Purchases & Expenses

The Purchases & Expenses module covers two distinct flows: supplier invoices (company purchases) and expense reports (employee-advanced expenses awaiting reimbursement). Both automatically generate the SYSCOHADA entries in the ACH journal (Plan Comptable OHADA — OHADA Chart of Accounts), with no manual bookkeeping.

The SYSCOHADA purchase workflow follows the pipeline: Receive invoice → Record (OCR or spreadsheet import) → Validate (entry 401xxx/6xxx/4452) → Payment → Account reconciliation (lettrage — account reconciliation) of 401xxx. Validation is the key step — before validation the invoice is in RECEIVED status and has zero accounting impact; the liability to the supplier is only recorded at validation time. A supplier can be created on the fly while recording the invoice. Manual line-by-line entry is coming soon.

The supplier invoices list, with the OCR drop zone highlighted.

Expense reports follow a separate workflow: an employee submits expenses with supporting documents, the accountant or administrator approves, then records the reimbursement. Approval creates the 6xxx/422xxx entry (liability to the employee), and reimbursement settles the 422xxx account. Any missing receipt blocks approval — photograph your receipts immediately after spending.

Tip

Use OCR to quickly import supplier invoices: photograph the invoice or upload the PDF, SynkriaOps automatically extracts the amount, date, supplier, and VAT rate — reducing entry time by 80%. See Importing an invoice via OCR.

Before you start

To use the Purchases & Expenses module, make sure that:

• An open fiscal year exists for the current year (Settings → Fiscal years)
• The supplier is created in Contacts → Suppliers, or will be created on the fly during entry
• The appropriate expense accounts 6xxx are available in the SYSCOHADA chart of accounts
• For expense reports: the employee has a 422xxx sub-account in the chart of accounts

Available guides

Recording a supplier invoice Record a supplier invoice via OCR or Excel/CSV spreadsheet import and generate the ACH journal entry.

Creating an expense report Submit professional expenses with supporting documents for employee reimbursement.

Approving and reimbursing expense reports Approve pending expense reports and record reimbursement — settles the 422xxx account.

Understanding purchase statuses Lifecycle of supplier invoices and expense reports, transitions and available actions.

Creating a supplier Add a supplier contact with 401xxx SYSCOHADA sub-account and banking details.

Caution

A validated supplier invoice generates an immutable ACH journal entry. To correct a validated invoice, create a reversal entry (contrepassation — reversal entry) from the invoice record — direct modification of a validated invoice is blocked by SYSCOHADA immuability rules.

SYSCOHADA purchase pipeline

Supplier invoice received → Recording (OCR or spreadsheet)
         ↓
    Validation → Automatic ACH journal entry
    Debit 6xxx expenses + Debit 4452 deductible VAT
    Credit 401xxx supplier
         ↓
    Payment → Matching (lettrage) 401xxx → PAID

Note: accounts 4452 (deductible VAT on purchases) and 401xxx (supplier sub-account) are managed automatically — you only need to select the appropriate 6xxx expense account for each line.

For suppliers not subject to VAT (informal sector in the OHADA zone), do not check deductible VAT. The entry then only includes a debit to 6xxx and a credit to 401xxx for the full total amount.

Where to start?

If you are new to the Purchases module, follow this initial path:

1. Create your first supplier in the Contacts module
2. Record your first supplier invoice via OCR or spreadsheet import
3. Activate OCR to speed up future entries

For field team expenses, first verify that each employee has a 422xxx sub-account, then set up the expense report workflow.