Features · Singapore SME bookkeeping
What Aelstrom Does Every Working Day
Invoices out, bills in, bank lines to match, a GST position to keep current, and reports someone eventually asks for. One ledger, eight working surfaces.
The eight surfaces a finance lead actually touches
Features pages tend to list capabilities. This one describes the work. If you run the books for a Singapore SME, your week is invoices out, bills in, bank lines to match, a GST position to keep current, and a set of reports someone eventually asks for. Aelstrom covers those tasks in one ledger, and the sections below explain how each one behaves.
- Sales invoicing Issue, send, track
- InvoiceNow Structured e-invoices
- Purchase bills Coding and due dates
- Bank feeds Proposed matches
- Multi-currency Rate at settlement
- Receivables Ageing and reminders
- Reporting P&L, balance sheet, GST
- Access Roles and audit trail
One invoice, issued once — and it stays in the ledger until the money lands.
Sales invoicing and InvoiceNow e-invoicing
Where the customer is on the InvoiceNow network, the invoice travels as structured data, not a PDF.
You create a sales invoice from a customer record, add line items with the right tax code, and issue it. Where your customer is on the InvoiceNow network, the invoice can go out as a structured e-invoice rather than a PDF attachment, which reduces re-keying on their side and yours.
Recurring invoices can be scheduled for retainers or subscription billing, and credit notes follow the same path back through the ledger. Once issued, the invoice sits in your receivables until payment is matched against it, so the aged receivables report reflects reality rather than your memory of who paid.
- Delivery
- PDF for anyone, structured e-invoice where the customer is on the network
- Repeats
- Scheduled recurring invoices for retainers and subscriptions
- Reversals
- Credit notes post back through the same ledger path
- Until paid
- Every open invoice sits in receivables and feeds the ageing report
Purchase bills and accounts payable
Supplier bills get entered or captured, coded to an expense or asset account, and dated so GST treatment is correct for the period. Aelstrom tracks what you owe by supplier and due date, so you can see the payment run before it is overdue rather than after.
When a bill is paid, the bank transaction matches against it and the payable clears. If a supplier issues a credit note, it reduces the outstanding balance the same way. For businesses juggling several regional suppliers, the accounts payable list is where you notice a duplicate or a price change — before it reaches the bank.
- Capture or key a bill, then code it to the right account
- Due-date view by supplier, so a payment run is planned not chased
- Payment clears the payable; a supplier credit note reduces it the same way
- Duplicate and price-change checks surface in the AP list
What you can check
Open payables by supplier and due date, so an accounts payable position is a report rather than a guess before month end.
See implementation and supportBank feeds and reconciliation
Connect your bank accounts and Aelstrom pulls transactions in on an ongoing basis. The reconciliation screen proposes matches: this bank line against that invoice, this payment against that bill. You confirm, split, or correct, and the account balance moves toward agreement with the statement.
Unmatched items stay on the list. That is deliberate. Transactions that get auto-cleared to a suspense account and forgotten are how a set of books drifts out of shape. Anything left over is visible, and you can categorize it properly when you know what it was.
How a match is settled
- First Bank transactions arrive in the connected account
- Then Aelstrom proposes a match to an invoice or a bill
- Then You confirm, split, or correct — nothing clears silently
- After The balance moves toward agreement with the statement
Multi-currency accounts and exchange differences
Each transaction carries its own currency. A USD invoice is recorded in USD and translated to SGD at the transaction date for reporting. When the customer pays and the rate has moved, Aelstrom records the exchange difference at settlement rather than burying it in the original entry.
For a Singapore trading company, this is the difference between a clean reconciliation and a manual adjustment every month. You can view balances by currency and by base currency, and reports show the SGD position that your filing needs.
Why it matters
Rates move between issue and payment. Booking the difference where it happens keeps the original invoice intact and the reconciliation clean.
Accounts receivable and collections
The receivables view shows who owes what, how old it is, and which invoices are approaching or past terms. You can send reminders from the platform, and the invoice history shows what was issued, what was paid, and what remains.
For SMEs that bill a small number of larger customers, this is often the report that gets looked at most.
Financial reporting and IRAS-ready statements
Aelstrom produces profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and the GST summary that feeds your filing. Reports run on the period you select, and you can compare periods to see what moved.
The output is designed so an accountant or tax agent can review it without re-keying. If you work with an external firm, they can be given access to the platform, which cuts the back-and-forth that usually happens at year end.
Profit and loss
Run on any period you select, and compare one period against another.
Balance sheet
Assets, liabilities and equity from the same ledger the entries went into.
Cash flow
What came in and what went out, drawn from the reconciled bank lines.
GST summary
The figures that feed your filing, prepared for an accountant to review.
Users, roles, and audit trail
You decide who sees what. A bookkeeper can be given entry access without the ability to change bank connections or export the full ledger. A director can see reports without touching day-to-day entries.
Every entry and change is recorded against a user and a timestamp. When a figure looks different from last month, the audit trail tells you what changed and who changed it, which is faster than reconstructing it from memory.
A common split
- Bookkeeper Entry access to invoices, bills and reconciliation
- Finance lead Approvals, reports and payment run oversight
- Director Read-only reports, no day-to-day entries
- External firm Scoped access for review, without re-keying
Access is scoped per user, and each change carries the user and time it was made.
What Aelstrom deliberately doesn't include
We would rather say this here than have you discover it during implementation.
Aelstrom is accounting software. It does not run payroll, file your corporate secretarial documents, or manage a warehouse. Inventory tracking is basic, and if you need bill-of-materials or manufacturing costing, this is not the tool for it.
If your requirement list includes those items, a corporate services provider or a mid-market financial management platform is likely a better match. If your list is invoicing, bank feeds, reconciliation, multi-currency bookkeeping, GST and reporting, the sections above describe what you would be using every day.
Questions a finance lead asks before switching
Short answers to the practical ones. Anything specific to your books belongs in a conversation.
Migration Can I move existing balances and open invoices across?
Bring your chart of accounts, customer and supplier records, and open items first. Opening balances get dated to your cutover period so the GST treatment and the first reconciliation line up from day one. Your accountant can review the opening position before you start entering live transactions.
Bank feeds What if a bank line does not match anything?
It stays on the unmatched list and remains visible until you categorize it. Nothing is pushed to a suspense account and forgotten. You can split a line across two categories, correct a proposed match, or leave it flagged until you find the paperwork behind it.
GST Does the ledger keep GST treatment correct across periods?
Each line carries its tax code and its date, so the period a transaction falls into is determined by the entry itself. The GST summary then reflects the period you are filing rather than the period you happened to key the entry in. You can review the summary before it goes to your agent.
Accountant Can our external accountant work in the same system?
Yes. They get scoped access to the platform rather than an export by email, so reports, GST figures and the audit trail are the same records you are looking at. That removes the usual year-end cycle of sending files back and forth and reconciling two versions of the same books.
Fit How do I know whether it fits my workflow?
Walk through one month of your own transactions: raise an invoice, enter a supplier bill, match a bank line, run the GST summary. If the sequence above matches how your team already works, the fit is straightforward. If you need payroll, corporate secretarial filing or manufacturing costing, say so early and we will tell you plainly.
Next step
Bring one month of your books and we will walk it through with you
Aelstrom is operated by Aelstrom Pte. Ltd. from One Raffles Place, Singapore. Implementation and support are handled by the same team that answers the phone, so the person who sets up your ledger is reachable afterwards. Call us during business hours, or send the request and we will come back with a time.
Registered office
1 Raffles Place, #20-61 One Raffles Place, Singapore 048616
Business phone
+65 6823 8741 · Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Looking for the compliance side specifically? See how GST and InvoiceNow support works, or compare plans and pricing.