This template presents a very simple chart of accounts, ideal for teaching the basics of double-entry accounting, with Assets, Liabilities, Costs and Revenues, without subgroups.

For more information on Education:

• Accounting Education page
• Free subscription of Banana Plus for schools
• Teacher Tools: extension for Accounting exercises preparation and correction

To learn how to use Banana Accounting:

• ▶ Video: Banana Interface

Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts, with Balance Sheet and Income Statement at a glance, is visible in the Accounts table.

It can be adapted by modifying, adding, and deleting accounts, according to the needs. More details on how to set up the chart of accounts are available in the online lesson Chart of Accounts.

An important aspect is that from an IT perspective, accounting software generally relies on the equation "Debits = Credits", which is rewritten as "Debits - Credits = 0". The developers have chosen to maintain this format, so debit amounts are associated by the system with the plus sign "+," while credit amounts are associated with the minus sign "-".

Opening Balances

In the Opening column, you enter the opening balances of Assets and Liabilities. Liabilities balances are entered with a minus sign in front.

Journal and Transactions

The Transactions table is the core of Banana Accounting and is used to enter double-entry accounting transactions. Students perform all operations here: they practice entering data, check it, and can correct any mistakes at any time.

To enter transactions in the journal, you need to complete the following columns:

• Date, eventual document number
• Description
• Debit Account
• Credit Account
• Amount

Individual transactions can take the form of a single row or be composed of multiple rows (if more than two accounts are involved). This is exactly the same as in the traditional paper form, but quicker thanks to the use of the computer.

After each transaction, the balances of the accounts (in the Accounts table) are automatically updated. This way, students can immediately see the impact of each operation, and the accounting is always in order.

Balance Column

Thanks to the Balance Column, students can instantly see if there are any accounting errors or anomalies and correct the data entered immediately.

Account cards

The Account Cards correspond to the ledgers and therefore show the movements of each individual account. They report the initial balance, the variations due to the entries made in the journal, and the resulting final balance.

Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement

Once the accounting transactions have been entered, you can obtain the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement. The Chart of Accounts, which has already been automatically and instantly completed with the final balances, already shows the final Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement.

Thanks to the Report > Enhanced Balance Sheet with Groups command, you can obtain an orderly and well-crafted presentation of the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement to be saved in PDF or printed out. They are "enhanced" and reproduced in a traditional style for presentation purposes.

The statements can be customised by choosing the sections to be printed, the period, the subdivision of the period and more.

Balance Sheet Analysis

By means of a special extension, from the menu Extensions > Cash Flow Statements and Financial Ratios, you can automatically obtain a report in PDF format containing:

• Liquidity ratios (Cash ratio, Quick ratio, Current ratio)
• Profitability ratios (ROE, ROI, ROS, ... )
• Efficiency ratios
• Cash Flow
• DuPont Analysis and Altman Index Z-Score

Scopri il libro che svela le logiche alla base dei software di contabilità, pensato per chiunque voglia comprendere a fondo il funzionamento dei programmi contabili. Questo testo offre una guida completa e accessibile, partendo dalla storia della contabilità fino alle tecnologie digitali più recenti, per mostrare come i software moderni automatizzano operazioni complesse di bilancio, calcolo e reporting.

• Funzionamento e logiche dei programmi di contabilità (formato PDF)

A chi è indirizzato?

Il libro è rivolto a una vasta gamma di lettori: professionisti, sviluppatori di software, docenti, studenti e chiunque si avvicini alla contabilità per la prima volta. È ideale per chi utilizza software di contabilità senza una formazione specifica, fornendo una comprensione più profonda delle logiche e dei meccanismi che facilitano la gestione contabile e permettono di sfruttare al meglio questi strumenti.

Perché leggere questo libro?

L'automazione dei software contabili ha semplificato notevolmente il lavoro di contabilità, ma spesso ha anche nascosto i meccanismi fondamentali della contabilità a partita doppia. Questo libro è stato scritto per colmare questa lacuna, offrendo una guida chiara che permette ai lettori di comprendere come i software gestiscono automaticamente diverse operazioni contabili. La comprensione delle logiche di base dietro questi strumenti consente di usare i software in modo più consapevole e di sfruttarne al massimo il potenziale.

Domenico Zucchetti, contabile, giurista e programmatore, è un pioniere nello sviluppo di soluzioni per la contabilità digitale. Con oltre 40 anni di esperienza nel settore, ha fondato Banana.ch SA e creato Banana Contabilità, uno dei software più accessibili per la gestione contabile. Zucchetti ha dedicato la sua carriera a rendere la contabilità intuitiva e automatizzata, focalizzandosi sulle esigenze delle piccole imprese e sull’efficacia didattica dei suoi strumenti. La sua profonda conoscenza dei principi contabili e delle tecnologie emergenti lo rende una figura di riferimento per chiunque voglia migliorare la gestione finanziaria aziendale.

Condividi la tua opinione

Siamo sempre interessati a conoscere le opinioni dei nostri lettori. Dopo aver letto “Funzionamento e logiche dei programmi di contabilità” ti invitiamo a condividere i tuoi feedback e suggerimenti. Facci anche sapere se dovessi trovare che alcuni argomenti vadano spiegati in maniera più semplicistica. Le tua opinione è preziosa e ci aiuta a migliorare continuamente la qualità del nostro lavoro.

Puoi inviare il tuo feedback tramite questo modulo. Grazie per il tuo contributo!
 

[This extension and this documentation is in development and is not in its final form]

The Automatic Corrections for Accounting Exams extension can adapt existing files or use the chart of accounts templates available directly in Banana Accounting+. This makes them suitable for training purposes as well as for exercises and exams in double-entry accounting. 

• Create or open a double-entry accounting file.
• From the Banana menu, click on Extensions.
• Click on Automatic Corrections for Accounting Exams.
• Click on File Preparation.
• The extension asks you to prepare either a teacher file or a student file.
• Choose the file type you want to prepare and click the Ok button.

• Click the OK button in the window that appears. The modifications shown in the image below will then be applied to the file.

The extension will automatically add the necessary columns to the file, while preserving your existing transactions.

If the required columns are already present, they will not be added again. If the file is already prepared, this function will make no changes.

If your file is already ready to be used this function will not make any modifications.

The following columns are added:

• Auto (the first column on the left).
• Max Score.
• Auto Score.
• Adjusted Score.
• Corrections Notes.

This feature is available only for double-entry accounting templates.

Instructions Added for the Teacher’s File

• A hash symbol (#) is inserted in the Doc column of the Transactions Table.
• The key teacherfile is added in the Description column (without quotation marks and written entirely in lowercase).

Instructions Added for the Student’s File

• The word Student is added in the Doc column (without quotation marks and with the first letter capitalized).

[This extension and this documentation is in development and is not in its final form]

The automatic correction can be executed only on the student’s file:

• It is not available when run on the teacher’s file.
• It can only be performed if no previous automatic corrections have been applied to the student’s file.
• If a second correction is needed, the existing automatic corrections must first be removed using the Delete the corrections function.

Check the solution

This is the workflow for running an automatic correction with the extension:

• From the menu, select Actions > Recalculate Accounting. The program will notify you if there are issues within the file.  
• Run the command Extensions > Automatic Corrections for Accounting Exams > Correct the Exercises.
  • This command performs specific checks, such as verifying that account numbers and other data are correct.
    • If a transaction contains an error, a message will appear in the Corrections Notes column.
    • The Auto Score column will be updated with the calculated score.

[This extension and this documentation is in development and is not in its final form]

This functionality works only if automatic corrections have already been executed using Correct the exercises.

The Adjusted Score column allows the teacher to manually change the automatically calculated score whenever necessary. After making adjustments, the teacher can recalculate the total score for the entire exercise through the extension menu.

The last row, which displays the total score, will then be updated with the final adjusted score set by the teacher.

[This extension and this documentation is in development and is not in its final form]

This function removes the rows that were automatically added by the extension during the correction process.

The student’s original rows remain in the file, but any color highlighting, scores or error messages are removed.

In this way, the student’s file is restored to its original state.

The function can only be executed if an automatic correction has already been performed, and it applies exclusively to the student’s file.

[This extension and this documentation is in development and is not in its final form]

The settings allow you to decide whether to assign an automatic score and to define the points for each condition being verified.

All settings must be configured in the teacher’s file, and they will be applied automatically when grading the students’ files.

Available Settings in the teacher's file

The currently available settings and their descriptions are as follows:

• Point-based assessment: enables or disables the automatic scoring of student records.
• Points for correct date: awards points if the student’s date matches the teacher’s date.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
• Points for correct debit account: assigns a score if the entered debit account is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
• Points for correct credit account: assigns a score if the entered credit account is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
• Separate debit and credit accounts : allows for separate scoring if the debit account and credit account are correct.
  • If the checkbox is checked the score is assigned separately even if one of the debit or credit accounts is incorrect.
  • If the checkbox is not selected, the score is zero when both the debit and credit accounts are incorrect, or when either one is incorrect.
  • If the checkbox is not selected, points are awarded only when both the debit and credit accounts are correct.
    • In this case the debit account score and credit account score are added together as the final score assigned to the student.
• Points for correct amount: assigns a score if the entered amount is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
• Points for VAT code: assigns a score if the entered VAT code is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
  • The VAT code points are only considered for templates with VAT functionalities enabled.
• Points for currency amount: assigns a score if the entered currency amount is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
  • The currency amount points are only considered for multi-currency templates.
• Points for currency: assigns a score if the entered currency is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
  • The currency points are only considered for multi-currency templates.
• Points for exchange rate: assigns a score if the entered exchange rate is correct.
  • Set to zero if you do not want to grade this field.
  • The exchange rate points are only considered for multi-currency templates.
• Penalize the amount only if Debit and Credit are correct: assigns a score to the amount if the entered Debit and Credit Accounts are correct.

At the bottom, an image of the settings window in the teacher’s file illustrates how these options are configured.