For accounting firms

Billing and books for the accounting firm itself

You close everyone else's books to the day and your own sit in a spreadsheet nobody has opened since March. This page is about the practice's own money — its retainers, its engagements, its receivables — and not about doing your clients' work.

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The firm that bills everyone except itself

An accounting practice is a strange business to run. Every client ledger is current to the day, while the firm's own income lives in a WhatsApp thread with the partner who agreed the fee — a retainer here, an engagement there, unwritten until somebody asks why the account is empty.

Salaries go out on the 28th whether or not January's filing work has been invoiced. A practice with fourteen retainers and three months of unbilled engagements is profitable on paper and short of cash on the same afternoon.

PesaScope is where the firm's own side goes: invoices for retainers and engagements, the fees that come back, the salary bill, the rent, the subscriptions, and one month-end figure that belongs to the practice rather than to a client.

How a practice runs its own billing

  1. Invoice each retainer at the start of the monthOne invoice per client at the agreed fee, numbered automatically, carrying your logo and bank details, sent by email or WhatsApp.
  2. Raise engagements separatelyAnnual accounts, a VAT registration, a company formation. Quote first if the client wants a figure, then turn the accepted quote into an invoice.
  3. Record fees as they landPart payment is normal in this trade. Record what actually came in; the remainder stays against the client with a date on it.
  4. Let the reminders do the chasingSet the offsets once — three days before due, seven days after — and the invoice is emailed again on its own.

The services a practice bills for

Pick "Accounting firm" at sign-up and this list is already there, and after that every invoice is picked from the list rather than typed out.

Monthly bookkeeping retainer Payroll processing VAT return preparation Annual financial statements Income tax return preparation Company registration Audit engagement Business advisory

These are all services. A practice carries no stock, so your whole cost side is people, premises and subscriptions — three lines, all three worth watching monthly.

A filing-season month in a five-person practice

Fourteen retainers invoicedUGX 8,400,000
Season engagements invoicedUGX 5,200,000
Actually collected in the monthUGX 9,100,000
Staff salaries− UGX 6,800,000
Rent, internet and subscriptions− UGX 1,450,000
Transport to client offices− UGX 380,000
Cash left at month endUGX 470,000

You invoiced UGX 13,600,000 and banked UGX 9,100,000. The busiest month of the year is also the tightest, because UGX 4,500,000 of it sits in receivables, and receivables do not pay salaries.

What this is not

PesaScope is not practice-management software and it is not a filing tool. It does not track engagement deadlines, hold working papers or run a job workflow across your team, and it submits nothing to URA. There are no timesheets, so it cannot show realisation against hours booked.

It does not touch your clients' books either — there is no practice console for working across client files. The VAT return in Pro works out the practice's own position and keeps a dated record of what you filed. Your VAT, not theirs.

What it does is the part most small firms lack: an honest picture of what the firm invoiced, what it collected, what it is owed, and what it costs to keep the doors open.

Where a practice loses fees

  1. The retainer that quietly stoppedA client pays for four months and then does not. With no invoice raised each month there is nothing to go unpaid, so it never surfaces.
  2. Work done outside the feeThe extra reconciliation, the URA letter, the third revision. If it misses the month's invoice it is almost never billed.
  3. Season work billed in AprilPeak work invoiced late is paid later still. The aging report shows how far January's engagements have drifted.
  4. The fee that never movedSome retainers sit at the figure they had three years ago while your salary bill has not.

Read further

Quotes, invoices & remindersBranded documents, part payments, automatic chasing. Expenses & who owes youSalaries, rent, debtors and the aging report. ReportsWhat the firm earned and what it spent. Staff costsThe practice's largest line, month by month.

Questions accounting firms ask

Is this for doing my clients' accounts?

No. It is for the firm's own books and its own billing. There is no practice console and no way to work inside a client's file from yours.

Can it file tax returns for me or for a client?

No. Pro works out the practice's own VAT position and records that you filed it, but nothing is submitted. Filing still happens on the authority's portal.

Does it do timesheets or hourly billing?

No. There is no time tracking, so you cannot bill from recorded hours or measure write-offs against them. You invoice agreed amounts.

Do I retype the same retainer invoices every month?

You raise them yourself, but the lines come from your saved service list, so it is a few taps per client. Only expenses can be set to recur automatically, not invoices.

How do I see which clients are behind?

The AR aging report groups outstanding invoices by how overdue they are, by client, and a per-client statement exports as a PDF.

We are VAT registered. Does it handle that?

Yes. Pro tracks output VAT on invoices and input VAT on expenses and gives the net position for any period.

Set it up in about three minutes

Pick your trade at sign-up and PesaScope loads your starting list for you. Change any price, add what's missing, and record your first sale the same day.

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