OHADA accounting: journal, ledger and statements
Every sale you complete quietly produces double-entry SYSCOHADA journal lines. Here is how they roll up into a trial balance, income statement and balance sheet you can hand to your accountant.
CEMAC POS is built for the OHADA space, so its books follow the SYSCOHADA revised chart of accounts used across Cameroon and the wider CEMAC region. You do not need to be an accountant to sell — but when your accountant or the DGI asks for the journal, the ledger or the annual statements, they are already there.
How it works
Bookkeeping here is double-entry: every economic event is recorded as balanced debits and credits using SYSCOHADA account numbers. A cash sale, for example, debits the cash or mobile-money account and credits sales revenue (account 70x) plus VAT collected (account 4431). CEMAC POS generates these draft entries automatically from immutable sales, so the journal always ties back to real transactions.
- Journal — the chronological list of every entry with its debit and credit lines.
- General ledger — the same entries re-sorted by account, so you can see all movements on, say, 4431 (VAT collected) or 411 (customers).
- Trial balance — every account with its total debits, credits and closing balance; total debits must equal total credits.
- Income statement (compte de résultat) — revenue less charges, giving the result for the period.
- Balance sheet (bilan) — assets, liabilities and equity at a point in time.
The chain runs one way: sales and expenses create journal entries; entries post to the ledger; the ledger aggregates into the trial balance; the trial balance produces the income statement and balance sheet. Get the source transactions right and the statements follow.
From a sale to the statements, step by step
- Complete sales and record expenses as normal during the period.
- Open Money then Accounting to see the SYSCOHADA journal for the period.
- Switch to the general ledger to inspect movements on a single account.
- Open the trial balance and confirm total debits equal total credits.
- Review the income statement for the period’s result (profit or loss).
- Review the balance sheet for your position at the closing date.
- Export or print any statement to give your accountant or file with the DGI.
Money is stored as integer XAF (CFA francs, zero-decimal). There are no centimes to round, which removes a whole class of one-franc balancing errors common in decimal systems.
What to check first
If a statement looks wrong, start at the trial balance. If debits and credits do not match, the problem is not the statement — it is an entry, and CEMAC POS keeps them balanced by construction, so an imbalance usually means a period filter is cutting a chained entry in half. Widen the date range and re-check.
Common errors and how to fix them
| Message / symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Trial balance debits do not equal credits | The date filter splits a multi-line entry across the boundary | Widen the period so whole entries are included, then re-run the trial balance |
| Revenue looks too low | Sales made offline on another device have not synced yet | Let the outbox sync on all tills, then regenerate the statements |
| VAT sits in the wrong account | A product was set with the wrong tax rate or as exempt | Correct the product’s VAT setting; new sales post to 4431 correctly |
| Income statement ignores an expense | The expense was recorded outside the selected period | Check the expense date and adjust the report period to include it |
| Customer balance missing from the balance sheet | A credit sale was recorded as paid instead of on account | Correct the sale’s payment status so it posts to account 411 (customers) |
Common questions
Do I have to post journal entries myself?
No. Completed sales and recorded expenses generate draft SYSCOHADA entries automatically. You review and export; you do not hand-key the journal.
Is this a substitute for an accountant?
It gives your accountant clean, OHADA-structured books instead of a shoebox of receipts. Final filing and professional judgement still belong to them.
Which chart of accounts is used?
The revised SYSCOHADA chart used across the OHADA zone, including CEMAC members such as Cameroon.
Try it in your own shop
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