with a link to the Procountor Solo login page. 
• The entrepreneur only uses the Procountor Solo entrepreneur's user interface, which means they do not log into the Procountor environment. By default, the Procountor Solo entrepreneur's user rights do not allow logging into the Procountor user interface.
• The entrepreneur uses their Procountor username to log into Procountor Solo.

Payroll accountant

The payroll accountant can be given the Payroll accountant user role. 

• If salaries are calculated with the help of Procountor salary calculation by a person other than the accountant, a payroll accountant's username can be added to the environment.  

Management/Auditor

The auditor can be given the Management/Auditor role. 

• If the company is covered by the auditing obligation, it can complete the auditing electronically in the Procountor Solo environment by adding the auditor's Procountor username to the environment.

Customized

If the aim is to customize the privileges manually, select Customized as the role. 

 

Setting up the bank connections

In order to use the full features of Procountor Solo, the user's bank account must be linked to Procountor Solo (in the accountant's user interface) so that the bank statements and reference payments arrive regularly from the bank. The entrepreneur must fill out the bank connection authorization that is sent to the bank. After this, when the bank has opened the bank connection, the accountant adds the company's bank account to the Procountor environment under Management > Company info > Bank account information.

Note! The bank account must be a company account in order to function in Procountor and the Solo entrepreneur's user interface. In general, banks cannot grant software companies the right to transmit payment data from a private person's bank account.

• More detailed instructions on adding the bank account can be found here. 
• The bank connection authorization forms are available here. 

 

Electronic invoice addresses

Procountor automatically activates the electronic invoice addresses. A prerequisite for activating the electronic invoice addresses is that we have processed the agreement and the environment is in production use. After this, the activation starts right away when the entrepreneur logs into Procountor Solo. The activation normally takes approximately three working days.

Note! After the electronic invoice addresses have been activated and the account can be used, it takes approximately one week before the addresses are listed in the public https://verkkolaskuosoite.fi/ website.

• The entrepreneur's electronic invoice addresses are not visible in the E-Invoice and Scanning provider addresses view in the accountant's Procountor environment. 

 

Managing the product register for purchases

The product register for purchases is managed in the Procountor environment, and this is visible in the Procountor Solo entrepreneur's user interface. The entrepreneur uses the product register in Solo when they select the expense type for purchase invoices or receipts. It is recommended that you modify the product register based on the entrepreneur's business activities so that the entrepreneur has an easy-to-use list of expense types available in their own Solo user interface. The same product register can be copied to new Solo environments in the future. 

The product register can be found under Registers > Product register for purchases in the program.

You can add new products to the product register by clicking the Add product button. Use the Remove button to remove existing products from the register. Removed products cannot be restored, but you can create a new similar product, if necessary. You can also set the status of a product as passive in the product register. The entrepreneur sees all the purchase products set up in the product register in their Solo user interface.  

We recommend specifying the default posting of the products as accurately as possible to ensure smooth posting in the future. Expenses are recorded based on the default posting settings, and the entrepreneur allocates the expense to the correct product in the Solo user interface. Read more about the product register here.

 

Posting rules for received payments

The entrepreneur creates and sends sales invoices in the Procountor Solo user interface. Each sales invoice sent by the entrepreneur has a bank reference code by default. When the end client pays the sales invoice using the bank reference code, the payment transaction appears on the reference payment list provided by the bank. 

In Procountor, the reference payment list creates a separate accounting page. The Procountor Solo entrepreneur's accounting is cash-based, which means that the receivables are not handled and the sales are recorded in Procountor on the reference payment accounting page.

The VAT percentages, VAT statuses and accounting account (3000) of the sales invoices are sent from the Solo environment to Procountor with the accounting material, also when the sales invoice has several different VAT percentages. 

If you want to change the accounting account, you can make changes to the default posting of reference payments. This editing overrides the accounting account information imported from Procountor Solo. Please note that this also works vice versa: if an entry is recorded on an account other than 3000, you should check the current default posting settings for reference payments.  See the detailed editing instructions here.

 

Beginning accounting in Procountor

You must make certain specifications in the Management menu in the new Procountor environment in order to begin accounting. 

 

Financial years

Financial years are set in Procountor under Management > Accounting info > Financial years.

Click the New fiscal year button create a new row and specify the start and end dates for the fiscal period. If you want to import the balance information of the previous financial year, you must also set up the previous financial year.

We also recommend setting up tracking periods for monitoring the financial year, as these enable closing the accounting monthly. You can manage tracking periods under Financial years > Edit tracking periods > Create tracking periods.  Read more on tracking periods here.

Procountor Solo entrepreneurs submit accounting material to the environment monthly, which means the bank statements are also processed monthly. When the months accounting is ready and the own-initiative tax return has been sent, the tracking period for the month is closed. This protects the accounting against changes.

In Procountor, the Bank statements and reference payments view contains the Update accounting button, which can be used to edit the accounting pages of all the bank statements and reference payments in the view. By closing the tracking period, you can lock the accounts of previous months to avoid making changes to completed months with the Update accounting button. 

 

Taxation information

The Taxation information view specifies the duration of the company's VAT period and the Tax Account's reference and bank account number which are needed for creating the own-initiative tax return. The view also determines which income tax return form is used. In the Income tax return menu, select form 6B for companies and 5 for sole traders.  

Taxation information can be found in Procountor under Management > Accounting info > Taxation information.

 

VAT defaults

The VAT defaults view specifies which VAT statuses can be selected for the accounting entries. It is possible that all of the VAT statuses available in the program by default are not needed in the entrepreneur's accounting. You can customize the default settings so that only the VAT statuses that are needed in the accounting are active in the environment.

You cannot edit or disable the default VAT statuses or percentages, but you can lock the selections. Version upgrade v69 restored all previously edited values back to defaults.  

You can specify VAT defaults in Management > Accounting info > VAT defaults.

 

Transferring opening balances in accounting

When you start new accounting, you usually need to transfer comparison data and the balances for transactions in the previous financial year from the old accounts. More instructions on beginning accounting can be found here.

 

Other settings

Below are the most important settings options that need to considered when setting up Procountor Solo. When you are setting up a Solo environment, you should also check the other general settings in Procountor in the Basic info and Usage settings views.

 

Dimension settings

Procountor Solo has one dimension (cost centre) by default. This dimension can be named, and items can be set up under it in the Dimensions view, which can be found by selecting Management > Accounting info > Dimensions in the main menu. Dimensions can be set for bank statement transactions and receipts in Solo as in any other Procountor product. More information on dimensioning is available in this article.

 

Language settings

Via language settings, you can edit Solo so that your customer can use it in English. Regardless of the language set for your customer, you can continue using Procountor in your preferred language. Read more about the language settings and the changes they require: Switching the language of Procountor Solo to English.