• From: UK
  • Registered: 10/11/2009
  • Posts: 50

Topic: Settings in System and General GL Setup

I am now using Front Accounting for real, I have been testing it for a while, I have everything setup and all my products and suppliers added.

I am using the English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts and there are three things I am not sure about:

Retained Earnings
Profit/Loss Year
Bank Charges Account

All these have defaulted to the Freehold Property option but this is not correct.

Could someone suggest the correct / most relevant account these should really point to?

  • joe
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  • Registered: 03/15/2007
  • Posts: 5,107

Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

The two first accounts is used by Fiscal Year closure. There should be a relevant account in the Liability/Equity section you can choose for Retained Earnings. If you can't find a suitable account for Profit/Loss Year, then create one. It should be the last one in the Expense groups.
There should also be an expense account for Bank Charges. If not, then create one in the Expense groups.

/Joe

3 Reply by kerrsmith (edited by kerrsmith 02/10/2010 10:29:00 pm)

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 10/11/2009
  • Posts: 50

Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Thanks for the information.

I found a bank charges account in the General and Administrative Expenses section.

Profit/Loss Year I added to the bottom of the General and Administrative Expenses section as suggested.

The Retained Earnings I added to the Current Liabilities section - I was not quite sure about this one though as there is also a Long Term Liabilities section.

The CURRENT LIABILITIES is of class type Assets
The LONG TERM LIABILITIES is of class type Liabilities

Which of the two should Retained Earnings be added to as I am not sure I have it in the correct one.

Thanks for your help.

  • joe
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Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Hi again,
The CURRENT LIABILITIES should be of class type Liabilities.
The Retained Earnings should belong to LONG TERM LIABILITIES if there is no EQUITY group. However, you don't need this EQUITY group.

/Joe

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 10/11/2009
  • Posts: 50

Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Hi Joe,

I did think it was a little odd that CURRENT LIABILITIES was set as Assets, I will change this over and move the Retained Earnings to LONG TERM LIABILITIES as suggested. This was how the English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts set everything up when I imported it.

I think it would be quite handy if these setting were updated on the English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts for the benefit of people like me who are not quite sure what everything is for.

I think there are only a few changes to be made to the English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts as most of the other settings seem to be correct.

If it is of any use I can post a list of all the settings I have had to change from the default English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts install?

Thanks for your help once again.

6 Reply by kerrsmith (edited by kerrsmith 02/11/2010 09:59:57 am)

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 10/11/2009
  • Posts: 50

Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Here is a list of everything I have changed from the default import of English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts:

GL Account Groups -> CURRENT LIABILITIES: set to Liabilities

System and General GL Setup -> Retained Earnings: add account 2331 (Retained Earning) in Long Term Liabilities

System and General GL Setup -> Profit/Loss Year: add account 8601 (Profit/Loss Year) in general and administrative expenses

System and General GL Setup -> Bank Charges Account: change to 7901 (Bank Charges) in general and administrative expenses

System and General GL Setup -> Shipping Charged Account: change to 5202 (carriage) in cost of goods sold

Sales -> sales areas: change USA to UK

I think this is everything I have changes from the default install so there is not too much to modify on the English - Great Britain - General chart of accounts.

I hope this helps.

  • joe
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Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Thanks,
I will make the changes and upload a new COA for en_GB-general.

/Joe

  • joe
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Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Hello again,
Regarding the Retained Earnings account I see that there is a SHARE CAPITAL group. I didn't realize that there was such a group. There is also an account, called 3200 Profit and Loss. This account belongs to SHARE CAPITAL group.  We will rename 3200 to Retained Earnings (instead of Profit and Loss).

So please select this account 3200 for the Retained Earnings in GL Setup and rename it in the GL Accounts. You may also delete the other setup Retained earnings you did before.

I will do the fix in the COA.


/Joe

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 10/11/2009
  • Posts: 50

Re: Settings in System and General GL Setup

Yes, I will make these changes as suggested.

Two more small changes I missed:

Display Setup -> Date Format change to DDMMYYYY
Display Setup -> Page Size change to A4

I think this is everything.