21st Century Accounting Help - General Ledger

Configuring your Chart of Accounts

The General Ledger/Configure/Chart of Accounts window lets you add, delete, review, and edit general ledger accounts. The Chart of Accounts (COA) contains the accounts that make up the general ledger.

Setting up a New COA

When you create a new company, you can select a model company upon which to base your own Chart of Accounts or you can create an "empty" company and set up the COA from scratch.

If you decide to use one of the model companies, use the Chart of Accounts window to customize the chart according to your company's needs (adding and deleting accounts and changing account names and numbers as necessary).

If you choose when you create a company to enter your Chart of Accounts from scratch, you enter the accounts in the General Ledger/Configure/Chart of Accounts window.

The system automatically creates the three accounts required by 21st Century Accounting for retained earngins, income transfer, and deposit clearing whether you use a model company or an "empty" company.

Required Accounts

Your general ledger must include the following accoutns for the system to work correctly. The first three (owner's equity, income transfer, and deposit clearing) are created automatically when you convert data from another accounting system, base a created company on a model company, or create a new Chart of Accounts from Scratch.

Owner's Equity Account. The owner's equity (retained earnings) account is the balance sheet account to which the system posts net income or loss. If you use one of the default chargs of accounts, the system provides this account for you. In the default Chart of Accounts called US Sample Data COA, this account is Retained Earnings.
Income Transfer Account. The accounting applications require one account to keep financial reports in balance and up-to-date. The system uses the Income Transfer account you assign to balance income or loss amounts posted to the owner's eequity account. This account reflects the fiscal year-to-date amount of income or loss posted to the owner's equity account.
Deposit Clearing Account. In 21st Century Accounting Deposits, the deposit clearing account is required to accumulate all receipt transactions into a single deposit transaction to the receiving bank account.
Control Accounts. A control account contains balancing entries for all transactions of a certain type. In Receivables, for example, the Receivables control account contains the sum of the balances in all the customer accounts. In Payables, the Payables control account contains the sum of the balances in all the vendor accounts. Examples of control accounts in the US sample data, Netcon, are Accounts Receivable - Trade and Accounts Payable -Trade.
Special-Use Accounts. You may need certain accounts for special uses. You ususally set up special-use accounts with the company configuration commands. If you are using US or Canadian Payroll you need an account for each payroll deducation. If you are using the Receivables application and your company collects a sales tax or gives a discount on sales, you need corresponding accounts. You can add special-use accounts as you need them (that is, when you begin to use an application that requires them). Examples of special-use accounts in the US sample data, Netcon, are Sales Tax Payable and Sales Discounts.

Adding, Changing, and Deleting Accounts

You can add a general ledger account at any time. Also, after you set up the Chart of Accounts, you can change account names and IDs whenever you like.

You cannot delete an account with a nonzero balance. First you must empty the account by using a General Journal entry to move the balance to another account. You cannot delete a required account without first specifying a replacement account for the required account in the company configuration. Then transfer any balance from the required account to its replacement account.

Right-click Menu

Right-click the mouse anywhere in the COA workspace to display a menu of tools for editing the COA. Highlight an account and right-click to see and select tools that apply to that account.

Buttons

Show All. Expands the categories initially displayed in the COA workspace to show all accounts under all categories. To expand a single category, click the plus sign to the left of the category, double-click the category, or press the Right Arrow key.
Hide All. Contracts the display so that only the categories are displayed. To contract a single category, click the minus sign to the left of the category, or press the Left Arrow key.
Print. Prints the Chart of Accounts.
Delete. Deletes the highlighted Accounts.
Edit Structure. Opens a window where you can customize the default account structure or change the account structure if your company requirements change - say, for example, you open a branch store and want to add a location segment for tracking transactions related to that location.

Select a topic:

Configure G/L Account Segment Names
Replicate Selected Accounts with New Segment Values
Creating a New Company with an Existing Company's COA