Hospital accounting software for hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres
Shafa HMS Accounts is the finance module of the Shafa hospital management suite. It holds the facility's chart of accounts and general ledger and receives transactions from the modules that create them: patient bills from OPD, IPD and the laboratory become receivables, supplier invoices matched in Inventory and Pharmacy become payables, and payroll runs arrive as journals from HR & Payroll. Finance teams manage cash and bank, corporate and insurance balances, configurable VAT-aware invoicing, doctor share settlements and month-end close, with departmental profit and loss and auditor exports drawn from the same ledger. It is built for hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres in Bangladesh and runs in Bangla and English.
- Receivables from patient and corporate billing
- Payables matched to goods receipts
- Departmental profit and loss reporting
- Audit trail and auditor exports
Overview
A general ledger fed by the hospital, not by re-entry
In most hospitals the accounts department works one step behind the building. Cash collected at the billing counter, credit extended to corporate clients, supplier invoices from the store and salary sheets from HR arrive as printouts and spreadsheets to be re-entered into an accounting package that knows nothing about patients or departments, so hospital billing and accounting drift apart. The result is a ledger that closes weeks late and a departmental cost report that few people trust. The Accounts module removes the re-entry.
Every transaction with a financial effect in Shafa HMS posts to the ledger as it happens, against a chart of accounts and cost-centre structure the facility defines. Patient invoices and receipts, refunds and discounts, corporate and insurance party billing, supplier invoices and payments, payroll journals and stock movements all arrive with their source document attached, so an accountant reviewing a balance can open the bill, receipt or goods note behind it without leaving the screen.
The module is built for healthcare finance teams: the finance head who must produce a trial balance, a departmental profit and loss statement and a set of schedules for the external auditor from one system. Month-end close follows a defined checklist, bank and cash are reconciled against statements, and the audit trail records who posted, edited or reversed each entry. Exports for auditors are produced from the ledger itself, in formats they can open without the software.
Capabilities
Accounting capabilities
Seven areas of finance work, each posting to a single ledger with the source document attached so that every balance can be explained.
- 1
Chart of accounts and general ledger
The facility defines its own chart of accounts, cost centres and departments, and every module posts against them. Manual journals and reversals follow an approval step, period controls prevent postings into closed months, and the ledger can be viewed by account, department, party or source document, so a balance is always traceable to the transactions behind it.
- 2
Hospital billing and accounts receivable
Patient invoices raised in OPD, IPD, the laboratory and the pharmacy become receivable entries the moment they are issued. Receipts are matched to invoices, partial payments and advances are tracked per patient, and refunds, discounts and write-offs carry an approver and a reason. The billing desk and the accountant see the same outstanding balance.
- 3
Corporate and insurance party accounts
Companies, insurers and other credit parties are set up with their own terms, approved services and billing cycles. Charges for their beneficiaries accumulate against the party, periodic statements are generated with the supporting bills, and collections are applied against specific invoices, so ageing reports show which party owes what and for how long.
- 4
Accounts payable and supplier payments
Supplier invoices matched to goods receipts in Inventory and Pharmacy arrive as payables, with the receipt attached for verification. Payment runs are prepared by due date, approved, and recorded against bank or cash, and supplier ledgers show purchases, payments, debit notes and the open balance so the store and the finance office work from the same figures.
- 5
Cash, bank and VAT-aware invoicing
Cash books per counter and bank books per account are built from the receipts and payments that post to them and reconciled against the day's count or the bank statement. VAT treatment on invoices and purchases is configured by the facility to match its own registration and rules, and the period's figures are reported without a separate workbook.
- 6
Departmental profit and loss and doctor share
Revenue from each department and the costs allocated to it, including supplies from Inventory and staff cost from HR & Payroll, are brought together into a departmental profit and loss statement. Doctor share and fee settlements are calculated from the same billing records according to agreed terms, so the hospital and each consultant reconcile against one set of figures.
- 7
Month-end close and audit-ready records
Closing follows a checklist: reconcile cash and bank, review unmatched receipts and unpaid invoices, post period adjustments, and lock the period. Every posting, edit and reversal is stamped with user and time in an audit trail that is kept for every period. Trial balance, ledgers and schedules export in standard formats for the external auditor.
Suite fit
How Accounts fits into Shafa HMS
Accounts is the destination for almost everything else in the suite. Clinical and support modules create the transactions and Accounts records their financial effect, so the finance office reviews rather than re-enters. These are the principal flows, all of which run inside one database and one user directory.
- OPD, IPD, laboratory and pharmacy billingtoAccounts receivable and cash book
Invoices, receipts, refunds and discounts post as they are issued, split by department and service, with the patient bill attached to each entry.
- Inventory and Pharmacy goods receiptstoAccounts payable
Matched supplier invoices create liabilities and stock value entries, and payments made in Accounts update the supplier ledger that both sides see.
- HR & Payroll approved runtoGeneral ledger
The monthly payroll journal posts by department and cost centre together with deduction liabilities, feeding staff cost into departmental profit and loss.
- Departmental consumption and OT usagetoCost centre reporting
Supplies consumed by wards, theatres and the laboratory are summarised per period and allocated to the department, so the profit and loss reflects what each unit actually used.
Standards and compliance
Controls, security and audit readiness
Financial records must survive an auditor's questions. These are the controls in place today.
Role-based access and a full audit trail
Cashiers, accountants, department heads and auditors are given distinct permissions over posting, approval, reversal and reporting. Every entry carries the user, time and source document, and edits and reversals are stored as new entries rather than overwriting the original.
Encrypted ledger data in transit and at rest
Financial and party records are protected with encryption between the client and the server and in stored data and backups, following the same HIPAA-style data handling that governs patient records in Shafa HMS.
Export formats for external auditors
Trial balance, general ledger, sub-ledgers, ageing and schedules export to standard spreadsheet and document formats that an auditor can open without access to the system, and a read-only role can be granted to auditors who prefer to query the ledger themselves.
Bangla and English for finance and counter staff
Vouchers, ledgers, statements and reports are available in Bangla and English, chosen per user, so counter staff can work in Bangla while the finance office and the auditor read the same records in English.
Deployment
Deployment options
Accounts runs wherever the rest of Shafa HMS is deployed. Facilities that want the least infrastructure choose cloud hosting; those with data-residency requirements or an existing server room install on-premise; and sites with unreliable connectivity add offline sync so billing counters and cash books keep posting through an outage. The ledger belongs to the facility in every model.
Cloud
Hosted by Shafa Care in a database reserved for your facility, with backups, monitoring and updates included. Accountants, auditors and the director sign in from any authorised browser, with no local servers to maintain.
On-premise
Installed on the facility's own servers, keeping the ledger, party records and bank data inside the building and backed up locally. Suited to institutions whose policies require financial data to remain on site.
Offline sync
Billing counters and cash books continue on a local edge node during an internet failure, and the postings synchronise to the central ledger in sequence when the connection returns, so no receipt is lost or counted twice.
Who it is for
Who the Accounts module is for
Finance heads and chief accountants
The people who must close the month, defend the departmental numbers to the board and hand a clean set of schedules to the auditor, and who currently assemble them from billing printouts and spreadsheets.
Billing managers and cashiers
Front-office staff who collect payments, manage advances and refunds and chase corporate balances, and who need the day's collections to reconcile with the cash book without a second entry.
Owners of clinics and diagnostic centres
Smaller facilities that need accounting software for clinics, with proper party ledgers and VAT-aware invoicing, without a separate accounting package, and want the clinic's books to grow with the business rather than be rebuilt later.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How is the Accounts module priced?
Accounts is part of the Shafa HMS subscription, priced per facility according to the modules in use, the number of users and the deployment model. We do not publish a rate card because a diagnostic centre and a multi-department hospital have different needs. Tell us your facility type, user count and hosting preference and we will send a written quote.
How is VAT handled on invoices and purchases?
VAT treatment is configured by the facility rather than fixed in the software. Your finance team sets which services and items attract VAT, how it is calculated and how it appears on invoices and purchase entries, with effective dates so changes apply from the right period. The module then reports the period's figures from the ledger. Shafa Care does not provide tax advice; your accountant or adviser confirms the settings.
What do external auditors receive from the system?
Trial balance, general ledger, sub-ledgers for parties and suppliers, cash and bank books, ageing reports and the schedules behind the financial statements export in standard spreadsheet and document formats. The audit trail listing who posted, edited or reversed each entry is exportable too, and auditors can be given a read-only login to query the ledger directly if they prefer.
We run our accounts in Excel or a general accounting package today. How do we migrate, and what training is included?
The chart of accounts, cost centres, party and supplier lists and opening balances are imported from a template we provide and agreed with your finance team before the first live period. Historic transactions are not re-keyed; the module starts from an agreed opening date. Training is role-based, covering cashiers, accountants and the finance head separately, in Bangla or English, and we recommend one month in parallel to confirm the trial balance matches.
Can the billing counter keep working when the internet is down?
Yes. With offline sync, billing counters, receipts and cash books continue on a local edge node through power cuts and connection failures. Postings are queued and synchronised to the central ledger in sequence when the connection returns, so the day's collections reconcile without duplicates, and reports at the finance office catch up once sync completes.
Do we need the clinical modules before Accounts, and how do they connect?
No. Shafa HMS modules are rolled out in phases and a facility can start with Accounts and Inventory if financial control is the first priority, adding billing, OPD and IPD later. The chart of accounts and cost centres set up here are the ones the other modules post to, so each new module begins feeding the ledger as soon as it is switched on.
Who owns the financial data, and can we export it?
The facility does, under every deployment model. Ledgers, vouchers, party balances and reports can be exported at any time in standard formats for auditors, regulators or migration, and a complete export is provided if you leave Shafa HMS. On-premise installations keep the ledger on your own servers from the first day, and cloud deployments store it in a database reserved for your facility alone.
Shafa HMS · Accounts
See your month-end close in one system
Bring last month's trial balance and a sample of patient bills, supplier invoices and the payroll summary. We will post them through Shafa HMS Accounts, reconcile a cash book and show the departmental profit and loss and auditor exports that result.