To view the chart of accounts, navigate to [d] General Ledger, then [a] Account Entry.
The list shows all the general ledger accounts, their type, and outstanding balance. This list is often referred to as the Chart of Accounts.
Shared Accounts
If your company comprises many subsidiary companies, you’ll want to standardize your accounts across your companies. You can select this option when you set up each company. A standardized general ledger is based on a set of shared accounts. Each company will only use accounts from the set of shared accounts, they won’t be able to create any non-standard accounts.
If you choose to use a standard set of accounts, new accounts will have to be added as shared accounts before you add them to your companies. To modify the shared set of accounts navigate to [d] General Ledger, then [u] Set Up, then [e] Shared Account Entry.
Abio displays a list of shared accounts.
To add or change an account, click on the Details tab. There are several actions available.
Shared Accounts Actions
Inquire
Inquire lets you view but not change a shared account.
Add
Add a new shared account.
Change
Change a shared account.
Delete
If none of the current books reference an account, then you can delete it.
Print, email, or export a shared report to excel.
Renumber
Change the account number. Renumber will propagate across all books where the account is referenced.
Unaudited Change
This action lets you set the shared account as a control account. Normally accounts have to be referenced as control accounts for this flag to be set.
Shared Account Fields
Account
The first two characters of the account is a valid statement group. The next four characters identify the account uniquely.
Active?
Only active accounts can be added to a set of books.
Description
Describe what the account is tracking.
Department
You can assign a shared account to a department. Then, you can select a department when requesting reports.
Training?
Payable invoices can be directed towards an employee’s training when this flag is set.
Restricted?
Restricted accounts can only be viewed by employees with permission to view restricted data.
Include in New Books?
When you add a new set of books, you can choose to copy the accounts for the company you’re currently working in, or to just copy the standard set of accounts. Accounts will only be copied to a new set of books when this flag is set to ‘Y’.
Control Account?
Is this account referenced as a control account? If it is, then this flag will be set to ‘Y’. You indirectly change this setting when you add or remove this account as a control account. Or, you can use the unaudited change action.
Control accounts are reserved for the automatic general ledger updates that occur throughout Abio. For that reason, users aren’t normally allowed to post timesheets, invoices, etc. directly to control accounts. That has the potential to ‘pollute the waters’.
Example 1: An account is intended for CPP Payable and an invoice for equipment rental is posted to it. Before the invoice was posted, you knew that the balance of that account was exactly how much you owed in CPP. Now it’s no longer clear and you need to determine CPP owing another way.
To prevent this from happening, only more advanced users are permitted to post to control accounts.
Accounts and Divisions
Large companies can be organized into different divisions.
Example 2: The Maintenance, Construction and Landscaping divisions all operate separately. Some accounts, such as Accounts Receivable are common to all three divisions. Other accounts, such as Engineering are only applicable to your Landscaping and Construction divisions.
If this is the case for your company, you can further organize your company by setting which divisions can post to which accounts. To set that up, click on the Account-Div tab and select the Change action. The demonstration company only has three divisions set up.
Mapping accounts and divisions can be done either on this screen, by selecting which divisions each account can be mapped to. Or, you can do the reverse from the divison entry screen. In that case you’ll select a set of accounts for each division. The latter will always be more efficient, as there’s fewer divisions than there are accounts.
Accounts and Books
The next step is to let Abio know which books are allowed to share this account.
Example 3: Your equipment company manages the purchase, maintenance, and depreciation of all your equipment. The equipment depreciation should only happen in this company, so the equipment depreciation general ledger account is only assigned to the equipment company.
Click on the Account-Book tab and select the Change action.
This account is only appropriate for BuilDomo and West Side Contractors, so we’ll just select those two sets of books.
Now, when we want to add this new account to BuilDomo, we’ll be able to select it from a list. We’ll navigate back [d] General Ledger, then [a] G/L Account Entry screen, and click on the New Acct screen.
We can select account 111919 and add it to our chart of accounts.
G/L Account Entry
We’ve seen how to add a new G/L account to a standard general ledger. If we’re in a set of books with a non-standard general ledger, we can just use the add action to add a new account. Our equipment company is non-standard.
There’s no New Acct tab like there was for our companies with standardized general ledgers.
We can still add the G/L account we added to BuilDomo, we just have to do it manually.
Abio picks up the description from the shared account we created. We can also make up an account on the fly.
So, if you need it, you have complete control over the accounts that can bee added to any set of books. Or, you can have a more relaxed approach.
Account Entry Actions
Clicking on the action field displays a list of actions for this screen.
Inquire
The inquire action allows you to view, but not change, an account.
Add
Add a new account. If you are working in a set of books with a standardized general ledger, first the account must have been set up as a shared account. Next, it has to be assigned to this set of books. Then you’ll be able to add it.
Budget Entry
At the beginning of a fiscal year, you can set budgets for your revenue and expense accounts. These are particularly useful in the Income Statement, as that report shows both the actual costs and the budgeted costs. If you are planning for the future, and you haven’t run a year-end, there won’t be a set of account records for the coming year. Abio doesn’t know if you’re planning for the future or just adjusting the budget for the current year, so it will prompt you.
Budgets are only relevant to revenues and expenses. Balance sheet accounts represent assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity, so the budget fields don’t display for those accounts. The Budget action allows you to enter budget amounts.
Change
The change action lets you change the active flag, the access to restricted data, and the predict type.
Delete
You can delete accounts that don’t have invoices, purchase orders, requisitions, or timesheets posted to them.
History
This moves an account to history. Invoices, purchase orders, requisitions and timesheets won’t be able to post to them.
Renumber
Renumber will allow you to change the account number and propagate the change to any invoices, purchase orders, requisitions, or timesheets that are posted to the account.
You can print, email, or export this account to an excel spreadsheet.
Unaudited Change
You can change the account balances with this action. Only system administrators should use this action, as it can cause the general ledger to go out of balance.
Account Entry Fields
G/L Account
The first two characters must be a valid statement group. The last four characters uniquely identify this account.
Active?
Active accounts can be posted to.
Description
The type of activity tracked by this account.
Predict Type
The Job Revenue Analysis report uses this setting to determine how to report this account.
Restricted Access?
Does this account contain sensitive information? Perhaps it tracks owner’s equity. If you want only trusted employees to view and change this account, set this flag to ‘Y’es.
Year Opening
Balance sheet accounts will have their previous years rolled into the next year’s opening balance. Revenue and expense accounts will have their balances rolled into the retained earnings account.
G/L Period Balances
These numbers represent the financial activity for this account in this period. Clicking on the hotlink displays the G/L transactions that have been posted to that account.
G/L Period Budget
You can enter budget amounts using the ‘B’udget entry action. These are for reporting purposes.