Set up default accounts

Default accounts are one set of accounts used for every invoice, bill and stock movement. If your company takes its accounts from default accounts (not posting groups), fill these in before anyone saves an invoice or bill. Not sure which your company uses? See how invoices get their accounts.

Steps

1. Open Settings › Default Account

   In the menu on the left, select Settings, then Default Account. The Default Account Settings page opens. Each box lists your company's posting accounts.

   

   1. Default Account in the Settings menu.
   2. The sales accounts.
   3. The purchase accounts.
   4. A Show on … switch (see step 6).
2. Choose the sales accounts

   Field	Used for
   Account Receivables	What customers owe you. Every invoice posts here.
   Sales Discount	Discounts you give on invoices.
   Sales Revenue	Income from what you sell.

3. Choose the purchase accounts

   Field	Used for
   Account Payables	What you owe vendors. Every bill posts here.
   Purchase Discount	Discounts vendors give you on bills.
   Expense Account	What you buy that isn't stock.

4. Choose the inventory accounts

   Field	Used for
   Inventory Account	The value of stock you hold.
   Adjustment Account	Stock gains and losses, for example after a stock count.
   Cost of Goods Sold	The cost of stock you sell.

   

   1. The inventory accounts.
   2. The fixed asset disposal accounts.
   3. The project accounts.
5. Choose the fixed asset and project accounts (if you use them)

   • Gain on Asset Disposal and Loss on Asset Disposal: where the profit or loss goes when you sell an asset for more or less than its value in the books. A disposal that makes a gain or a loss is refused until the matching account is set. The other fixed asset accounts come from Set up fixed assets.
   • Project Cost of Goods Sold, Project Work In Progress, Project Deferred Income, Project Account Receivable and Project Sales: the accounts project invoices and project costs post to.
6. Decide what people can change on each document

   Each account has a Show on invoice, Show on bill or Show on inventory switch. Turn it on to let people see and change that account on each document. For example, with Show on invoice on for Sales Revenue, an Accounting Details section appears on invoices so someone can post one invoice to a different revenue account. Leave the switches off to always use the defaults.

7. Save

   Select Create Settings the first time, or Save Settings after that. You'll see Account settings created successfully or Account settings updated successfully.

   

   1. Save Settings saves the accounts.
   2. Tolerance (%).
   3. Fixed cap, if you want one.
   4. Save Tolerance saves the tolerance on its own.

Purchase price tolerance

Below the accounts, Purchase price tolerance sets how far a bill's price may differ from the purchase order or goods received note it's matched to. Above that, the bill needs a price variance approval before it can post.

• Tolerance (%): a percentage from 0 to 100. Leave it empty to use the default of 2%.
• Fixed cap (base currency, optional): a maximum amount. When it's set, the limit for a line is the smaller of the two.

Select Save Tolerance.

If something goes wrong

Message	What to do
Please configure accounting details (on an invoice)	The default accounts aren't filled in. Complete this page and save.
The price tolerance percentage must be between 0 and 100.	Enter a percentage from 0 to 100.
The fixed price tolerance cannot be negative.	Enter 0 or more, or leave it blank for no cap.
You don't have permission to change account settings.	Ask your administrator for permission to edit account settings.