Schedules, accruals & roll-forwards

Every balance sheetStatementsBalance sheetAssets, liabilities and equity at a point in time, proving the accounting equation account needs a schedule behind it, and the schedule has to tie to the GL. Most accounting products ship a ledgerFoundationsLedgerA book of accounts, each holding the entries posted to it. The general ledger holds every account; a subledger — AR, AP, fixed assets — holds the detail behind one control account and must agree to it and statements and leave the schedules in spreadsheets. That handoff is where closes break.

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1. The universal roll-forward#

Every schedule in accounting has the same shape. Encode it once.

  Opening balance                     84,220.00      ← must equal prior period closing
  + Additions                         22,400.00
  − Releases / amortization          (18,900.00)
  ± Adjustments                          (500.00)
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────
  Closing balance                     87,220.00
  ═════════════════════════════════════════════
  GL balance at Sep 30, 2026          87,220.00
  Difference                               0.00   ✓ Tied

RollForward is one component with a configurable column set. Prepaids, accruals, deferred revenueFoundationsDeferred revenueConsideration received, or unconditionally due, before the goods or services are transferred — a liability until the performance obligation is satisfied. ASC 606 calls it a contract liability, fixed assets, intangibles, leases, equity, allowances, and inventoryStatementsInventoryGoods held for sale, or being made for sale, carried as an asset at cost until sold — when the cost moves to cost of revenue reserves are all this shape.

Non-negotiable rules:

1. Opening must equal the prior period's closing. The component asserts it. A break here means someone edited history.
2. The closing balance must tie to the GL. The component computes and displays the tie itself.
3. The difference line is always visible, because it's the number the user is working to zero.
4. A non-zero difference is the primary state of the screen, with the amount, an "Investigate" action, and a required explanation field.
5. Every movement traces to journal entries. Clicking Additions 22,400.00 drills to the entries that make it up, and they sum to the line.

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2. Prepaid expenses#

Cash paid now, expense recognized over time.

type PrepaidItem = {
  vendor: string;
  description: string;
  invoiceRef: string;
  totalAmount: Money;
  serviceStart: Date;
  serviceEnd: Date;
  method: "straight-line" | "usage" | "manual";
  monthlyAmortization: Money;      // derived for straight-line
  amortizedToDate: Money;
  remaining: Money;                // totalAmount − amortizedToDate
  glAccount: string;               // the expense account it releases to
};

UI rules:

• Partial first and last months are prorated by day, not treated as whole months. A policy starting Sep 18 amortizes 13/30 of a month in September. Straight-line-by-month is a simplification that leaves a stub at the end, so the component states which convention it's using.
• remaining is the balance sheet number. The schedule total must equal the prepaid GL account.
• Items fully amortized in the period are shown, then dropped. Rows that vanish without notice make the roll-forwardCloseRoll-forwardOpening → movements → closing, proven impossible to follow.
• A prepaid with a service end date in the past and a non-zero balance is an exception, flagged prominently. It usually means an amortizationFoundationsAmortizationSpreading the cost of a finite-lived intangible, a prepaid or a debt discount over the periods it serves entry was missed.

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3. Accrued liabilities#

Expense incurred, invoice not received.

Auto-reversal is the whole component. Without it, the expense is double-counted when the invoice arrives and is coded to expense. Coding the invoice against the accrued liabilityCloseAccrued liabilityAn obligation for goods or services received but not yet invoiced or paid — wages, interest, professional fees — recorded by an accrual also works, but only if someone remembers to.

  Sep accrual:    Dr Professional fees 12,000 / Cr Accrued liabilities 12,000
  Oct 1 reversal: Dr Accrued liabilities 12,000 / Cr Professional fees 12,000
  Oct invoice:    Dr Professional fees 11,400 / Cr Accounts payable 11,400
  Net Oct effect: professional fees (600) — a 600 credit, the true-up, automatically

UI rules:

• AdjustingEntryForm defaults autoReverse: true for accruals and displays the reversal date inline: "Reverses Oct 1, 2026".
• The scheduled reversal is visible in the next period before it posts, so a reviewer sees it coming.
• Estimate vs. actual is tracked. The schedule shows what was accrued, what the actual turned out to be, and the true-upCloseTrue-upThe adjustment that replaces an estimate with the actual amount once it is known. That history is how estimates improve, and auditors ask for it.
• Accruals aging beyond two periods are flagged. A liability accrued three months running with no invoice is either a bad estimate or a missing vendor.

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4. Deferred revenue (ASC 606 / IFRS 15)#

Cash received or billed, revenue not yet earned. It mirrors prepaids and carries more regulatory structure than any other schedule.

The five-step model, as it shows up in the UI:

1. Identify the contract
2. Identify the performance obligations — the unit of recognition
3. Determine the transaction priceRevenue recognitionTransaction priceThe consideration an entity expects to be entitled to for the contract, including estimated variable consideration and excluding amounts collected for third parties such as sales tax
4. Allocate the price to obligations — by standalone selling priceRevenue recognitionStandalone selling priceThe price at which an entity would sell a good or service separately — the basis for allocating the transaction price across performance obligations
5. Recognize revenue as each obligation is satisfied

type PerformanceObligation = {
  contractId: string;
  description: string;              // "Platform subscription", "Implementation"
  allocatedPrice: Money;            // step 4 — uses largest-remainder allocation
  standaloneSellingPrice: Money;
  recognitionMethod: "ratable" | "point-in-time" | "input-measure" | "output-measure" | "usage"; // ASC 606 measures of progress
  serviceStart?: Date;
  serviceEnd?: Date;
  recognizedToDate: Money;
  deferredBalance: Money;
};

UI rules:

• Allocation across obligations uses largest-remainder so the allocated amounts sum exactly to the transaction price. Allocations that miss by a cent are a common bug.
• Contract assetRevenue recognitionContract assetRevenue recognized ahead of an unconditional right to payment — the right still depends on something other than the passage of time vs. contract liability are different balance sheet lines. Consideration received (or unconditionally due) ahead of delivery is a contract liability (deferred revenue). Revenue recognized before the right to payment is unconditional is a contract asset; recognized with an unconditional right but not yet invoiced is an unbilled receivableRevenue recognitionUnbilled receivableRevenue recognized where the right to payment is unconditional but the invoice has not yet been issued — a receivable, not a contract asset. Within a contract the position is presented net, as one asset or one liability (required). Across contracts it's never netted, and the component prevents it.
• The revenue waterfall is a first-class view. It shows how much of the current deferred balance recognizes in each future period, the number every SaaS board asks for.
• Variable consideration and constraints are flagged, not modeled. The estimate is a judgment, so the UI makes sure it's documented and reviewed and leaves the number to the accountant.

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5. Fixed assets & depreciation#

type FixedAsset = {
  tag: string;
  description: string;
  category: string;                 // drives default life and method
  cost: Money;
  inServiceDate: Date;              // NOT the purchase date — depreciation starts here
  usefulLifeMonths: number;
  salvageValue: Money;
  method: "straight-line" | "declining-balance" | "sum-of-years" | "units-of-production";
  convention: "full-month" | "mid-month" | "half-year" | "mid-quarter";
  accumulatedDepreciation: Money;
  netBookValue: Money;              // cost − accumulated
  disposal?: { date: Date; proceeds: Money; gainLoss: Money };
};

UI rules:

• In-service date, not purchase date. An asset bought in March and installed in June depreciates from June. People get this wrong often, so the form labels it.
• The convention is visible. Half-year, mid-month and mid-quarter conventions change the first and last period's expense, and a user reconciling to a tax schedule needs to know which is in force.
• Book and tax depreciation are separate schedules. They use different lives and methods, and the difference creates a deferred tax item. The component supports parallel books and shows the difference.
• Disposal computes gain/loss and shows the working: Proceeds − NBV = Gain/(Loss). Removing an asset without recognizing gain or loss is a misstatement.
• A worked straight-line example. Equipment costing $48,000 with a $3,000 salvage value and a 60-month life depreciates (48,000 − 3,000) ÷ 60 = 750 a month. Sold after 26 months for $25,000: accumulated depreciation is 19,500, NBV is 28,500, and the disposal posts Dr Cash 25,000 / Dr Accumulated depreciation 19,500 / Dr Loss on disposal 3,500 / Cr Equipment 48,000.
• NBV must never go below salvage value. The component asserts it, and a schedule that would breach it is an error state.
• Fully depreciated assets still in service are shown, greyed. Their NBV equals salvage value (often zero) but they exist, and dropping them from the register loses the asset.

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6. Intangibles and amortization#

Same shape as fixed assets, with these differences:

• Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles are not amortized. They're tested for impairment instead (US GAAP private companies may elect to amortize goodwill over up to ten years). The schedule shows them with no amortization row and an impairment test date.
• Impairment is a judgment event, recorded with its trigger, its measurement basis, and its approver. Goodwill impairment is the excess of a reporting unit's carrying amount over its fair value, capped at the goodwill (ASU 2017-04); a long-lived asset group is first tested for recoverability on undiscounted cash flows (ASC 360-10-35-17).
• Internal-use software is changing. ASU 2025-06 (ASC 350-40), effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2027, removes the preliminary / development / post-implementation stages: costs are capitalized once management has authorized and committed funding and it is probable the project will be completed and used as intended, with significant development uncertainty resolved first. A capitalization schedule should therefore record the date the threshold was met, not a stage.

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7. Leases (ASC 842 / IFRS 16)#

Both frameworks put nearly all leases on the balance sheet: a right-of-use asset and a lease liability.

  Lease liability = PV of lease payments not yet paid, at the discount rate
  ROU asset       = Lease liability + prepaid lease payments + initial direct costs − lease incentives received

UI rules:

• The discount rate is displayed and its source stated. It's the implicit rate if determinable, otherwise the incremental borrowing rate, and an entity that is not a public business entity may elect a risk-free rate by class of asset (ASU 2021-09). It drives every number in the schedule, and it's a judgment.
• Short-term leases may stay off the balance sheet. A lease of twelve months or less with no purchase option reasonably certain to be exercised can be expensed straight-line by policy election (ASC 842-20-25-2); the schedule records the election rather than an empty ROU line.
• Under ASC 842, operating vs. finance classification changes the P&L and the balance sheet presentation. Operating leases produce a single straight-line lease expense. Finance leases split into amortization and interest, presented as separate lines or disclosed. IFRS 16 has no lessee classification, so every lease is depreciation plus interest. The component renders both and labels which one it's showing.
• The ROU asset and the lease liability amortize on different curves and diverge over the lease term, so ScheduleTable renders them in parallel columns instead of one schedule.
• Modifications and remeasurements are events, recorded with dates and reasons, that produce a new schedule from that point. The original is never edited.
• The maturity analysis (undiscounted payments by year, reconciled to the discounted liability) is a required disclosure and a first-class view.

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8. Allowances and provisions#

Valuation allowances against assets (credit losses, inventory obsolescence) and estimated liabilities (warranty, refund liabilities for expected returns).

UI rules:

• The methodology is displayed alongside the number. "Allowance = 1% of current + 4% of 1-30 + 10% of 31-60 + 35% of 61-90 + 100% of 90+, adjusted for current conditions and forecasts", with the calculation shown and each input traceable to the aging.
• The true-up is visible. Opening allowance → provision expense → write-offs → recoveries → closing allowance. A roll-forward like everything else.
• A write-off is not a provision. Writing off a specific receivable reduces both AR and the allowance with no P&L impact; increasing the provision hits the P&L. Mixing them up is a classic error, so the UI names each action distinctly.
• CECL / expected-credit-loss models (ASC 326-20) are supported as an input to the methodology, not modeled by the component. Lifetime losses are booked from day one, so a current invoice carries an allowance too. ASU 2025-05, effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2025, lets any entity assume current conditions at the balance sheet date persist for current AR and contract assets, and lets entities that are not public business entities also consider collections received after the balance sheet date. The component records which election is in force and the collection cut-off date used. The judgment belongs to the accountant, and the UI records it and shows the working.

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9. Recurring and schedule-generated entries#

Entries a schedule produces automatically each period: amortization, depreciation, revenue recognition, straight-line lease expense.

UI rules:

• They are source: "system" and read-only. A wrong output means a wrong schedule, so the UI sends the user to the schedule instead of the entry.
• They are previewable before posting. SchedulePreview shows the full set of entries the period will produce, with totals, before anything posts, so nothing the schedules generate surprises the close.
• A schedule that fails to generate is a blocking close exception and shows up in the close checklist.
• Posting is a batch with one audit record, not N unrelated entries. Reversing a batch reverses all of it.

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10. The schedule inventory#

Every balance sheet account maps to exactly one supporting schedule type. AccountTieOut is built on this mapping, and an account without one is a finding.

Account	Schedule	Component
Cash	Bank reconciliation	ReconciliationView
Accounts receivable	AR aging + allowance roll-forward	AgingTable · RollForward
Inventory	Inventory roll-forward + reserve	RollForward
Prepaid expenses	Prepaid amortization schedule	ScheduleTable
Fixed assets	Fixed asset register + depreciation	ScheduleTable
Intangibles	Amortization schedule + impairment	ScheduleTable
ROU assets	Lease schedule	ScheduleTable
Accounts payable	AP aging	AgingTable
Accrued liabilities	Accrual schedule with true-ups	ScheduleTable
Deferred revenue	Recognition waterfall by obligation	RevenueWaterfall
Lease liabilities	Lease amortization + maturity analysis	ScheduleTable
Debt	Debt schedule + covenant compliance	ScheduleTable · CovenantMonitor
Equity	Statement of changes in equity	StatementOfChangesInEquity
Any other BS account	Account reconciliation	AccountTieOut