No stock, no foreign currency — a services practice's books are simpler on paper, but that just moves the complexity somewhere else. Here's how Lubuto Advisory Partners handles it on CloudERP.
Not every business carries stock or foreign currency, and it's worth having a reference example that doesn't either — otherwise it's easy to assume CloudERP is built only for businesses that trade in goods. Lubuto Advisory Partners Ltd, one of our eighteen fictional reference companies, is our deliberate contrast case: a professional services practice, purely in Kwacha, with no stock schedule at all.
Where the complexity actually is
With goods out of the picture, the real complexity moves into work in progress and client money. Unbilled WIP represents work already done but not yet invoiced — value earned that hasn't become a debtor yet. Fees in advance run the other way: money already received for work still to be delivered. Client money held on trust sits on its own dedicated trust bank account, kept distinct from Lubuto's own operating funds, and a provisional income tax line reflects the kind of estimated tax position a professional practice typically carries between assessments.
Fully onboarded, and transacting
Lubuto went through the same review and sign-off workflow described in our opening balances post, and has carried on since with a real quotation, order, invoice and payment on the selling side, and a real purchase order, supplier bill and payment for its own overheads on the buying side — proof that the same day-to-day workflow holds up just as well for a business selling time and advice as it does for one selling goods.
Get in touch if a services-based practice is closer to your own business than a trading company.
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