More in Financial accounting
A lab spends money every month. It pays shop rent, staff salary, the electricity bill and the reagent supplier. It deposits cash in the bank. Some hospitals pay the lab once a month. The Financial Accounting menu is where you write these down, so that at any time you can see how much cash should be in hand, what each supplier is owed, and where the money went.
Know where the money went
Every rupee paid for rent, salary or reagents is one entry, and the Day Book lists them all for any period.
Supplier dues without a diary
The Outstanding Report shows what you owe each supplier on any date, worked out from your entries.
Ready for the CA
Registers and books export to Excel, so the CA gets figures instead of a bag of slips.
The words, in lab terms
| Word | What it means at your lab |
|---|---|
| Account (ledger account) | One name you keep money records for. "Shop Rent", "Electricity", "Suresh Yadav (technician)", "Shree Diagnostic Supplies", "Cash", "HDFC Bank" are all accounts. E-Lab lists them in Account Masters. |
| Group | A family of accounts. All suppliers sit in one group, all banks in another, all expenses in another. Groups decide where an account appears in the books. |
| Voucher | One entry: one payment, one receipt, one bank deposit. Each has a date and a number. |
| Receipt | Money coming in. Apex Hospital pays ₹18,000 for last month's tests. |
| Payment | Money going out. You pay ₹15,000 shop rent in cash. |
| Journal | An adjustment where no cash or bank moves. You record that you owe the supplier ₹40,000 for reagents bought on credit. |
| Dr. and Cr. | Every entry has two sides. Dr. (debit) is the side that receives value. Cr. (credit) is the side that gives it. When you pay rent in cash, Shop Rent is Dr. ₹15,000 and Cash is Cr. ₹15,000. The two sides are always equal. |
| Opening balance | What an account stood at on the day you started. Dr. means the party owes you, or you hold that money (cash, bank). Cr. means you owe the party. |
How the pieces connect
- Groups
Fixed families come built in. You can add your own under them in Account Groups. - Accounts
Create each party, bank and expense head once in Account Masters, with an opening balance if any. - Vouchers
Enter daily money movements in Quick Payment, Quick Receipt, Bank Entry or Journal Entry. - Books
E-Lab builds the registers, Voucher Book, Day Book, Ledger, Cash Book and Outstanding Report from those vouchers. You never type in a book.
Which screen for which job
| Job | Screen |
|---|---|
| Pay rent, salary, electricity, petty expenses in cash | Quick Payment |
| Receive money from a hospital or a corporate client | Quick Receipt |
| Pay a supplier by cheque, deposit cash, withdraw cash, bank charges | Bank Entry |
| Record a purchase on credit, salary due, a correction | Journal Entry |
| See cash in hand | Cash Book |
| See one party's full account | Ledger |
| See who owes whom | Outstanding Report |
| See everything entered in a period | Day Book or Voucher Book |
Questions people ask
Why doesn't today's patient collection show in the Cash Book?
Patient bills are not posted to the accounts. See Daily Collection Report, or post the day's collection as a Quick Receipt yourself.
Do I have to use this section?
No. Patient billing and reports work without it. Use it if you want the lab's expenses and bank in the same software.
Is there a Profit & Loss report?
Not in this version's menu. See the month-end topic for what to give your CA instead.
Do I need to know accounting?
For daily payments and receipts, no. Leave journals and year-end to someone who knows, or to your CA.