Subledger Bot

Consolidate transactions from subledger books into a general ledger automatically with the Bkper Subledger Bot.

The Subledger Bot records transactions from subledger books into a general ledger, automating the consolidation of partial administrations. This is useful for dividing work between teams (e.g. one team tracking receivables, another tracking payables) or consolidating subsidiary books into a single parent book.

Subledger Bot overview — child books consolidating into a parent book

Setting up the Subledger Bot

Create your books

Create a General Ledger book (the parent) and one or more Subledger books (the children). The parent book can itself be a child to another parent, forming a tree structure.

Install the Subledger Bot

Open each book that participates in the consolidation, go to the Automations Portal, select the Subledger Bot, and click Install.

Installing the Subledger Bot from the Automations Portal

Associate child with parent

In your child book, open the book properties (gear icon) and add the parent_book_id property with the bookId of the parent book as the value.

Setting the parent_book_id property on a child book

From this point, transactions posted in the child book are automatically recorded on the parent book.

Map child accounts to a single parent account

To consolidate multiple child accounts (e.g. individual customer accounts) into one parent account (e.g. Accounts Receivable), add a parent_account property to the group or account on the child book.

Editing a group on the child book to add the parent_account property

The parent_account property set on the Accounts Receivable group

All transactions involving accounts in that group are recorded on the parent book using the single parent account instead of the individual child accounts.

Sync accounts from parent to child books

To keep incoming (revenue) and outgoing (expense) accounts synchronized across parent and child books, add a child_book_id property to a group on the parent book with the child book’s bookId as the value.

Editing a group on the parent book to set child_book_id

The child_book_id property configured on a parent group

Whenever you add an account to that group on the parent book, the Subledger Bot automatically creates the same account on the child book.

Change transaction amounts

Use the parent_amount transaction property to record a different amount on the parent book — useful when the parent should reflect an amount after taxes, for example.

Recording a transaction with a parent_amount property on the child book

The transaction as it appears on the child book

The transaction recorded on the parent book with the parent_amount value

Example with permanent accounts

On the child book, customer accounts (Customer A, Customer B) are grouped under Accounts Receivable. On the parent book, only the consolidated Accounts Receivable A account is needed.

Set the parent_account property on the child book’s Accounts Receivable group with the value Accounts Receivable A — the suffix distinguishes entries from different child books.

Parent account property set on the child book's Accounts Receivable group

Post a transaction involving Customer A on the child book:

Posting a transaction on the child book with a customer account

The Subledger Bot records it on the parent book using the consolidated account:

The transaction on the parent book using Accounts Receivable A

Example with non-permanent accounts

For incoming and outgoing accounts (revenue, expenses), both the parent and child books share the same account names. To keep them in sync automatically, set child_book_id on the parent book’s group.

Revenue group with the same accounts on parent and child books

Setting child_book_id on the parent group for account sync

Adding a new account to the group on the parent book:

Adding a new account to the revenue group on the parent book

The Subledger Bot automatically creates it on the child book:

The account automatically created on the child book by the Subledger Bot