Panama: set up open source accounting

The same path as text: every command with Panamá already on it, and the codes a first invoice is written with. An AI agent helping you reads the same text as Markdown, at /countries/pa/set-up.md.

Ekwo keeps balanced accounts in a database you own, with the rules of Panamá as data. On Ekwo Cloud the Panamá pack is ready to use, with an account opened in a minute; this page is the other way in, Ekwo OS, the open source core, installed on your own project. It is generated from the Panamá pack, version 0.3.0; every code on it is read from the pack.

The Panamá pack is community: contributed, and reviewed by nobody.

Your accountant works on the same data, with their own access, and the pack carries its sources, its version and its status. To find an accountant who works with Ekwo in Panamá, see the directory or our partners. What Ekwo is, and its limits: the disclaimer.

1. What you need

A Supabase project of your own. The free plan is enough to start; Ekwo does not create it, pay for it or have access to it.
From its dashboard: the connection string (Connect → Session pooler), the Project URL and the service_role key (Project Settings → API). The key is used once, to create your first administrator, and is written nowhere. The anon (publishable) key, on the same page, is what you sign in with afterwards.
Node 20 or later on your machine. Nothing else: no Supabase CLI, no Docker, no clone.

2. Install

One command. It asks for the rest as it goes.

npx ekwo-os init --country PA

One chart of accounts: Catálogo de cuentas propio, organizado sobre la NIIF para las PYMES, 152 accounts.
The accounts are kept in es.
The Declaración Jurada del Impuesto de Transferencia de Bienes Corporales Muebles y la Prestación de Servicios (Formulario 430) is filed on one of these cadences: month, quarter. The default is month. Pass --vat-period <cadence> to set yours.
A financial year follows the calendar unless you pass --fiscal-year-start YYYY-MM-DD.

The same, with no question asked — every value your own:

npx ekwo-os init \
  --country PA \
  --db-url "postgresql://postgres.<ref>:<password>@<pooler host>:5432/postgres" \
  --supabase-url "https://<ref>.supabase.co" \
  --service-role-key "$SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY" \
  --org "Your Organisation" --company "Your Company" \
  --admin-email "you@example.com" \
  --yes

3. Before you go live

Four settings of your project no installer can reach: turn off self sign-up, keep two administrators, keep the service_role key off every other machine, and read the disclaimer. init prints them; the installation guide explains each.

4. A first invoice

Sign in as the administrator you just created, pick the company, and write a draft. --dry-run shows what the database would write, and writes nothing; post records it.

ekwo login --supabase-url https://<ref>.supabase.co --anon-key <publishable key> --email you@example.com
ekwo use "Your Company"
ekwo contact add "First Customer" --country PA --ref customer-1
ekwo doc new --contact "First Customer" --ref invoice-1 --line "name=Consulting,price=1000.00,account=410501,tax=PA-S-7"
ekwo post invoice-1 --dry-run
ekwo post invoice-1

A line names its account and its tax by code, never by rate. 410501 is the account the pack names for sales; the chart may carry a closer one for what you sell — services, a reduced rate — and list_accounts lists them.

What the invoice says about your company — its address, its VAT number — comes from the company’s profile, which the MCP tool update_company_profile fills; ekwo init sets only the name.

The domestic sale taxes the pack carries today. Which one a sale carries is a question about that sale, for you or your accountant: the list is the pack’s, not advice.

Tax code	Name	Rate
`PA-S-7`	Operaciones gravadas a la tarifa general del 7 %	7 %
`PA-S-10-ALC`	Operaciones gravadas a la tarifa del 10 % — bebidas alcohólicas	10 %
`PA-S-10-HOSP`	Operaciones gravadas a la tarifa del 10 % — hospedaje	10 %
`PA-S-15-TAB`	Operaciones gravadas a la tarifa del 15 % — tabaco	15 %

5. With an AI agent

The MCP server lets an agent act as you, under your own row level security, and never with the service_role key. Configuring it, and what an agent must and must not do.

What the Panamá pack carries

Charts of accounts: Catálogo de cuentas propio, organizado sobre la NIIF para las PYMES (152).
13 taxes, at 0 %, 7 %, 10 %, 15 %.
The Declaración Jurada del Impuesto de Transferencia de Bienes Corporales Muebles y la Prestación de Servicios (Formulario 430) (PA-DGI-430), 29 boxes, filed month, quarter.
Financial statements: Estado de situación financiera, Estado de resultado integral.

What it does not do

No library of this repository writes the file of the PA-DGI-430 yet: the return is computed and frozen here, and typed on the administration’s portal.
Nothing is sent to an administration, a Peppol network or a bank by the open source software: transmission is yours, or an operator’s you appoint.
What the pack leaves out on purpose is in its README.

Set up Ekwo for Panamá

Create your Ekwo Cloud account

Run it yourself

Step by step