Managing General Ledger Accounts

General ledger (GL) accounts are used to set up products and product categories within Aptify so that an organization may export payment and order information for use in any external accounting package. Setting up products and product categories within Aptify requires GL accounts, as these drive which general ledger account entries are created for credits, debits, deferred income, and so on.

The management of GL accounts is described in the following sub-topics:

• Adding a General Ledger Account
• Adding GL Accounts at the Organization Level

Adding a General Ledger Account

Aptify follows standard accounting practices for setting up general ledger (GL) accounts. During initial implementation, an organization either manually enters the chart of accounts from the general ledger system or imports them automatically using a conversion tool. In Aptify, the Chart of Accounts is referred to as the GL Accounts service. This service tracks an organization's set of GL account codes, which the system automatically debits or credits when generating GL entries.

 

The diagram above illustrates some of the services that use GL accounts. Any service that deals with a financial transaction, such as Orders, Payments, Products, and Sales Tax Rate, can be assigned one or more GL Accounts.

Typically, an organization creates GL accounts records during the implementation process automatically using a conversion tool or manually as described below. As new accounts are added, an administrator or a member of the accounting staff can follow these steps to add a new GL account to Aptify:

1. Open a new record from the GL Accounts service.
   • By default, the GL Accounts service is located in the Accounting application.
2. Enter the account's code in the Account Number field.
   • This is a unique character value that contains the complete GL code (base code plus any additional segments defined for division, department, project, and so on). The General Ledger segments for the currency types are defined in the Currency Types record.
      
3. Enter a Name and Description for the GL Account.
4. Select the account type: Debit or Credit.
   • Consult with your organization's accounting department if you need assistance determining the account type. Also, see About the Debit and Credit Account Types for more information. 
5. If you want this GL Account to be applicable to a specific organization, enter the organization in the Organization field. This field links to the Organizations service.
6. Confirm that the Active option is selected. The system only uses Active GL accounts. If you want to temporarily disable a GL Account, clear the Active option.
7. Select the Default A/R Account option if you want to designate this account as the default Accounts Receivable (A/R) account.
   • Each system can have only one default A/R Account. The default A/R account is used for any product, tax, or shipping charge that does not specify an A/R account. 
8. Enter a currency in the Currency Type field.
   • This is the currency in which you expect this GL account to be typically expressed. Note that this option does not limit a particular account to a single Currency Type. Generally, this currency matches the specified organization's Functional Currency.  
     
     
9. Save the record.

Adding GL Accounts at the Organization Level

Aptify supports the use of default general ledger (GL) accounts at the Organization level that can automatically be applied to Products linked to that Organization. (Each product can be assigned to a particular organization by filling in the Organization link box on the Products form's Details > General tab. See Creating a Basic Products Record for details.

When an Organization has one or more GL Accounts defined, Aptify will use these GL Accounts when generating General Ledger entries for a Product linked to the Organization if the Product does not have a particular GL Account of its own already specified. Also, if an Organization has a default Sales account defined, a user can create new Products linked to that Organization without having to specify a Sales account before saving the record.

Follow these steps to add default GL Accounts for an Organization:

1. Open the appropriate record in the Organizations service.
2. Click the Accounting > GL Accounts sub-tab.  
   
   
3. Click the New icon to open a new GL Accounts sub-type record.
4. In the GL Order Level field, enter the GL order level for this account.
   • By specifying an order level, you can associate a set of GL accounts that should be used for a particular group of customers. 
5. In the Type field, select the GL account type from the list.
   • Standard types include Sales, Account Receivable, and Deferred Income.
   • See Determining GL Accounts for Order, Payment, and Scheduled Transactions for a list of standard types. 
6. Enter a GL Account name in the field by doing one of the following:
   • Enter the name or the first few letters of the name of the GL Account and hit enter on your keyboard to complete the name.
   • Use the Search function to locate the GL Account
   • Create a new GL Account by clicking the GL Account field name.
   • This field displays the records stored in the GL Accounts service.
     
     
7. Click OK to save and close the new GL Accounts record.
8. Repeat the process as necessary to define more GL Accounts as shown in the figure below.
   
    

Related topic

Understanding GL Accounts in Aptify