GL Account Coding Conventions

The characteristics of the General Ledger Account codes are defined in Maintain Company (CC95). You can define the following characteristics:

  • GL Account Length - 8 characters maximum

  • GL Account Format - identifies which characters within an Account code represent the Division/Branch, the Account type and the actual Account number.

  • GL Print Masks - identifies any special characters used to separate or space out the Account code and the position of those characters whenever an Account code is printed or displayed.

The components for formatting the Account code are:

  • Division/Branch - the high order character(s) of the Account code indicate division, branch, department, etc.

  • Account Type - the next character following the Division/Branch identifies the Account as an Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue or Expense. The following example is a typical designation:

    1. Asset
    2. Liability
    3. Equity
    4. Revenue
    5. Expense

    Tip: The Account type must be assigned in such a way as to group the Balance Sheet accounts before the Income Statement accounts. Year End closing depends on this structure.

  • Account Number - the remaining low order characters identify the actual detail account. An eight character GL Account code format might be represented in the following manner:

    Account Number eg

    Other examples include:

    Length & Format

The Print Mask for a six digit Account number might be entered as follows:

    Mask

Within the Account number, the asterisk "*" may be used to identify groups of Accounts for which totals will be produced on the Preliminary/Final GL Summary Reports (GL81/GL73) and on the Trail Balance (GL50/GL74). These Account groupings are not necessarily the same groupings as those used on the financial statements. For example:

    111*** Total of accounts 111000 - 111ZZZ
    1111** Total of accounts 111100 - 1111ZZ
    11111* Total of accounts 111110 - 11111Z

You may also want to utilize the following example for defining breaks for the various account types:

    111***     ASSETS

    112***     LIABILITIES

When the GL Chart of Accounts report (GL02) prints, Account codes are more clearly defined. No dollar values may be posted to accounts ending in '*'.

 
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