# Setting Up, Editing & Working with Accounts

This section describes the process of setting up, editing and working with &app; Accounts. In &app; an Account is used as the basic tool to organize the recording of where money comes from and goes to. &app; also extends the concept of real world accounts such as a bank account or loan account to grouping income and expense accounts. This allows you to quickly see where you spent your money and what your major income and expenses are. &app; sets Account Types (as described in the next section) to help in organizing and grouping accounts. Account Types can be used to create a Chart of Accounts.

## Types of &app; Accounts

&app; supports a number of different account types. It is recommended to choose an appropriate account type based on the list of account types described below.

The Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable types are used internally by &app;’s business features. Transactions involving these accounts should not be added, changed or deleted in any way other than by using

- post/unpost bill/invoice/voucher or

- process payment

Types of &app; Accounts.

Account Type | Description
--- | ---
Accounts Payable | Accounts Payable are used by businesses to record amounts that must be paid. Example: The business has bought something, but the business has not paid the bill until later.
Accounts Receivable | Accounts Receivable records amounts for which money has not yet been received. Example: A business has sold something and issued a bill, but the client has not payed until later.
Asset | Asset accounts are used for tracking things that are of value and can be used or sold to pay debts. (Normally a placeholder account)
Bank | The Bank account type denotes savings or checking accounts held at a bank or other financial institution. Some of these accounts may bear interest. This is also the appropriate account type for check (debit) cards, which directly withdraw payments from a checking account.
Cash | The Cash account type is used to denote the cash that you store in your wallet, shoe box, piggyback, or mattress.
Credit Card | The Credit Card account type is used to denote credit card accounts, both for cards that allow floating lines of credit (e.g. VISA, MasterCard, or Discover) and with cards that do not permit continuing balances (e.g. American Express)
Currency | Currency Accounts were used for trading currencies, but have been replaced by the Currency Transfer pane on the Transfer Funds Window ().
Equity | Equity accounts are used to store the opening balances when you first start using &app; or start a new accounting period.
Expense | Any expense such as food, clothing, taxes, etc. This type is called a category in Quicken.
Income | Any income received from sources such as salary, interest, dividends, etc. This type is called a category in Quicken.
Liability | Liability accounts are used for tracking debts or financial obligations. (Normally a placeholder account)
Mutual Fund | A professionally managed portfolio of stocks and bonds or other investments divided up into shares.
Stock | A share of ownership in a corporation, which entitles its owner to all the risks and rewards that go with it.

The New Account Hierarchy Setup assistant described in the first section of this help is a convenient way of setting up a set of accounts to use as a framework of account types.

When new accounts are created the available choices of account types are grayed out according to what type the parent account is. The following list contains the possible choices.

- Accounts Payable: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Accounts Receivable: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Asset: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Bank: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Cash: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Credit Card: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Currency: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Equity: Only Equity accounts can be child accounts.

- Expense: Only Expense or Income accounts can be child accounts.

- Income: Only Expense or Income accounts can be child accounts.

- Liability: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Mutual Fund: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

- Stock: All accounts except Equity, Expense and Income can be child accounts.

## Creating a Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts is like a table of contents for your finances. The best way to conceptualize a chart of accounts is as a tree. The main branches represent entire categories or groups, while the leaves of the tree denote individual bank accounts or expense categories. When a summary report is requested, typically only the main branches are shown in the report, rather than the individual accounts. For example, a chart of accounts might look like the following:

Accounts codes

Note that accounts not only have names; they may have codes, to order the accounts. When a report is generated, the sort order is determined by the numbering. It’s customary to have the leaf accounts end in non-zero digits, while parent nodes have increasing numbers of zeros.

&app; does not prevent duplicate numbering, although we would encourage you to avoid this. Account codes are treated as numbers in base-36, thus, if you run out of numbers, you can use the letters, a through z.

## Editing a Chart of Accounts

Editing the Chart of Accounts is done within the Parent Account pane of the Edit Account dialog. It is possible to move an account to any part of the Chart of Accounts. It is recommended to keep accounts generally under the related types of accounts as described in . This helps to preserve the Chart of Accounts structure.

To move the selected account to a different parent account just select the account in the Parent Account pane. If New top level account is selected then the account will be moved to the top level.

## Creating a New Account

To create a new account go to Actions New Account... or click the New Toolbar icon in the Account Tree Window. The New Account dialog will be opened.

The New Account properties dialog consists of two tabs, the General tab and the Opening Balance tab.

Creating a New Account involves planning in advance several details that are used in the New Account dialog.

- What type of account is needed.

- Where it fits in the structure of the Chart of Accounts.

- If there is an Opening Balance.

- If there is a Commodity (security/currency) needed for the account.

- If online updating of the commodity price is needed.

These details are described below.

### General Information Tab

The General tab is used to access the basic information about the account. It provides a way of connecting the account to stock information if it is one of the currency, mutual fund or stock account types. It can also be flagged as a Placeholder account. It displays if it is flagged as a Tax Related account (which is set through the Edit Tax Report Options dialog).

There are seven fields in the Identification section of this tab.

1. Account Name: The name for the account such as First Bank Checking.

2. Account Code: The optional number code as described in .

3. Description: Optional description for the account.

4. Security/Currency:

   The Type field in the Select Security is determined by the selection of Account Type panel in the New Account screen.

   - For accounts other than Stock or Mutual Fund this should be the default currency, USD (US Dollar) or your local currency symbol. If this account is for a foreign currency then use the Select... button to choose a different currency from the currencies pull-down list.

   - For Accounts containing a Stock and Mutual Fund; first select stock or mutual fund in the Account Type panel, then the Parent Account, then use the Select... button, to choose the Type (usually the exchange the security is traded on) and security from the Select Security window.

     If the required security/fund is not on the list, and you have the correct Type you will need to create the security/fund. To create a commodity for mutual fund and stock accounts select the New... button in the Select Security screen, to bring up the New Security: screen. The options are described in detail in the Security Editor section. Fill in a name, symbol and type and Close to create the security. After the security is created select the Type: (usually the exchange the security is traded on) and the name in the Currency/security: drop down list and Close the screen.

5. Smallest Fraction: The smallest fraction that will be tracked.

6. Account Color: The color to assign to the account’s register tab. Click on the color button to open the Pick a Color screen. To reset the account color click the Default button.

7. Notes: This is a free form text box that can be used for any additional notes about the account.

Below the panes are 3 check-boxes: one to show if the account is Tax Related, one to mark the account as a Placeholder, and one to mark an account Hidden.

The Tax Related check-box means that an account has been flagged to be included in the Tax Schedule Report. This flag is only displayed on the Edit Account dialog and is set in the Income Tax Information dialog ( Edit Tax Report Options ). For related reports see the examples like Tax Schedule Report and TXF Export in ().

The Placeholder check-box sets an account to read-only status and prevents the addition of transaction data to the account.

Setting an account to Placeholder will also hide that account in the pop-up account list in a register. Sub-accounts to the placeholder account will still display in the pop-up, however.

The Hidden check box hides an account (and any sub-accounts) in the account tree. To reset this option, you will first need to open the View Filter By... dialog for the account tree and check the Show hidden accounts option. Doing so will allow you to select the account and reopen this dialog.

Hidden accounts still appear in the pop-up account list in a register. To remove an account from this pop-up account list as well, check the Placeholder check box.

Below these checkboxes is a pane that contains a list of Account Types. Select a type from the descriptions in .

The next pane contains an account tree to choose a Parent Account. To create a new account tree select New top level account.

The available choices in the Account Type pane depends on the selected account in the Parent Account pane. For example if the Parent Account is Assets you will see only Equity in the Account Type pane. This is to help maintain a proper account structure for the Chart of Accounts.

### Steps to enable Online Quotes updating

1. &app; uses an external tool to retrieve online courses. This tool is a Perl module called &app-fq; and must be installed independently of &app; on your computer.

   The installation of &app-fq; is described under .

2. Create the Account for the mutual fund or stock with it listed in the Security/Currency field, as described above.

   When creating these accounts it is a good time to create income accounts to track dividends, capital gains (long and short) and expense account(s) for tracking commissions and losses (if you track losses as expenses).

3. Create the mutual fund or stock with either the Security Editor for existing stock/funds or the New Security/Currency dialog for a new stock/fund.

   Select Get Online Quotes, Type of Quote Source and Timezone.

   Online currency quotes require that the check-box for Online quotes and the timezone be selected in the Security screen and the Security Editor check-box for "get quote" box is checked for those currencies that are to be downloaded.

   - Get Online Quotes This check-box is to enable this security/fund to have quotes downloaded from an online source.

   - Type of Quote Source use the radio buttons to select the type of source for the Online quotes. Multiple: quote sources like Europe should be used if fail-over to multiple sites are desirable. Single: selections will only return information from the specified source.

     After selecting the type of source for price quotes, select a quote source from the pull-down menu. For details on currently supported sources see wiki:Online_Quotes#Finance::Quote_Sources.

     Note that Yahoo will provide price quotes for many mutual funds including Fidelity, T.Rowe Price and Vanguard, and that the quoted prices at Yahoo should be identical to those that may be found at the source sites.

     If you are outside the US and use one of the different Yahoo sources or multiple sources containing Yahoo, you should append the market code for the security such as PA for Paris, BE for Berlin, etc. Example: 12150.PA (a Peugeot security in the Paris market). wiki:Online_Quotes#Yahoo_Specifics below lists suffixes for various markets around the world.

     Pseudo-symbols for TIAA-CREF funds are listed in table wiki:Online_Quotes#TIAA-CREF_Specifics.

   - Timezone for these quotes: Select the timezone for the source of the online quotes you are receiving. For example, Yahoo normally quotes Eastern timezone, so choose America/New York if you use that quote source.

4. Select a commodity to the Price Editor.

5. Select Get Quotes in the Price Editor.

6. Check the latest price for the selected security.

Remember that Mutual Fund prices are really Net Asset Value and require several hours after the exchange closes before being available. If NAVs are downloaded before the current days NAVs are determined, yesterday’s NAVs are retrieved.

### Opening Balance tab

The Opening Balance tab is visible only when creating a new account, and is disabled for Stock and Mutual Fund accounts. In the latter case, opening balances must be created by hand. Please see Section 8.5.1 in the Tutorial and Concepts Guide for instructions if you need to create an opening balance in a Stock or Mutual Fund account. It is used to record the beginning balance for an account. This allows it to be used for two different scenarios. If using &app; for the first time to record transactions, it can be used as a beginning balance. If the accounts in use are closed at the end of a period and new accounts are created, it is used to close and carry balances forward.

There are three panes in this tab. The top pane contains the Balance Information.

- Balance: The balance to start the account with.

- Date: The date the opening balance should be recorded.

The next pane is the Transfer Type pane.

- Use Opening Balances Equity account: This transfers the opening balance for the account from a standard Equity account called Opening Balances.

- Select Transfer Account: This enables the pane below so a different account can be used to transfer the opening balance.

The last pane is the Transfer Account pane. Select the account to use for opening balances from the list of accounts in this pane.

## Editing an Account

The Edit Account dialog consists of just the General tab. This tab has the same information that was described in . To access the Edit Account dialog go to Ctrl E Edit Edit Account or click the Edit Toolbar icon in the Account Tree Window.

## Renumbering Subaccounts

Use Renumber Subaccounts to rewrite the account codes for all children of the current account. For example, you have the following account structure:

Starting account numbers.

Code | Name
--- | ---
10 | Colors
10-1 | Red
10-2 | Orange
10-3 | Yellow.
10-4 | Blue
10-5 | Violet

You now need to add the Green account, but you want it to sort between the Yellow and Blue accounts. Instead of having to manually renumber all the accounts starting with Blue, you can use the Renumber subaccount command on the Colors account. In the pop-up dialog the prefix value should default to 10, the account code for the colors account. If you set an interval value of 5 and click Renumber you will end up with the following account structure:

Renumbered account numbers

Code | Name
--- | ---
10 | Colors
10-05 | Red
10-10 | Orange
10-15 | Yellow.
10-20 | Blue
10-25 | Violet

Now you have room in the account code numbering space to add the Green account with an account code to force the proper ordering.

Final account numbers.

Code | Name
--- | ---
10 | Colors
10-05 | Red
10-10 | Orange
10-15 | Yellow.
10-18 | Green
10-20 | Blue
10-25 | Violet

## Deleting an Account

Deleting an Account means removing all transaction information and information about this account from the file. This cannot be undone. You will be prompted to verify that you wish to remove the account. If the account still contains transaction information you will be warned that this account contains transactions.

A side effect of removing an account that contains transactions is that you will end up with unbalanced accounts. This will be indicated in the account by a gray check-box next to the debit and credit amounts. You can automatically repair these unbalanced accounts by using the Actions Check & Repair menu. This will automatically assign the unbalanced amounts to a new account named Imbalance.

## Reconciling an Account to a Statement

Reconciliation of Accounts in &app; with statements from a bank or other institution is a way of double checking the accuracy of your (and your banks) transactions and the balance of your accounts. It also is useful to track uncleared checks and other outstanding transactions.

The reconciling process in &app; involves two dialogs: the dialog followed by the window. They provide access to various &app; functions to make it easy to enter and update account information during the reconciliation.

The Reconcile window is accessed from the account tree window or the account register window by selecting Actions Reconcile… .

If you are reconciling an Liability Account of type credit card using a credit card statement you have the option of using the Transfer Funds dialogue that opens automatically and enter a credit card payment. You can change this behaviour in the &appname; Preferences from the menu Edit Preferences in the Register tab by activating the checkbox Automatic credit card payment. (see )

The Summary Bar at the bottom of the Account Register Window indicates the amounts of Present (Balance), Future (Balance), Cleared (Transactions), Reconciled (Transactions) and Projected Minimum. Online account information can be used to mark which transactions the bank has processed by changing the R (reconciliation status) column in the register from n (new) to c (cleared). The bank statement is then used with the Reconcile window to reconcile the account which changes the R field to y (reconciled).

### Reconciling Information

The Reconcile Information dialog is used to indicate the closing Statement Date and the Starting Balance (fixed from last reconciliation) and Ending Balance from the statement. The Include Sub-accounts check-box is used if one or more subaccounts are used to track the account you are reconciling. The Enter Interest Payment button is used to add a transfer to the accounts for an interest payment. If selected a dialog will be displayed to add the to the account.

The Enter Interest Payment button is shown only if you are reconciling an account of Bank type.

When you have entered all relevant data, press Ok to proceed to the dialog or Cancel to discard the reconciliation process.

#### Interest Payment

There are three panes in the Interest Payment dialog. At the bottom is a button called No Auto Interest Payments for this Account which will cancel the dialog. The top pane contains the Payment Information.

- Amount: Enter the amount of the interest payment.

- Date: Select the date for the interest payment.

- Num: Enter a number for the transaction (optional).

- Description: Enter an informational description for the transaction.

- Memo: Enter a note about the transaction (optional).

The Reconcile Account pane highlights in the tree the account that the interest payment will be transferred to or from.

The Payment From pane contains a list of accounts where you can select the source account.

If the payment is for a credit or loan account then usually the payment would be from an Expense account. If the payment is for a checking or savings account then usually this would be from an Income account.

The Show Income/Expense check-box shows or hides the Income and Expense accounts.

Select OK to enter the interest transaction (or Cancel the payment) and return to the initial reconciliation screen.

### Reconcile

For a detailed description of menu items and buttons on the reconcile window, see .

The Reconcile dialog is where the actual process of matching your statement to &app; data takes place on a per transaction basis.

The Reconcile dialog is composed of a toolbar and three panes; Funds In on the left, Funds out on the right and a balance pane.

If you enabled the option Use formal accounting labels in the Accounts section of the &app; preferences, you will see Debits and Credits panes instead of Funds In and Funds Out panes.

The Funds In and Funds Out pane shows all unreconciled deposits to the account. Both panes are composed of five columns.

To order the listed transactions with a preferred criteria, click on the relevant column header. To reverse the selected order click a second time on the column header.

Date

  The date of the unreconciled transaction.

Num

  The number of the unreconciled transaction.

Description

  The Description of the unreconciled transaction.

Amount

  The Amount of the unreconciled transaction.

R

  Shows a check if the transaction will be reconciled when done.

To mark a transaction as reconciled just click on it and a checkmark will appear on the relevant R column.

You can check or uncheck the reconcile status of all transactions in either pane by clicking on a transaction in the required pane then clicking Ctrl-A followed by space. This will toggle the reconcile status of all transactions in the pane to either checked or unchecked state. This procedure can be repeated to achieve the desired status for the transactions in the pane.

Under each pane a Total for reconciled transactions is shown.

The balance pane shows a summary of the balances used in reconciliation.

Statement Date

  The date on the statement set on the .

Starting Balance

  The balance at the end of the last reconciliation.

Ending Balance

  The balance entered from the statement.

Reconciled Balance

  The balance of selected transactions.

Difference

  The difference between the Reconciled and Ending balances.

The set of unreconciled transactions in the Funds In and Funds Out panes can be changed by using the menus and Toolbar to access the account and transaction information. You can create a New transaction, Edit a selected transaction, add a Balance transaction (of the same amount as listed under Difference in the balance pane), and delete the selected transaction.

To modify a listed transaction, double click on it.

By pressing the Open icon the register of the account to reconcile will be opened.

If you wish to postpone the reconciliation until later use the Ctrl P Reconcile Postpone menu item or pressing the Postpone icon. If you wish to cancel the reconciliation use the Reconcile Cancel menu item or press the Cancel icon.

All previous commands are also available in the Reconcile dialog menu.

Select each unreconciled transaction matching a transaction on the statement so a green tick appears in the R column. The Balance pane changes to reflect each selected transaction until the Ending Balance equals the Reconciled Balance and the Difference is zero. Once this is done select the Finish button or Ctrl W Reconcile Finish to finish the reconcile process.