21st Century Accounting Help - Bank Accounts

Bank Accounts and the General Ledger

Several G/L accounts play a special role in bank account transactions.

G/L Bank Accounts

Each bank account defined in 21st Century Accounting is associated with a specific G/L asset account. You can associate one or multiple bank accounts with a single G/L account, although for bank reconciliation, you will find it more efficient to assign a single bank account to each G/L account.

21st Century Accounting expects all transaction entered to general ledger accounts that you have defined to be bank transactions that show up on your bank statement. All 21st Century Accounting transactions that affect a bank account are displayed when you reconcile the account in Bank Accounts/Reconciliation.

Deposit Clearing Account

You specify a deposit clearing account as part of the company configuration. The system uses this account to combine multiple receipts in a deposit batch into a single deposit transaction.

When you enter deposits, the system debits the clearing account by the amount of each receipt posted for a batch and credits the account (and debits the specified bank account) by the total deposit (batch) amount. The account thus maintains a balance of zero at all times.

Note: Receivables credit card transactions entered in Sales/Invoices (unlike cash or check transactions) do not require a deposit, so they don't use the deposit clearing account. Credit card payments that you enter in Sales/Invoices are posted directly to the general ledger account that you specify when you configure the credit card account.

Recievables Control and Discount Accounts

When you enter a Receivables customer receipt with the Deposits command, the system automatically credits the Receivables control account and the customer account for the amount of each receipt plus any discounts taken, and debits the Receivables discount account for the discounts taken. The system debits the deposits clearing account for the amount of each receipt, and then credits the clearing account and debits the bank account for the deposit (batch) total.

Cash Payment Account

When you configure control accounts for Receivables, you indicate a cash receipts account to use for occasional (walk-in) sales.

Cash and checks that you enter as cash/check payment types in Sales/Invoices - from walk-in customers and regular receivables customers paying in cash, for example - are posted to the indicated Receivables control account for cash receipts when you post the invoice batch. When you are ready to deposit cash payments for invoiced sales, you can record the cash as an "Other" receipt type in the Bank Accounts/Deposits window, or you can create a customized cash invoice payments journal that displays the appropriate Receivables cash receipts control account to credit.