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Balance — Workflow

Overview

The Balance module does not have a multi-step approval pipeline. It is a settlement dashboard: debts accumulate automatically from purchase orders and approved refunds, and the finance team periodically records inter-company payments to settle those debts.

No approval pipeline

Records in this module are not submitted for review or approval. POs and refunds feed the balance automatically; payments are recorded directly by users with the edit permission.

Note

For the standard record lifecycle model, see: Workflows & Pipelines

Roles involved

  • Finance / Balance viewer — Monitors the inter-company balance matrix; views PO and refund detail; no write access required.
  • Finance administrator — Records new payments between companies; cancels erroneous payments. Requires edit permission.

How the balance builds

The balance matrix is computed in real time from three data sources:

  1. Purchase orders (balance_view) — Any PO where the requesting company (project company) differs from the paying company contributes a debt from the requesting company to the paying company.
  2. Refunds (refunds_balance_view) — Any approved refund where the project company differs from the paying company contributes a debt from the project company to the paying company.
  3. Payments (payments_view, balance_payments) — Registered inter-company payments reduce the balance between two companies.

All amounts are converted to USD at the exchange rate recorded on each transaction's creation date. The matrix shows the net bilateral position per company pair: if Company A owes Company B $100 and Company B owes Company A $30, the matrix shows Company A owes $70 — the $30 offset is netted out.

Payment statuses

Status Meaning
ACTV Payment is active and counted in the balance calculations.
INAC Payment has been cancelled and is excluded from the balance.

Info

For system-wide status guidance, see: Status

Settlement process

How a settlement works

  1. Debts accumulate automatically as POs are created and refunds are approved.
  2. Finance monitors the balance matrix to identify which companies owe each other.
  3. Finance opens the Balance Detail for a company pair to verify the breakdown.
  4. Finance records a payment with the + New payment action.
  5. The balance matrix updates immediately to reflect the payment.

Debt accumulation

No action is required for this step. Every time a PO is created or a refund is approved where the paying company and the requesting/project company differ, those amounts flow into the balance view automatically.

Monitoring

Finance reviews the balance matrix filtered by year. The matrix normalizes all amounts to USD for cross-currency comparison. Cells with a positive net balance show the amount owed and a View detail button. The Company Detail modal shows a company's full position across all its relationships.

Recording a payment

Finance uses the + New payment form in the Payments tab. SARA pre-fills the net debt amount for the selected company pair and year(s) as a starting point; the actual amount entered may differ. After confirmation, the payment is recorded with status ACTV and numbered sequentially (PAY.XXXX). The matrix recalculates immediately.

Cancelling a payment

If a payment was recorded in error, it can be cancelled using the Cancel row action. The status changes to INAC and the payment is excluded from balance calculations. This action is irreversible and requires edit permission.

Exceptions & operational notes

  • No exchange rate for today: if SARA cannot find an exchange rate for today's date, it uses the most recent available rate and shows a warning in the New Payment form. The rate can be overridden manually.
  • Payments cannot be edited: once a payment is submitted, its amount, currency, and companies cannot be changed. Cancelling and re-recording is the only correction path.
  • Year filter affects all sections: the year filter at the top applies simultaneously to the balance matrix, all three tabs, and the net debt pre-fill in New Payment. Changing the year and clicking Apply refreshes everything.
  • INAC payments visible: cancelled payments remain visible in the Payments tab (filterable by ACTV/INAC status) for audit purposes. They do not affect the balance.

Permissions

Permissions

Access and actions are permission-driven. See: Permissions