Guide / stock and the books
Inventory and accounting: the meeting of two records
Inventory is money sitting on shelves — which is why the accountant cares where the record lives. Here is how stock value reaches the balance sheet honestly, and what each system owns.
The short answer
- Inventory is an asset — every unit on the shelf is money in another form, and the books must say what it is worth.
- The division: quantities and movements live in the inventory system; the ledger and compliance live in accounting software; invoices and reconciled bills are the bridges.
- What the accountant needs: complete invoices, reconciled supplier bills, count-verified stock figures — produced, not reconstructed.
- BSimple plays the inventory half with the accounting handoff designed in — from $180/month (AUD).
- 01The short answer
- 02How stock value reaches the balance sheet
- 03Where BSimple fits
How stock value reaches the balance sheet
The balance sheet number is the easy part; the discipline behind it is the work. Purchases arrive and become stock value; sales move value out through cost of goods; counts correct the record against the shelf; shrinkage and write-offs are recorded as events, not discovered as mysteries. When those movements live in one operational record, the period-end stock figure is drawn from data the accountant can interrogate — receipts, issues, adjustments, each attributable. When they live in spreadsheets beside the ledger, the figure is reconstructed, and the reconstruction is the job nobody budgeted.
The bridges matter as much as the record: approved invoices push to the accounting system with line and GST detail; supplier bills reconcile against purchase orders and receipts — inc and ex-GST views for Australian buying; payment statuses mirror back so both sides agree about money. The bookkeeping handoff covers the bookkeeper's week, and the invoicing seam the sales side.
Where BSimple fits
We build BSimple, so weigh that — and the boundary first: it is not accounting software. No ledger, no BAS, no bank reconciliation; those stay in Xero or MYOB (with US systems rolling out), where they belong. BSimple is the inventory half done properly: live multi-location quantities, movement history behind every number, cycle counts and stocktakes from any phone, batch traceability, purchasing from demand — producing the complete, reconciled inputs the accountant's system deserves. Plans start at $180/month (AUD), and the free trial tests the bridges with your own invoices and supplier bills.
The test for any pairing, including ours: close one real month-end on it. If the stock figure arrives drawn from the record and the accountant asks no follow-ups, the division is working. How the Xero integration works specifies BSimple's bridges, and the inventory management overview shows the record behind the value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does BSimple hold the general ledger?
No — deliberately. The ledger, BAS and compliance stay in the accounting system; BSimple holds quantities, movements and the operational record, and feeds the ledger through approved invoices and reconciled supplier bills. Two ledgers is the one architecture that never works.
How does stock valuation work?
The operational record holds quantities, costs and movements; reporting views expose stock value from that record, so period-end figures are drawn rather than rebuilt. The formal valuation treatment (cost method, write-downs) remains an accounting-cycle decision in the ledger, where it belongs.
What does the accountant see from BSimple?
Approved customer invoices pushed with line and GST detail; supplier bills reconciled against purchase orders and receipts, inc/ex-GST; payment statuses mirrored back; count-verified stock figures on request. What they never see: a second ledger to reconcile.
Can we keep our accounting software untouched?
Yes — that is the design constraint. The accountant keeps their system and workflow; the quality of inputs improves. The Xero integration page shows the boundary in detail for Xero shops; MYOB works the same way.
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