Accounts

An account is a place money moves through: a cash drawer, a bank account, or anything else. Every payment, refund, expense or transfer in Meddesk is recorded as a transaction on an account.

Who can do what

Finance has two layers of access.

1. Permissions (from roles)

Permission	What it allows
Read accounts	See every account, its balance and statement, and every transaction. Also opens Exchange Rates.
Create accounts	Create new accounts, and set exchange rates.
Update accounts	Edit accounts, archive them, set exchange rates, and decide which staff may use each account (Staff access).
Delete accounts	Delete accounts that have no transactions.

2. Staff access (per account)

Permissions never let anyone record money on an account. Only an explicit per-account grant does, even for people who can edit accounts. Each grant also says what that person may do there. See Staff access below.

Someone without Read accounts but with a grant on some accounts sees only those accounts and their transactions. Finance appears in their sidebar for that reason.

The account list

Finance › Accounts lists each account’s Name, Type, Currency, Balance and Status. Use Search accounts to find one.

• Balance counts approved transactions only. Pending and voided ones don’t count.
• Status is Active or Archived. Money can only be recorded on active accounts.

Create an account

You need Create accounts.

1. Select New account.
2. Enter a Name, such as “Main Cash” or “BankCo EUR”.
3. Choose the Type: Bank, Cash or Other.
4. Choose the Currency. It’s fixed once the account is created.
5. Optionally enter an Opening balance (leave blank to start at zero) and the date it applies As of.
6. If the currency isn’t your clinic’s base currency, enter the Exchange rate (see Exchange rates). You must enter one when it’s the first account in that currency. Otherwise, leaving it blank uses the current rate.
7. Select Create account.

You see Account created. If you entered an opening balance, it’s recorded as an approved Opening balance transaction.

Nobody can use it yet

A new account has no staff access. Nobody, including you, can record transactions on it until someone grants access. See below.

Edit or archive an account

You need Update accounts.

1. Open the account and select Actions › Edit.
2. Change the Name or Status. The currency and type can’t be changed.
3. Select Save changes.

Set the Status to Archived to stop new transactions on an account you no longer use. Its history stays.

Delete an account

You need Delete accounts, and the account must have no transactions at all. Select Actions › Delete and confirm with Yes, delete. If it has transactions, archive it instead.

Staff access

On an account’s Overview, the Staff access section (shown to staff with Update accounts) lists who may use the account.

Grant access

1. Select Grant access and pick a staff member. Once picked, they’re shown at the top with Change, followed by the settings.
2. Choose what they may do:

Setting	Meaning
Direction	Both directions, In only (they may only record money coming in) or Out only (only money going out).
Auto-approve their transactions	Their transactions are created already approved, skipping review. An approved transaction can’t be deleted, only voided.
Can approve pending transactions	They may approve other people’s pending transactions on this account, and void a pending one.
Can delete pending transactions	They may delete a transaction while it’s still pending.
Can void approved transactions	They may void a transaction that’s already approved. This is a stricter power, separate from approving.

3. Save. You see Access granted.

To change a grant, open its menu and select Edit access. To remove it, select Revoke and confirm with Yes, revoke. They can no longer record transactions on that account.

Note

When a transaction touches two accounts (a transfer between accounts), approving, voiding or deleting it needs the matching right on both accounts.

Statement

The Statement tab shows a Statement of account for a period you choose (up to one year):

• Balance brought forward at the start,
• each approved transaction with its date, description, reference, Debit or Credit, and the running Balance,
• Total Dr. and Total Cr., and the Balance carried forward at the end.

With the Print module on, you can print the statement.

Exchange rates

Your clinic has one base currency, set for your clinic by the Meddesk platform team. Every account in another currency needs an exchange rate, so totals can be shown in the base currency.

Finance › Exchange Rates (needs Read accounts) lists every currency your accounts use, with its rate, shown as “1 currency = rate base currency”. The base currency is marked (base currency).

To change a rate (needs Create accounts or Update accounts):

1. Select Edit rate next to the currency.
2. Enter the new rate. It must be more than zero.
3. Select Save. You see Exchange rate updated.

The rate becomes the default for new transactions in that currency. It never changes past transactions: each transaction keeps the rate that applied when it was recorded.