ℹ️ A virtual account helps you keep track of the money that doesn't go through a connected bank account: petty cash, refunds to your team, expenses paid up front on site. With a virtual account you can:
record income and expenses by hand
move money between two accounts with a transfer
pay an invoice even without a bank transfer, for example when you pay in cash or refund a team member
manage a credit card and import its statement
How do you create a virtual account?
From the side menu, go to Accounting > Accounts.
Click + Add account at the top right.
Choose Create virtual account.
The creation window opens. Fill in the fields:
Account name: give it a recognizable name, for example "Site petty cash" or "Visa card".
Type: leave Account for a normal cash box, or choose Credit card from the dropdown menu. With a Credit card virtual account you can import the statement and turn the card's monthly charge into the individual purchases.
Click Create account.
ℹ️ The "Credit card" account has no balance because it only serves to collect the expenses made with the card. The regular account, on the other hand, has a balance: it represents the money actually available, so you can record income and expenses and adjust it if needed.
Record an income or an expense
You can add a virtual account's transactions by hand, for example the payment for a job received in cash or a material purchase paid from the cash box.
Open the virtual account from the Accounts section.
Click Register transaction.
Choose whether it's income or an expense.
Enter the amount, date, description and category.
Click Confirm. The transaction appears in the list with with the title "Virtual movement".
Move money between two accounts (transfer)
When you move money from one account to another, for example when you withdraw cash from the bank account for the site's cash box, record a transfer between accounts: this way the same movement isn't counted twice in the cash flow.
From a virtual account, click Register transaction and choose Transfer between accounts.
Choose the source account and the destination account and enter the amount.
Click Confirm. Pillar creates the two linked transactions (an expense and an income) and the transfer doesn't enter the cash flow.
Pay an invoice with a virtual account
The virtual account is useful when you pay an invoice without a bank transfer: in cash, or when you refund a team member who paid an expense up front. When you record an invoice payment, choose the virtual account as the payment account: the invoice is marked as paid and the transaction stays tracked in the cash box.
💡 Useful tips
Use a dedicated virtual account for each cash box or card, without mixing the transactions.
To move money between two accounts always use the transfer, so you don't count it twice.
The credit card account has no balance: it's normal for it to stay at zero.
You can delete a virtual transaction you created yourself; transactions that come from the bank can't be deleted.
Pillar warns you when a cash transaction exceeds the threshold set by anti-money laundering rules.