---
id: CON-ACC-BKS-006
name: Accounting Workspace
feature: FEAT-ACC-BKS-06
product_area: accounting
module: books
revision: 1
status: draft
product_intent: proposed
implementation_evidence: observed
source_sha:
  services-accounting: f47cb263875bbc0c5640fba7dae6785ec32695f8
  react-console: baf6dae382d6f41dce976c7f848667ccc37e076f
definition: >-
  The Accounting workspace brings together shared configuration, record
  safeguards, recurring timing and Accounting’s lifecycle contribution for one
  customer.
owned_by: MOD-ACC-BKS
synonyms:
  - the customer’s Accounting data
  - the workspace
not_to_be_confused_with:
  - An individual set of books within the customer’s workspace.
  - Platform’s workspace identity and lifecycle orchestration.
facets:
  - name: Named due-date choices
    meaning: Payment terms define named invoice durations.
    used_for: Choosing invoice credit periods.
  - name: Receipt behaviour
    meaning: >-
      Named methods use card, bank-debit or offline behaviour with offering
      settings.
    used_for: Recording and offering receipts.
  - name: Initial vocabulary
    meaning: Provisioning supplies protected payment methods for a new workspace.
    used_for: Beginning payment entry.
  - name: Product tax classifications
    meaning: Classes label the tax treatment used for products.
    used_for: Looking up applicable percentages.
  - name: Geographic tax configuration
    meaning: Zone criteria and rate definitions describe where and how tax applies.
    used_for: Determining recorded invoice tax.
  - name: Liability destinations
    meaning: Each rate can select a payable account for a business unit.
    used_for: Posting the collected liability.
  - name: Access and change safeguards
    meaning: >-
      Permissions, versions, locks and workspace isolation govern configuration
      records.
    used_for: Protecting shared configuration.
  - name: Shared policy
    meaning: >-
      One saved settings record supplies policy to financial workflows across
      units.
    used_for: Selecting workspace-level behaviour.
  - name: Recurring timing and outcomes
    meaning: Schedules describe local recurrence and retain their occurrence results.
    used_for: Dispatching and reviewing recurring work.
  - name: Initial provisioning
    meaning: Accounting supplies the payment vocabulary needed by a new workspace.
    used_for: Preparing initial Accounting data.
  - name: Lifecycle availability
    meaning: Platform state limits which Accounting routes are served.
    used_for: Controlling work during lifecycle transitions.
  - name: Customer export
    meaning: Declared datasets are streamed with their exclusions and secret guard.
    used_for: Preparing Accounting export data.
  - name: Resumable removal
    meaning: Participants remove owned data in dependency order with bounded progress.
    used_for: Completing workspace deletion.
relationships:
  - to: CON-ACC-BKS-001
    statement: Workspace settings apply across the customer’s business units.
    provenance: observed
    source: 'services-accounting:modules/books/db/settings.table.ts:settings'
lifecycle:
  - state: provisioning
    meaning: Platform is establishing the workspace before ordinary use.
    how_it_changes: Platform completes creation.
  - state: loading
    meaning: Initial data processing limits availability to data-job routes.
    how_it_changes: Platform completes loading.
  - state: active
    meaning: Enabled workspaces can serve ordinary Accounting requests.
    how_it_changes: Platform disables access or begins removal.
  - state: deleting
    meaning: Removal limits Accounting to the defined staff-read exception.
    how_it_changes: Platform completes or cancels deletion.
acted_on_by:
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-011
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-012
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-013
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-019
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-016
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-017
  - CAP-ACC-BKS-018
visible_to:
  - ACT-ACC-001
  - ACT-ACC-002
  - ACT-ACC-003
  - ACT-ACC-005
evidence:
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/db/payment-methods.table.ts
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/db/payment-terms.table.ts
  - 'Verified source file: services-accounting:modules/books/db/settings.table.ts'
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/db/tax-classes.table.ts
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/db/tax-zone-rates.table.ts
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/db/tax-zones.table.ts
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/books/tests/integration/services/persistence/payment-methods.integration.spec.js
  - >-
    Verified source file:
    services-accounting:modules/maintenance/db/schedules.table.ts
supersedes:
  - CON-ACC-BKS-005
---

# Accounting Workspace

## What It Is

The Accounting workspace is the customer’s shared accounting context across all its business units. It includes the configuration that should have one meaning throughout the customer’s work, the access conventions protecting that information and Accounting’s participation in operational lifecycle work. A staff member normally sees particular units, accounts and financial documents, but the workspace explains the common choices those records rely on.

Named payment terms and methods are shared definitions rather than separate copies per unit. One settings record selects policies applied by transaction and posting workflows. Schedules support recurring work, and lifecycle participants answer for Accounting data when Platform provisions, exports or deletes the workspace. This broad concept keeps those facets understandable together without turning each setting or operational table into another product noun.

## What It Is Not

A workspace is not a set of books: a business unit supplies that narrower context. Nor does Accounting own Platform’s workspace record, licensing or lifecycle orchestration. Accounting owns its contribution and data within that boundary. Tax configuration still hosted here is also transitional; its decided determination owner is Commerce, while Accounting retains financial mapping and recorded tax.

## How It Is Used

Administrators maintain shared terms, methods and policy. Staff use those choices during invoice and payment work without needing authority to change configuration. Authorized users preview recurrence while configuring a scheduled subject and inspect its later outcomes. Platform jobs handle initial provisioning and customer data operations, with availability checks limiting ordinary work during lifecycle transitions.

A successful experience preserves the customer’s boundaries and explains failure. A stale save asks for reconciliation instead of overwriting a colleague. A schedule that repeatedly fails pauses for attention. A blocked export explains its reason, while deletion continues from completed batches after an interruption.

## Its Facets

**Payment vocabulary.** Terms describe named durations; methods describe receipt behaviour, offering channels and reference prompts. Initial system methods provide the starting vocabulary.

**Transitional tax setup.** Classes, zones and rates remain editable here at the pinned implementation. Their future ownership and migration require a settled transition rather than two permanent sources of tax treatment.

**Access and saved records.** Resource permissions, versions, locks and workspace boundaries control configuration changes. Published permission names alone do not establish supported actions.

**Shared policies.** Statement selection, overpayment handling, refund approval and deferral choices apply across units. Related reconciliation and close switches remain the responsibility of their consuming modules.

**Recurring timing.** Schedules describe when owning records run and preserve occurrence history. Preview and run-history access serve different stages of that work.

**Lifecycle participation.** Provisioning establishes initial methods; availability follows Platform state. Export streams declared customer datasets with exclusions and secret checks. Erasure removes owned data in dependency order without touching another workspace.

## How It Relates

Business units hold individual books within this shared context. Templates supply the workspace statement default, while the chart supplies payable destinations. Transactions, posting, reconciliation and close consume shared policy. Scheduled subjects belong to their owning modules, and Platform coordinates the workspace lifecycle rather than delegating ownership of its own record to Accounting.

## What It Could Become

The product should settle the tax transition and the scheduler’s relationship to Billing before design fixes their long-term ownership. It should make unsupported published permissions distinguishable from usable actions. Future exposure of related settings needs clear ownership so a shared storage location does not imply one editor can change every policy.