The Figures the Board Was Sent
A board approves the numbers it was sent, and those numbers have a habit of changing after the meeting. Certified statements freeze a period’s figures as the version you signed off, show you exactly what has moved in the ledger since, and send the board only what was certified.
The short version
Certify a period once its books are agreed. AWRA freezes the trial balance, income statement, balance sheet and cash flow as a numbered, checksummed version that is never recalculated. The live ledger can keep moving; the certified version shows, line by line, what has changed since. Commentary, if you want it, is written only from the frozen figures. And the board pack sent on a schedule is always the latest certified version, never a re-run.
The finance committee of a Nakuru school trust met on the 14th and approved the first-term accounts: surplus KES 3.1 million. On the 20th a supplier credit note was posted into the term, correctly. In November the treasurer printed the term’s income statement for the annual meeting and it said KES 3.26 million. Both numbers were right. Only one of them was the number the committee approved, and nobody could show which.
A statement in an accounting system is a question asked of the ledger, and the ledger keeps changing. That is what you want from a ledger. It is not what you want from the page the board signed.
What gets frozen
Under Accounting → Certified statements, pick a period — a month, a term, a quarter, a year, any start and end date — and certify it. AWRA reads the ledger once and stores the result as the certified version:
| Statement | What is stored |
|---|---|
| Trial balance | Every account’s debits and credits for the period, and the totals |
| Income statement | Total revenue, total expenses, net income, and each revenue and expense line |
| Balance sheet | The totals and each asset, liability and equity line at the period end |
| Cash flow | Operating, investing and financing totals and lines, with opening and closing cash |
The version carries who certified it, when, an optional note, and a SHA-256 checksum of exactly what was stored. From then on it is read from what was stored, never recomputed. A late journal changes the live statements; it does not change this.
Certifying again does not overwrite
If the committee approves a corrected set, certify the same period again. That becomes version 2, and version 1 is kept and marked superseded. The history of what was approved, and when it changed, stays on the record. Certifying needs its own permission, separate from viewing.
What changed since
Open a certified version and AWRA compares it with the ledger as it stands now, figure by figure. Anything that differs is listed under What changed, as the certified value and the value now. If nothing has moved, the list is empty, and that empty list is itself worth showing an auditor.
First term, certified on the 14th, opened on 3 November
Illustrative figures. The certified version still says 3,100,000; the list says what moved and the ledger says why.
From any line on the live statements you can follow the figure down to the posting and the document behind it, which is how the treasurer finds the credit note in a minute rather than an afternoon. That trail is described in From the Statement Line to the Receipt Behind It.
A ledger should keep moving. The page the board signed should not. Certification is how you keep both.
Commentary written from the frozen figures only
A certified version can carry a short commentary for the board: three to five plain sentences on the period’s result, the balance sheet, cash, and the one thing worth discussing. It is written by AI on request by someone who may certify, and it is given the frozen figures and nothing else — plus, where an earlier period was certified, that period’s revenue and net income for comparison. It is instructed never to invent a figure, a cause or a comparison it was not given.
That restriction is the point. A commentary that read the live ledger could describe numbers the board never saw. This one can only describe the version it sits beside, and it is stored with that version once written, so it does not drift either.
If AI is switched off for accounting
Workspaces can switch AI off per module. Where it is off for accounting, no commentary is written, and nothing about the certified figures is sent anywhere. The statements, the checksum, the comparison and the board pack work exactly the same without it.
The board pack, on a schedule
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Download a version
As a PDF carrying the version number, who certified it and when, the checksum and the commentary, or as a CSV whose first row carries the same checksum.
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Or schedule it
In scheduled reports, choose Board pack (latest certified statements), a cadence and the recipients. Each run sends the most recent certified version that has not been superseded.
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And trust what arrives
The scheduled pack is never a re-run of the live ledger. If nothing has been certified yet, the run fails rather than sending something nobody signed off.
Certified versions overlapping a period also go into the auditor evidence file, beside the close evidence packs, so the version the board approved is the version the auditor receives. More on the controls around the ledger on the accounting controls page, on the statements themselves on the income statement page, and in the Finance Overview guide.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- Certified statements for any period: trial balance, income statement, balance sheet and cash flow frozen with their lines, a note, who certified and when.
- A SHA-256 checksum on every version, printed on the PDF and the CSV.
- Versions, not overwrites: certifying a period again adds the next version and keeps the last one, marked superseded.
- What changed since certification, figure by figure, against the live ledger.
- Optional commentary written only from the frozen figures, stored with the version, and never written where AI is off for accounting.
- A scheduled board pack that sends the latest certified version as PDF or CSV, and fails rather than sending uncertified figures.
- Certified versions in the auditor evidence file for any date range they overlap.
- An executive dashboard beside the statements: revenue, gross margin, net profit, cash, receivables and payables by age, open-order exposure and stock value against the period before, with the risks to look at, downloaded as PDF or CSV and scheduled as its own emailed pack.
- Certified versions in the AWRA mobile app: the figures, what changed since and the PDF. Certifying a period and writing the commentary stay on the web.
More we can add to your workspace
- Board measures certified with the version: cash runway, receivables days and margin by product line frozen beside the statements, so the dashboard the board saw is fixed like the figures.
- Comparative columns on the certified statements, so this period sits beside the last one and the same period last year on one page.
- The approved budget beside the certified actuals, with budget versions kept so the plan the board approved stays on the record after a reforecast.
- Board pack downloads as an Excel workbook, beside the PDF and CSV.
Where we point you to a specialist
- Certifying records that a named person in your organization signed off a version of the figures. It is not an audit opinion and it does not make the statements statutory accounts; that assurance belongs to your auditor.
- The commentary describes the frozen figures. Deciding what they mean for the organization, and what to ask the board for, stays with the people presenting them.
Comparative columns and certified board measures are the two most boards ask for next, and both build on figures the certified version and the executive dashboard already hold.
Anything above that you need, we can build for you
Everything listed above as something we can add describes what ships in the standard product today — it is a starting point, not a limit on what AWRA OpsHub can do for your organisation. Kenya's eTIMS integration and its maintained payroll engine are both in the product because clients needed them and commissioned them; neither appeared by itself, and the same door is open for whatever you just read about. One qualification so this is worth what it claims: a small number of things on this blog we deliberately leave to a specialist rather than build — a statutory ledger we will not sign our name to, a rule that would decide a tax question for you, a clinical or member-funds record that belongs in a regulated system — and where that is true the post says so in those words. Everything else is a scope, a timeline and a price.
The operational work, which is what most commissions actually are
An extra approval stage in a chain that does not match the standard one, a custom field set on employees or assets that only your sector needs, an expiry that has to block an order rather than send an email, a report your board asks for in a shape nothing produces, or a scanner or weighbridge feeding the goods-in door. These are the commissions we are asked for most often and the smallest ones we quote — and unlike a revenue-authority pipeline, none of them waits on a regulator.
The module-shaped additions, which are the ones readers ask for most often
A price list with real discount authority, a customer-facing quotation that expires, a bill of materials or recipe costing, a staff advance that is issued, acquitted and chased, a member or unit ledger, a matching rule that holds a payment. Each of these is a build rather than a setting, and each has been quoted before — a bigger piece of work than a custom field, with a written spec and a date instead of a roadmap slide.
The report, document or pack nothing currently produces
The board pack in the shape your board actually asks for, a donor or funder layout, an invoice or receipt template carrying what your regulator or your customer expects, a dataset the report builder cannot reach yet. Usually the fastest thing on this list to deliver, because the data is already in the system.
Systems, rails and hardware you already run
The accounting package, CRM, online store, core banking or custom database you intend to keep — connected through our API so a fact is entered once and appears everywhere it is needed. Plus the physical edge: a scanner, a scale, a weighbridge or a till peripheral feeding the door it belongs to.
How it works: you describe the requirement, we return a written scope, timeline and cost, and once agreed it is built into your environment and maintained as part of the product. Nothing here waits on a regulator or a published specification, which is why operational builds are the ones we quote fastest. Tell us the requirement that would otherwise rule us out — that is a better first conversation than a demo.
Tell us what your operation needsFour questions before the next board meeting
If we print last quarter’s statements today, will they match what the board approved?
A good answer sounds like
Only the certified version is guaranteed to; the comparison shows anything that moved.
What it tells you
A re-run is a new question. It is often the same answer, and you cannot show that it is.
Can you prove the file the lender has is the one you certified?
A good answer sounds like
The checksum on it matches the one on record.
What it tells you
Without a checksum, “the same file” is a statement of trust.
Where did the commentary’s numbers come from?
A good answer sounds like
The certified version and nothing else.
What it tells you
Commentary that can see the live ledger can describe figures the board never saw.
What happens if nobody certified this month before the pack goes out?
A good answer sounds like
The scheduled pack fails and somebody is asked why.
What it tells you
A pack that sends live figures by default is a pack nobody signed.
See the accounting controls
Period locks, approved journals, certified statements and the evidence an auditor takes away.
Explore accounting controlsFrequently asked questions
What is a certified financial statement in AWRA OpsHub?
A period’s trial balance, income statement, balance sheet and cash flow frozen as the version someone signed off, with a SHA-256 checksum, who certified it and when. It is read from what was stored and never recalculated, so a later posting does not change it.
What happens if a journal is posted after the statements are certified?
The live statements change and the certified version does not. Opening the certified version lists every figure that differs between it and the ledger now, so you can see what moved and when.
Can the statements be certified again?
Yes. Certifying the same period again creates the next version and marks the previous one superseded. Both are kept.
Is the board pack commentary written from live numbers?
No. It is written only from the certified figures, plus the previous certified period’s revenue and net income where there is one, and it is stored with that version. If AI is switched off for accounting, no commentary is written.
Can the board pack be sent automatically?
Yes. Scheduled reports can send the latest certified statements as a PDF or CSV on a cadence you choose. If nothing has been certified yet, the run fails instead of sending uncertified figures.
