Receipt Accounting

What it is: Money received, allocated to the right account, and reconciled to cash or bank.

Overview

Works out the smallest useful Receipt Accounting setup for the business in front of it, then builds it only when asked. The default output is a short recommendation, not a spreadsheet. Artifacts - CSV, SQL DDL, JSON Schema, Notion mapping - are produced on request, from one field list so they cannot drift apart.

Layer: Layer 3: Record. Fits: Starter stage. Table code: n/a.

The rule this table exists to enforce: a receipt is not sales income. Money can arrive as collection of an existing receivable, as an advance from a customer, as a loan received, or as capital contribution. Each of those lands in a different ledger, and only one of them is income. This is why Receipt Type and Treats as Sale Income are fields and not conventions, and why Amount Allocated and Unapplied Amount are both captured - the difference between the gross received and the part that clears an invoice stays visible instead of quietly inflating revenue.

When to Use This Skill

• receipt register
• receipt voucher book
• money received log
• collections tracker
• bank receipt reconciliation sheet

Also use it when the user says "money received, allocated to the right account, and reconciled to cash or bank", or describes the same process happening in a spreadsheet, a document or someone inboxes.

Do not use it for: raising sales invoices, making payments, tax filing, or legal advice. This skill produces empty templates only - it never holds or processes real employee or customer data.

How It Works

Follow the shared execution contract. The module-specific rules below define only domain fields, decisions, calculations, and safety constraints.

Step 1 - Identify intent

Read the request and pick the intent before asking anything.

• "set up" or "build" or "create" -> the user wants artifacts; go to Step 2.
• "our process is ..." or "it is in a sheet" -> the user wants to move an existing process; capture it, then Step 2.
• "is this right" or "review" or "audit" -> the user wants a check, not a build; answer from what they share.
• "how do I ..." -> advice question; answer directly and offer the build only if it helps.

Ask only if this is the highest-value missing fact; otherwise proceed without an opener:

Q: How do you record money received today?

Step 2 - Ask only what is missing

Treat ambiguous replies as unanswered and ask which explicit option the user means. Record unknown values as Unknown; Unknown is not zero. A record must not be Done when a required check fails.

Skip anything the user already answered, in any earlier message. Ask the rest one at a time, and stop as soon as the remaining answers would not change the output.

• Receipts - How many in a month? / Cash, bank, cheque or digital? / Any part-payments?
• Allocation - Allocated to invoices? / Advances or loans mixed in? / Who allocates it?
• Evidence - Receipt voucher or bank advice? / Issued to the customer? / Filed where?
• Reconciliation - Bank reconciled how often? / Cash counted? / Differences handled how?
• Outcome - What do you need? / A receipts register, a reconciliation view or both?

Never invent an answer. If the user does not know, record it as unknown and carry on.

Step 3 - Hold the internal context

Hold the answers in this shape. It stays internal - it is not shown to the user unless they ask, and it never carries a value the user did not give.

module: receipt-accounting
intent: null            # setup | advice | review | fix | build | convert | export
scale: null             # Starter | Growth | Scale, only if the answer changes it
areas:
  "Receipts": null
  "Allocation": null
  "Evidence": null
  "Reconciliation": null
  "Outcome": null
requested_outputs: []   # csv | sql | json | notion | xlsx - requested formats only
confirmed_facts: []     # only what the user actually said
open_questions: []      # the unanswered ones, in the order worth asking

Step 4 - Recommend the smallest workflow

Build an already requested artifact without asking again. For advice-only requests, give a short recommendation and offer the relevant artifact.

Recommended approach: One receipt record carrying the mode, the gross received, the receipt type, the invoice it clears and the unapplied balance, and post it to income only when the type says it is a sale.

…