General Ledger Codes
This utility is used to add, edit and delete general ledger account codes. Click add to add new accounts and use the scroll bar to move in alphabetical sequence through existing account codes. Click edit to edit them, delete to delete them, find to find them and leave to leave this area.
Account Code
Up to 14 characters in length, account codes must be unique and they must begin with a letter or number. Punctuation symbols such as dots and dashes may form part of the code (except for the question mark symbol), after the first character.
Account codes can be changed at any time, but it is recommended that once an account holds a balance, it should be kept until the end of the financial year. Changing account codes that have had journals posted to them may invalidate prior financial reports and/or require you to modify existing reports. Changing the account code will not alter the audit trail history report which will make reference to the original account code.
Consult the topic: Account
Codes for a discussion on the issues involved in entering a sensible, correctly numbered set of account
codes.
Account Name
A description of the account, up to 44 characters in length.
Account Type
The account type. Accounts are divided into the following types.
Quick Code
QuickCodes are alternate codes you may create and associate with your chart of accounts to make journal entries easier to enter, or act as a cross-reference against another code, such as the code used by your accountant. For example, if your freight code is 20520-25-1, you can assign a short-cut such as 'FREIGHT' or 'FR' or 'FR1' or other 'quick' names to that general ledger code. QuickCodes may be up to 30 characters long.
During journal entry CAPITAL GL Controller will attempt to match your QuickCode against a chart of accounts code but only if the code you enter does not match an existing chart code. If found, it will replace your QuickCode with the actual chart code automatically.
Chart Type
You must classify your chart of account codes into various types. Each type is described below.
Posting
Posting accounts are the regular 'backbone' of a chart of accounts. They hold the various balances that make up the revenue, expense, asset and liabilities accounts of the general ledger.
Total
Reserved for future use, total accounts presently serve the same purpose as heading accounts.
Control
Control accounts are similar to regular posting accounts. However, in an integrated system running CAPITAL Office, they serve the purpose of preventing users allocating amounts directly to these accounts. In CAPITAL GL Controller there is no functional difference between a posting and control account. Yet in CAPITAL Office it can be useful to prevent users from directly entering adjustments or other entries against, for example, the debtors account. If the debtor account needed to be increased or decreased then this should be done (under almost all circumstances) by raising an invoice, entering a payment or issuing a credit note. This has the effect of adjusting the debtor balance automatically. Direct manipulation of the debtor account balance should be superfluous and assigning the account a control type prevents CAPITAL Office users from doing so. (allowing users to edit such accounts directly can make reconciliation of your records extremely difficult.)
Bank
Assign this account type to your bank account or accounts. CAPITAL GL Controller makes no functional distinction between bank and regular posting accounts. This classification has been included for future use.
Opening stock
For opening stock accounts. Assign your opening stock account this account type. If CAPITAL Office directly updates cost of sales then you may not have this account in your chart and no assignment is necessary. If your opening stock account is not correctly assigned to this type, the end of year roll-over may miscalculate your retained earnings opening balance for the new year.
Closing stock
For closing stock accounts. Assign your closing stock account this account type. If CAPITAL Office directly updates cost of sales then you may not have this account in your chart. If your closing stock account is not correctly assigned to this type, the end of year roll-over may miscalculate your retained earnings opening balance for the new year.
Heading
This account type is used for descriptive purposes only. Heading accounts cannot hold balances. Strategically placed heading accounts at the start of the various sections of your chart of accounts can make your chart easier to read when printing standard reports. Since financial reports can be fully customised, heading accounts are not necessary in order to produce readable financial statements.
A
transaction may be changed to any other account type until the account is issued a balance. Once an account
has a balance the account type can only be changed to one of similar type. For example, posting, bank,
control, opening stock and closing stock all hold balances and thus are of similar type. They cannot then
be changed to non balance holding accounts, such as heading or total.
Classification
The category of the account code is specified here. For example, 'income', 'expense', 'fixed asset' and so on.
Posting
Select whether the account is a debit or credit type.
Clear Year End
This setting is used by the end of year roll-over process in determining how to handle the account. Normally, balance sheet accounts retain their balances at the end of the financial year and these are carried into period 1 of the new year. For example, the balance in your bank account or your inventory remains the same as of the last 'moment' of trading of the last year and the first 'moment' of trading of the new. Profit and loss accounts such as sales and expenses normally clear to zero for the beginning of a new year. Enter yes to clear the account at the start of the year or no to hold the balance and carry it forward.
The
end of year roll-over process uses the end of year setting in determining the retained earnings total
that should be carried forward into the new year.
Lock (Inactivate)
The lock setting is used to trap further postings to a superseded account. If you wish to prevent further postings to an account code set the lock to yes. CAPITAL GL Controller will refuse to post batches that contain journals that make reference to locked accounts. If you are using CAPITAL Office, be sure to also set the account type to "control" in general ledger codes and remove any references to the account in general ledger sets.
Comment
A brief comment relating to the account code may be entered here.
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