When you record a transaction in AccountEdge — a customer payment, a bill payment, a paycheck — the software needs to know which accounts to post to automatically. That's what linked accounts do. They're the default accounts AccountEdge uses behind the scenes so you don't have to manually select an account for every routine transaction.

For example, when you receive a payment from a customer, AccountEdge automatically credits your Accounts Receivable account and debits your bank account. Both of those are linked accounts — AccountEdge knows to use them because you (or the Easy Setup Assistant) set them up in advance.

Go to Setup > Linked Accounts from the top menu bar. You'll see four categories:

Accounts & Banking — Controls where AccountEdge posts general transactions like bank fees, currency gains/losses, and historical balancing entries. This is also where the undeposited funds account is set.

Sales Accounts — Controls the default bank account for customer receipts, your Accounts Receivable (trade debtors) account, and the account for customer deposits on orders.

Purchases Accounts — Controls the default bank account for paying bills, your Accounts Payable (trade creditors) account, and the account for vendor deposits.

Payroll Accounts — Controls the default checking account for paychecks, the payroll withholding payables account, and the employer expenses account.

If a linked account is set to the wrong account — or isn't set at all — transactions will post to unexpected places. This is one of the most common causes of Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable being out of balance. When your AR or AP doesn't match what your customers or vendors actually owe, the first thing to check is whether your linked accounts are pointing to the right places.

Linked accounts are set up during the Easy Setup Assistant as part of the Sales, Purchases, and Payroll sections. If you skipped the assistant or need to make changes later, you can always update them through Setup > Linked Accounts.

The most common reason to change a linked account is switching banks. If you open a new checking account and want AccountEdge to use it for customer receipts, bill payments, or paychecks, you'll need to update the linked account for each area that should use the new account. See New Checking Account / Linked Accounts for step-by-step instructions.

You might also need to update linked accounts if you restructure your chart of accounts, add a new payroll checking account, or set up a separate account for undeposited funds.

Linked accounts are defaults, not locks. You can override the linked bank account on any individual transaction by selecting a different account in the upper-left corner of the payment window. This is useful when you occasionally need to pay from or deposit to a different account without changing the default for all future transactions.

Note: For Spend Money and Receive Money transactions, the default account isn't managed through the linked accounts menu — it's simply the first bank account in your accounts list. If you want a different default for those transactions, you'll need to adjust your account numbering.