About account types and classes
- What are the reporting requirements of the country and state (or province) where the company is located?
- What level of detail do you actually need?
The chart of accounts is created in the Chart of accounts (GL202500) window. Accounts in the chart of accounts are grouped by account types and, independently, by user-defined account classes.
Types of accounts
Four types of general ledger accounts are supported by the system: assets, liabilities (balance sheet accounts), income, and expenses (income statement accounts). Assigning accounts to specific types implements accounting logic. We recommend that you make the account types recognisable by the account IDs.
Account classes
The user-defined account class is used as a property of any general ledger account. Visma Net provides a list of predefined account classes that can be modified if needed. Account classes can be used in reports and inquiries for convenient grouping, sorting, and filtering of the financial information associated with general ledger accounts. For example: Liability accounts can be divided into the following classes:
- Current liabilities, Supplier ledger
- Current liabilities, Wages payable
- Current liabilities, Interest payable
- Long-term liabilities, Bonds payable
- Long-term liabilities, Mortgage loan payable
Populating the chart of accounts
You use the Chart of accounts (GL202500) window to populate the chart of accounts. Account IDs should be set in a logical way and should comply with national standards and any held by the specific industry. For example: You might use the following account IDs:
- 1000-1999: Assets accounts
- 2000-2999: Liability accounts
- 3000-3999: Income accounts
- 4000-4999: Cost of goods sold accounts
- 5000-6999: Expense accounts
- 7000-7999: Other expenses accounts
The order of accounts in each type of accounts may depend on the industry and differ from country to country. In some cases, part or all of the expense accounts are listed in alphabetical order. Set up account numbers in each type of accounts with gaps between them so you can insert new accounts if necessary.
Special accounts
Visma Net supports two special liability general ledger accounts: Year-to-date net income and Retained earnings. These accounts, which should be specified during General ledger setup in the General ledger preferences (GL102000) window, are system-maintained.
Related reference