# The first minute in Accounting

Open the five screens an accountant comes back to every day, the dashboard, the chart of accounts, the taxes, the journals and the settings, and learn what each one holds before changing anything.

**Accounting** keeps the company's books: its accounts, its taxes, its journals and, later, its invoices and payments. This walk-through opens the screens you will use first and changes nothing.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- You need the **Administrator** access right on **Accounting** (in the **Accounting** section of your user). The **Invoicing** access rights open customers and vendors, not the configuration.
- The company already has a chart of accounts: Jaah installs one with the localization package of the company's country.

## Step 1: the dashboard {#dashboard}

Open **Accounting/Dashboard**. Each card is a journal shown on the dashboard: **Sales**, **Purchases**, **Bank**. A card shows what waits in that journal and opens its entries; a journal kept off the dashboard, such as **Miscellaneous Operations**, is still in the journals list. [Create a journal](create-a-journal) shows how to add one.

![The dashboard, one card per journal; the Sales card opens the customer invoices.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9403-224cfbec/accounting-start-here-first-minute-dashboard-en.png)

## Step 2: the chart of accounts {#chart-of-accounts}

Open **Accounting/Configuration/Accounting/Chart of Accounts**. Every amount the company records lands on one of these accounts. The list shows the **Code**, the **Account Name**, the **Type** (what the account is: receivable, bank and cash, income, expenses) and **Allow Reconciliation**.

![The chart of accounts with the code, name and type of every account.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9407-0b24a7ee/accounting-start-here-first-minute-chart_of_accounts-en.png)

## Step 3: the taxes {#taxes}

Open **Accounting/Configuration/Accounting/Taxes**. Each line is a tax of the package, named by its rate (**Tax Name**) and marked for **Sales** or for **Purchases** (**Tax Type**). The two **15%** lines are the usual rate, one for each side; the 0% lines are the exempt cases.

![The taxes of the package; the usual rate exists once per side.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9411-f0ae23eb/accounting-start-here-first-minute-taxes-en.png)

## Step 4: the journals {#journals}

Open **Accounting/Configuration/Accounting/Journals**. A journal is a book in which entries of one kind are recorded, **Sales** for the customer invoices: the **Type** says which kind, the **Sequence Prefix** starts the numbers of its entries, and the **Default Account** is where its lines go unless told otherwise.

![The journals with their type, sequence prefix and default account.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9415-d0ab1b39/accounting-start-here-first-minute-journals-en.png)

## Step 5: the settings {#settings}

Open **Accounting/Configuration/Settings**. In **Fiscal Localization**, the **Package** is the country's chart, taxes and reports installed for the company. Below it, **Default Taxes** names the taxes put on new products, **Main Currency** the currency of the books, and **Fiscal Year** the **Last Day** of the year.

![The settings, starting with the localization package of the company.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9419-e1c2cf81/accounting-start-here-first-minute-settings-en.png)

## What you have seen {#what-you-have-seen}

Accounts, taxes and journals come from the package and are ready; the settings say which of them are used by default. The user guide takes each of them in turn: [Review the chart of accounts](review-the-chart-of-accounts), [Set the default taxes](set-the-default-taxes), [Create a journal](create-a-journal), [Define the fiscal year](define-the-fiscal-year) and [Accounting settings](accounting-settings).

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/accounting-start-here/first-minute-in-accounting
- Updated: 2026-10-22
- Version: Accounting: start here 19.0.1.4.2
- Verified: 2026-10-22