GL Account Setup - Account field descriptions

The fields are listed alphabetically within each of these sections:

• General
• Period Balances

General

Account Type

Each account must be defined as one of these types: Asset, Liability, Income, Expense, and Clearing.

Clearing accounts are primarily used for year-end profit distribution and suspense accounts. These types of accounts do not normally carry a balance.

Note: Based on this setting, each account type is processed differently by the GL Administrator Year End Report.

If the account type is changed on an existing account, a SA Change Balance Setup record is created to note the effect for balancing against the account. A maintenance section in SA Balance Maintenance Report shows all creations, deletions, and modifications to the system setup records.

Balance Type

This field indicates whether an account normally carries a debit or credit balance. Debit balances are stored as positive amounts. Credit balances are stored as negative amounts.

This table shows the balance type for each account type.

Account Type	Balance Type
Assets	Debit balance
Liabilities	Credit balance
Income	Credit balance
Expenses	Debit balance
Revenue	Credit balance
Clearing Account	Credit balance
Suspense Accounts	Debit or Credit balance

This table shows General Ledger Account code examples.

Account Code: 89-10-0-2000-000	Account Code: 89-10-3000-010
Account Title: Accounts Payable	Account Title: Appl. Sales
Account Type: Liability	Account Type: Income
Normal Balance: Credit	Normal Balance: Credit

Forward Balance

The forward balance is the balance carried forward from last year. This field is used only for balance sheet accounts. Only this balance is specified during initial setup. All other balances must be posted in GL Transaction Entry. Specify the account's year-to-date (YTD) balance sheet ending balance from last year. After your chart of accounts is set up, this balance is updated automatically at the end of the year when you perform year-end processing.

Key Words

Specify keywords to associate with this account. You can use keywords, instead of the account name or number, to search for the account based on keywords.

Lookup Name

The lookup name is generally used instead of the account title throughout General Ledger. It is used on reports and to access GL Account Inquiry.

If the title is changed, the lookup name does not automatically take on the new title. It must be manually changed to match the title.

Manual Posting

Manual posting specifies an account as a control account and prevents manual posting to these accounts in GL Transaction Entry. This option is selected by default. If this option is not selected, the GL account number should not be posted to manually in GL Transaction Entry. Obtain authorization from a supervisor with grant authority to override this option if it has been cleared.

If you clear this option and the GL Distribution does not balance, an authorization number is required before you can specify this GL account number on the GL Distribution window. If this option is selected and the GL distribution does not balance, you can specify this account number on the GL Distribution window without entering an authorization number.

Note: This field does not prevent posting in GL Transaction Entry. Access to GL Transaction Entry must be secured in SA Operator Setup-Function Security.

Print Type

General Ledger accounts can print in detail or summary on reports depending on what you select here. If you select Detail, the account prints a transaction line for each journal entry. If you select Summary, the account summarizes all journal entries and prints one transaction line.

This option is used by the GL Transaction Activity Report and all user-designed financial statements that are created in GL Financial Statement Setup.

Report Group

Report groups are defined in SA Table Code Value Setup. This value is used by the GL Daily Change Report. The GL Transaction Entry history for each account code in each report group is tabulated and printed as one report group total when you assign a specific report group to account codes and then run GL Daily Change Report to view the daily changes that have occurred to these accounts.

Title

Specify the title description for the account. This description is displayed on reports, such as Cash, Accounts Payable, or Cost of Goods Sold.

Period Balances

If you use a 12-period fiscal year, the calendar months are displayed, starting with the beginning fiscal period. If you use a 13-period fiscal year, Period 1 through Period 13 is displayed in the Period column.

The balances in the Amount Posted column fields are updated through GL Transaction Entry and other updating functions. These amounts reflect the balance for only that period. It is not an accumulative balance from all previous periods.

The YTD balance is displayed in GL Account Inquiry under the last Period Amount field after the amounts have been posted. This amount reflects the balance as of the last period entered.