In essence, the accounting entry principle can be illustrated as follows:
The figure above describes that the final accounting entry is created from the accounting schema rules and the default accounts, through the particular document type, which determines the accounting principle. Thus, an Accounts Receivable invoice will have a particular accounting entry that is different from, say, a Shipment or Accounts Payable document. The processes around these documents and their accounting entries have been described, when looking at the previous chapters in their respective business cycles.
The accounting processing engine of Compiere is separate from the document processing engine. Accounting entries are posted in the background, as a separate process.
Note
Because of the decoupled accounting engine, Compiere allows for multiple currencies, multiple calendars, multiple charts of account (for instance accounting versus tax reporting), multiple GAAP (accrual and cost), and multiple costing methods, in the same instance (Tenant based). It also allows for the re-posting of documents based on new rules or default accounts.
Because accounting set-ups are an integral requirement of the initial system set-up, we have described the set-up of the Accounting Schema and Account Elements in detail, in Chapter 2.