A chart of accounts is among the first things you set up when beginning to use a new accounting system, and it is often an involved task, depending upon several factors, including the size and type of your business. However, once it is set up, it rarely if ever changes. To help you get started, we include a default chart of accounts that you can easily modify to fit your requirements.
Contact Suntower Systems about our G/L Accounts conversion service. We can convert your existing paper chart of accounts, and many computer lists to our format for a nominal fee.
You can access the Chart of Accounts Browse from either the FILES or the G/L Main Menu.
Special Buttons
[Print] |
Print a master list of the chart of accounts. |
[Audit Trail] |
View or Print a complete list of all G/L activity for the selected account. |
[Find]  |
Locate any account using the Find Button. |
Although you may feel daunted when first approaching this task, it really is not difficult to customize your chart of accounts. Here are some suggestions to get started:
- Study the included chart of accounts to get a feel for these concepts before making changes to your chart.
- Do not immediately add or delete accounts from this screen or change their attributes. Simply change the names to fit your needs as closely as possible before altering the position of any accounts. Once you have entered your own names, then start to reorganize the positions of your accounts.
- To add other accounts, select an account which is similar to the one you wish to add and then press the [Change] button as if you were going to edit it. Then press the [Clone], changing only these three fields:
- DESCRIPTION
- ACCOUNT ID
- VERTICAL POSITION
To move an account up and down within its group, change the value of the VERTICAL POSITION field.
To move an account left or right, change the value of the HORIZONTAL POSITION field.
Remember that you cannot delete an account which is a parent to other children.
If you alter a parent account, its children take on the new attributes of the parent.
Viewing the Chart from the Position tab will show you exactly what order (Vertical Position), and with what indentation (Horizontal Position) all your Financial Reports will print.
And finally, take heart that once it is done, it is really done. You will rarely adjust your chart of accounts once it is set up, unless you need to change the presentation of your financial statements. Properly setting up this layout will automatically insure that all financial statements will be calculated and display correctly according to G.A.A.P guidelines.
