Background

Accounts are what you are going to use to classify all your transactions inside of AccountEdge. They are the backbone on which everything else works so they are the first thing that needs to be setup when creating a new company file. Often you will have a list of accounts that your accountant has composed. If this is the case, and they've given you a text file to import you can continue directly to Importing Your Account List.

Accounts List Window

The Accounts List window allows you to create and maintain the accounts that you use in your business. This window contains a list of your accounts, displayed in a way that looks like file folder tabs. Each tab allows you to view a list of accounts for one of eight account classifications. You can also create new accounts from this window.

Account Classification

To view the accounts assigned to a specific account classification, click on the relevant tab.

Account Classifications and Types

Each account is identified by a unique five digit number. The first digit indicates the account’s classification (for example, accounts starting with 1 are asset accounts). The remaining four digits determine its location within the classification. The lower the number, the higher up in the list it appears. For example, account 1-1100 appears above 1-1200.

The accounts list groups accounts into eight classifications:

• Assets (1-0000)
• Liabilities (2-0000)
• Equity (3-0000)
• Income (4-0000)
• Cost of Sales (5-0000)
• Expenses (6-0000)
• NOT USED (7-0000)
• Other Income (8-0000)
• Other Expenses (9-0000)

Within each account classification there is at least one account type. For example, underneath the Asset classification there are 5 account types (Bank, Accounts Receivable, Other Current Asset, Fixed Asset, and Other Asset).

Header and Detail Accounts

Your accounts list consists of detail accounts (the accounts to which you allocate transactions) and header accounts. Header accounts group related detail accounts to help you organize your accounts list.

For example, you could group your telephone, electricity and gas expense accounts using a Utilities header account. This makes it easier for you to locate the utility expense accounts in the accounts list and to see your combined utility expenses.

Note that:

• You cannot allocate transactions to a header account.
• The balance of a header account is the sum of the detail accounts indented directly below it.
• You can create up to three header account levels as shown in the example above.

Creating an Account in AccountEdge

There are a couple ways to create accounts in AccountEdge, here are two options for doing so.

Option 1:

1. Open AccountEdge and Your Data file
2. Go to the Accounts Module
3. Click Accounts List > Then at the bottom of the window to the left, select New
4. The Edit Accounts window opens.
5. Choose the type of account whether it be Header or Detailed account
6. Choose your account type and number hit tab
7. Enter in the Account Name
8. (Optional) If you have an Opening balance to enter, type it into the Opening Balance field

Note: You Cannot enter a Beginning Balance for any Expense, Income, Other Income or Cost of Sales account. If you try to do so you will receive this error message “Beginning balances from a previous fiscal year may not be changed for P & L accounts.” This messages means that this amount is added from the previous fiscal year.

Option 2:

1. Open AccountEdge and Your Data file
2. Go to the Accounts Module
3. Click File in the upper Left of the window and in the drop-down menu select New Account
4. The Edit Accounts window opens
5. Choose the type of account whether it be Header or Detailed account.
6. Choose your account type and number hit tab
7. Enter in the Account Name
8. (Optional) If you have an Opening balance to enter, type it into the Opening Balance field

Note: You Cannot enter a Beginning Balance for any Expense, Income, Other Income or Cost of Sales account. If you try to do so you will receive this error message “Beginning balances from a previous fiscal year may not be changed for P & L accounts.” This messages means that this amount is added from the previous fiscal year.

You have the option to import your accounts list and information in AccountEdge after you create a new company file. Current users can also do this - it's often just helpful for people coming from other software who are starting out with AccountEdge. For users coming from other software this support article has information regarding how the import process works and is geared toward people who are switching to AccountEdge.

Note: Importing in AccountEdge requires you to have a tab-delimited or comma-separated text file. If you have an Excel file you can save it (from Excel) into one of these formats. The extension on the file has to be .txt for AccountEdge to be able to read it.

To import account information follow these step by step instructions:

1. Open AccountEdge and Your Data file
2. Click File from the menu bar in the upper left corner of the window
3. When drop-down menu appears select Import Data (3rd from the bottom)
4. A second drop-down menu appears. Select Accounts (2nd from the top) > Accounts Information
5. The Import File window appears
6. After making your choices select Continue (as a note - if your file is one with Headers this tends to be easier)
7. Choose the .txt file you want to import
8. Once chosen the Import Data window appears
9. Select Auto Match to match up the fields that are being imported. If the field names in your text file don't match AccountEdge exactly you can match on a one to one basis by selecting the field on the left and then clicking a matching field on the right
10. After any selections are made, click import

An Import log is generated that shows you if your records were imported with or without warnings or not at a all. This support article has further information on importing with AccountEdge and troubleshooting any errors received.

Next Steps

After you've created or imported your Chart of Accounts you can continue on to creating or importing your cards.

Helpful Links

• Accounting 101: An Explanation of General Account Principles)
• Accounts Cheat Sheet: How Different Accounts are Affected By Transactions
• Account Types: A More Detailed Explanation of Account Types
• Accounts in AccountEdge: A PDF Guide of How AccountEdge Handles Accounts