Maestro Business is based on a structuring principle: each transaction goes through an account linked to a project, an activity, and a group of expenses, rather than directly through an isolated general ledger account. This architecture, often referred to by the acronym PAG (Project, Activity, Group), determines how financial flows are allocated, tracked, and reconciled. Understanding this logic before any manipulation helps avoid multiplying corrective entries at the end of the period.
PAG Architecture: the Foundation of Maestro Business Account Management
In most traditional accounting software, each project requires the duplication of revenue and expense accounts in the chart. Maestro Business circumvents this issue by separating the general ledger account from operational tracking.
The same general ledger account can receive amounts from several distinct projects. It is the combination of Project-Activity-Group that allocates these amounts and allows you to know, at any time, which project generated which expense or revenue.
The daily management of your accounts on Maestro Business becomes clearer as soon as this structure is properly configured in advance, as it eliminates the need for an endless chart of accounts.
Before creating any project, it is essential to reflect on the types of recurring projects in your company. A well-designed project template will serve as a reusable model: it sets the typical activities, associated expense groups, and corresponding general ledger accounts. This initial configuration step determines the reliability of all subsequent tracking.
Segregation of Funds and Regulatory Compliance on a Management Platform
When a platform like Maestro Business collects customer payments before redistributing them, French regulations impose a mechanism for protecting funds. The collected amounts must pass through segregated accounts, distinct from the platform’s own accounts.
This requirement arises from the European DSP2 directive, transposed into French law by Article L.522-17 of the Monetary and Financial Code for payment institutions, and Article L.526-32 for electronic money institutions.
For a user, this has a direct consequence on account management: the accounting reconciliation must take into account the delay between the collection by the platform and the actual transfer to the company’s account. Ignoring this delay skews the displayed cash flow.
Check the Segregation Model
There are two approaches: global segregation (all customer funds in a single segregated account) and individual segregation (one sub-account per merchant). The former simplifies management on the platform side, while the latter offers finer traceability on the user side.
Adapt your cash flow tracking procedures to the model chosen by your platform. If Maestro Business uses global segregation, plan for more frequent reconciliations to avoid unidentified discrepancies at the end of the month.
Configuring Project Templates for Reliable Tracking
Creating project templates is the main lever to save time without sacrificing tracking accuracy. A well-structured template consists of three elements:
- The typical activities of the project, which correspond to the major phases or categories of operations (sourcing, production, delivery, for example)
- The expense groups associated with each activity, which allow costs to be allocated by nature (labor, materials, subcontracting)
- The associated general ledger accounts, which ensure accounting consolidation without duplicating the chart
A common mistake is to create templates that are too detailed from the outset. A template with thirty expense groups becomes unmanageable if half are never used. Start with the categories that are truly recurring in your past projects, and then refine them over time.
Duplicate and Adapt Rather Than Recreate
Each new project can inherit an existing template. Duplication retains the complete PAG structure, which avoids missing attachments. Adaptation is then limited to the specifics of the project: adding a one-time activity, modifying a budget ceiling, linking a particular subcontractor.
Accounting Reconciliation and Discrepancy Detection on Maestro Business
The reconciliation between the entries recorded in Maestro Business and the bank statements remains the most common friction point. Two factors complicate this operation:
- The time lag related to the segregation of funds (a payment received on the 28th of the month may not appear in the company’s account until the 3rd of the following month)
- Multi-project entries charged to the same general ledger account, which make manual matching tedious if the PAG allocation is not rigorous
- Platform fees or commissions deducted before redistribution, which create a systematic discrepancy between the amount billed to the client and the amount received
A weekly reconciliation reduces the risk of accumulated discrepancies at the end of the period. This frequency allows for quick identification of an allocation error or a missing transfer, before the volume of transactions makes investigation time-consuming.
Address Recurring Discrepancies at the Source
If a type of discrepancy recurs every month (unaccounted platform commission, misallocated VAT on service fees), the solution lies in creating a dedicated expense group in the template. This transforms a manual discrepancy to correct into an automatic entry integrated into the standard flow.
Managing accounts on a platform like Maestro Business relies less on mastering an interface than on the quality of the initial configuration. A PAG template adapted to your actual projects, combined with regular reconciliation that takes segregation delays into account, forms the foundation of usable financial tracking without ongoing adjustments.
