The ledger and your cash position
How costs and income become double-entry records, how to keep cash on hand accurate, and how to read the project and company financial position.
Every financial event in Nuvailo lands in one double-entry ledger, whether it started as a site entry, a vendor payment or a client receipt. There is no separate project set of books to reconcile against the company set.
What posts automatically
| Event | Becomes | Attached to |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance saved | Labour cost | Project, and the BOQ line if coded |
| Material receipt | Material cost and a payable | Project and vendor |
| Client receipt recorded | Income and a bank movement | Project and client |
| Overhead entered | Company expense | Company, optionally apportioned to projects |
| Subcontractor certificate | Cost and a payable | Project and subcontractor |
Because these post as they happen, the cash position is a reading rather than a month-end exercise.
Keeping cash on hand accurate
Cash on hand drifts when small site expenses are paid from a pocket and recorded a week later. Two habits fix it:
- Record petty cash issues as a transfer to the site float, not as an expense. The expense is recorded when the float is spent.
- Reconcile each bank account weekly, not monthly. A weekly difference is findable, a monthly one is an investigation.
Vendors, subcontractors and payables
Each vendor and subcontractor has a running account: what has been certified, what has been paid, what is outstanding, and the retention held against them. Paying from that account keeps the ledger and the relationship in the same place.
Record subcontractor certificates when they are certified, not when they are paid. A payables balance that only reflects paid work understates what you owe and flatters the cash forecast.
Loans and investor funding
Loans record principal, rate and schedule, so repayments post automatically and outstanding principal is always current. Investor funding is tracked per investor with contributions and distributions, which is what makes an investor update a report rather than a research task.
Reading the position
- 1Company cash: across all accounts, today, including the site floats.
- 2Project position: budget, committed, spent, certified income and retention, per project.
- 3Payables and receivables: who you owe and who owes you, with ages.
- 4Budget vs actual: per section and line, sorted by variance value.
If a project shows healthy margin and the company shows tight cash, the answer is nearly always retention plus the certification lag. Both are visible per project in the position view.