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IT and agencies

Accounting software for IT companies and agencies

Revenue from builds, retainers and hosting, costs that are mostly salaries and cloud bills, and clients who pay net of withholding. SimpleERP keeps it on one ledger that closes every month.

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In short

SimpleERP is accounting software for IT companies and digital agencies. Invoices, receipts, payroll and cloud bills post balanced journals, upfront payments wait on the client's account, and tax withheld by clients is tracked as a receivable.

Illustration: saving invoice INV-2026-0213 moves stock, posts the customer ledger, records tax and updates the dashboard in one step.

An accounting day at Temple Quay Softworks

Two thirds of Temple Quay Softworks' costs are salaries and the rest is cloud servers, software subscriptions and rent at Temple Quay. Income comes from three places: fixed-price builds, monthly retainers and hosting renewals. The founders want to know each month which of the three is carrying the company.

Clients rarely pay the invoice amount. A Lagos client paid $40,500 against a $45,000 invoice after withholding $4,500 of tax, another paid 30 percent upfront before work began, and the AWS bill arrives in another currency converted on a card statement.

SimpleERP posts every invoice, receipt, payroll run and expense as it happens, so the accountant's month end is a review and a lock date, not a reconstruction from the bank statement.

Which ledger accounts give a software house useful numbers?

Split income by line of business with separate income accounts on each service, and the P&L answers the founders' question without a spreadsheet.

  • Every document posts its own journal, linked back to it.
  • Account detail with a running balance for any ledger.
AccountPosted byNote
Development incomeMilestone invoicesSet as the income account on development services
Retainer and maintenance contract incomeMonthly retainer invoicesSeparate account per line of business
Clients (receivable), credit sideReceipt before the first milestoneUnallocated receipt, a credit on the client until allocated
Tax receivableManual journal for tax withheld by clientsMatched to the client's withholding certificate
Cloud and software subscriptionsExpense with the tax you can reclaimCard statements entered as expenses
Computers (fixed asset)Supplier bill for laptopsDepreciated monthly in one run
Accounts an IT company or agency adds or uses, and what posts to them.

How do upfront payments and withheld tax get recorded?

An upfront payment of 30 percent is a receipt left unallocated; it sits on the client's account until the first milestone invoice is posted and you apply it. When a client pays net of withholding tax, record the receipt for what reached the bank and post the withheld amount by manual journal to tax receivable, naming the client.

  • On-account balance visible on the customer statement.
  • Journals naming the party, so the client's ledger stays complete.
  • Receivables ageing that shows only what is genuinely unpaid.

Illustration of receivables ageing: 2,441 to collect across 5 buckets, with customer totals.

Receivables ageing with retainer clients by bucket.

What does month end look like for an agency?

Run the checks in this order and set the lock date when they pass. A full close takes the accountant an afternoon, not the first week of the next month.

  • Bank reconciliation by ticking cleared lines, since there are no bank feeds.
  • Payroll run approved, so salaries and deductions payable are in the books.
  • Depreciation run posted for laptops and servers.
  • Tax summary checked against the sales and purchase registers.

One system

What it connects to

Honest limits

What SimpleERP does not do yet

  • No bank feeds: bank entries are recorded and reconciled by hand
  • No multi-currency; every document is in your base currency
  • Tax returns are not filed and e-invoices are not issued from inside the product
  • No project accounting or profit by client project; split income by account instead

Getting started

Start with accounting

  1. Sign up with your email

    Name, email and a password. No card for the seven-day trial.

  2. Tell us about the business

    Pick your country and, if you are registered, type your tax number. Accounts, tax rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for that country.

  3. Enter opening balances

    Enter bank balances, what each client owes, advances already received and the book value of laptops, as one reviewed opening entry.

  4. Run the trial balance

    Every posted document is already in the ledger; the trial balance and P&L are ready on any date.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Our AWS and Google Workspace bills are in another currency. How do we enter them?

Enter the amount your card or bank actually charged in your base currency, as an expense under a cloud or software category. Every document is in your base currency, so the original figure goes in the description if you want it on record.

Can we see profit per client project?

Not in this release. There is no project accounting, so income and cost are reported by account rather than by project. Separate income accounts per line of business give the founders a useful split on the P&L.

Can our accountant work in the books directly?

Yes. Your accountant joins Temple Quay Softworks by an invite to their email, with the Accountant role. They can post journals, reconcile the bank, read every report and export it to CSV, without seeing anything you have not given that role.

We are moving from another accounting app in the middle of the year. Is that a problem?

Start at the beginning of a month. Bring in closing balances from the old app as the opening entry, enter unpaid client invoices as opening receivables, and post everything new in SimpleERP. Keep the old app for the months before the switch.

Related

See how accounting works in SimpleERP for IT services and agencies

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