Defining a chart of accounts

A chart of accounts is a group of balance sheet and income statement accounts used to post journal entries and summarize general ledger information for reports and inquiries. You must define a chart of accounts before defining a general ledger company. This procedure describes the process for defining a chart of accounts.

Before defining your chart of accounts, you must plan out your chart of accounts and company structure on paper. The decisions you make regarding your company structure can impact the number of charts that you want to define. See Defining a company.

Procedure flow: defining a chart of accounts
  1. Access Chart of Accounts (GL00.1).
    Note: To interface a chart of accounts from a non-Lawson system, use Chart of Accounts Interface (GL160).

    See Interfacing data into General Ledger.

  2. Click New Chart to accessDefine Chart Name (GL00.2).
  3. Assign a name and description to the chart. Use these guidelines to specify the field values:
    Analysis Group

    If you use the Strategic Ledger application, then you can assign a user analysis group to the chart. A user analysis group is a combination of user analyses, which are categories of information used to classify transactions. The analysis group determines which user analyses will be associated with transactions entered for this chart.

    Note: You must complete the succeeding step, defining summary accounts, for both the balance sheet and income statement section. Use the Insert special action to add one to nine blank lines on the form.
  4. Define summary accounts for the balance sheet or income statement section of the chart using these guidelines:
    Section

    The chart of accounts is divided into two sections: balance sheet and income statement. Select the section for which you want to define accounts.

    Summary Account (Sum Account)

    Specify a name or number that identifies the summary account. A summary account is the highest account level, and is used for headings and totals.

    You can rename a summary account. See Renaming a Summary Account.

    Depth (1 - 9)

    You must assign a depth level to each summary account to create totals and subtotals. The application accumulates a total for a specific depth until it finds another account with the same depth or less. Then it produces a total above the account with the same depth or less. For example, each account assigned a depth of 2 totals to the previous account assigned a depth of 1. Use a depth of 1 for grand totals.

    Note: An asterisk displays next to the More button on GL00.1 if options or restrictions are defined for a summary account.
  5. To define summary account options, click More on GL00.1 to access Summary Account Options (GL00.5). Specify any of the these summary account options.
    If you want to Then
    Specify or assign user analysis values on transactions for detail accounts below this summary account Select Yes in the Strategic Ledger field.

    Associate a user analysis relation with the account, which defines the user analysis value combinations allowed on the transaction

    Note: An example of a user analysis relation is defining user analyses for product and size and allowing shoes (a product) to only be combined with values of 1 to 12 (sizes).
    		Select a value in the Relation field.
    Automatically assign accounts to an accounting unit rather than manually assigning accounts during setup or each time you add accounts to your chart Select an attribute list in the Dynamic Generation List field. The system creates accounts based on rules you define in List (MX10.1). See Dynamic account generation.

    Assign a default activity account category to the detail account

    Note: An example of this is an account category of labor expense for the salary expense accounts. The labor expense account category would default on all salary expense transactions you enter.
    		Select an account category in the Activity Account Category field. You must set up account categories in the Project Accounting application.
    Assign a specific General Ledger account or range of accounts to an account category Use Account Assignment (AC07.1) to indicate which accounts a transaction can be entered for.
    Be able to view transactions on a daily basis in Daily Transaction Analysis (GL43.1) Select Yes in the Account Daily Balance field.
    Assign the Ledger Group associated with the Summary Account for use with Multi-Book Ledger. Specify or select the Ledger Group in the Ledger Group field.
    Restrict access to summary accounts by system, such as allowing only Accounts Payable to access liability accounts Select Yes and click the Systems button to select the system codes in which the summary account can be used.
    Be able to edit defined budgets for the Summary Account. Use the Commitment form tab to flag the Summary Account for Budget Edit.
    Define formatting options for the standard financial reports: Trial Balance (GL291), Balance Sheet (GL292), Income Statement (GL293), and Report Writer style one reports using a chart. Use the Financial Statement form tab to define summary account report features.
    Identify how the OLAP environment displays and treats amounts for the summary account; define the account type for use with the Corporate Performance Management Connector; enter the XBRL tag value for listing on standard financial reports: Trial Balance (GL291), Balance Sheet (GL292), and Income Statement (GL293). Use the Reporting tab to define the values for Data Mart reporting, account rules for integrating with CPM, and XBRL tag values for use with XBRL reporting.
    Be able to edit defined budgets for the Summary Account. Use the Commitment form tab to flag the Summary Account for Budget Edit.
  6. If you use attributes, then click Attributes to assign attributes to a summary account. See Using Attribute Matrix attributes.
  7. Click Accounts on GL00.1 to access Detail Accounts (GL00.3).
    Note: The system automatically sequences detail accounts in order when you add or change accounts. You can add detail accounts at any time during the life cycle of your organization.

    You must complete the following step, defining detail accounts, in both the balance sheet and income statement section of the chart of accounts. Note, however, that not all summary accounts will have detail accounts. For example, some summary accounts might only be used to produce headings and totals on reports.

  8. Specify the detail accounts using these guidelines:
    Account, Subaccount

    You can use up to six numeric digits to define a detail account and up to four digits to define a subaccount.

    To apply the same group of subaccounts to several accounts, you can use a subaccount template. See Assigning subaccounts with a template.

    Status (Stat)

    Select whether the account is active or inactive. You cannot post to inactive accounts, but they are included on reports and inquiries.

    Interface Posting (Intf Post)

    This is one of the fields used to determine if subsystem transactions are posted to the general ledger in summary or detail. The default for this field is Summary. See Indicating Whether Postings Are to Be in Summary or Detail.

    Allow Units

    Select whether units are allowed for the account. If you do not allow units, then you can only post dollar amounts to this account. You also have the option to require units.

    Require Activity (Act)

    Select whether the activity fields on a transaction are required for the account. You can select Yes to require an activity, leave it blank to not allow an activity on a transaction, or No to not require an activity.

    Strategic Ledger (SL)

    Select whether you can specify user analysis values on transactions for this detail account.

  9. To assign optional processing parameters for detail accounts, click More on GL00.3 to access Account Information (GL00.4) and specify these detail account options.
    If you want to Then
    Assign parameters such as a relation, a dynamic generation list, an activity account category, a daily balance flag, ledger group, or system restrictions. Select parameters in the appropriate field. If you select a value for a detail account that is different than the value for the summary account, then the detail account parameter overrides the summary account selection. See step five of this procedure for more details.
    Be able to edit defined budgets for the Summary Account Use the Commitment tab to flag the Summary Account for Budget Edit.
    Define currency information for the account. Use the Currency form tab to define currency information for the account, including an account currency code, currency control, translation code, and whether to revalue nonbase transaction amounts.
    Define formatting options for account balances. Use the Financial Statement form tab to define how lines should be spaced and how negative values should display.
    Identify how the OLAP environment displays and treats amounts for the summary account; define the account type for use with the Corporate Performance Management Connector; enter the XBRL tag value for listing on standard financial reports: Trial Balance (GL291), Balance Sheet (GL292), and Income Statement (GL293). Use the Reporting tab to define the values for Data Mart reporting, account rules for integrating with CPM, and XBRL tag values for use with XBRL reporting.
    Be able to edit defined budgets for the Detail Account. Use the Commitment form tab to flag the Detail Account for Budget Edit.
  10. If you use attributes, then click Attributesto assign attributes to a detail account. See Using Attribute Matrix attributes.
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