You will need the Accounting Settings permission to add or edit an account. With more than one organization, creating or deleting an account needs access to every campus of that organization, while editing or deactivating needs access to any one of its campuses.
Your chart of accounts is the list of accounts your church uses to sort all the money coming in and going out, such as checking, contributions income, salaries, and rent.
One Church Software uses fund accounting. That means one bank account can hold money for several funds, such as a General Fund and a Building Fund, and you can still see how much belongs to each. You don't need a separate bank account per fund. See What is a fund in accounting?.
To manage your chart of accounts, go to Accounting > Settings. The page has four tabs: Chart of Accounts, Funds, Tags, and Options.
Add or edit an account
Go to Accounting > Settings in the left-hand menu. The Chart of Accounts tab opens first.
If your account has more than one organization, choose the organization in the Accounting for: strip at the top of the page. A new account is added to that organization's chart.
Click Add New. To change an existing account, click its name, or choose Edit from the 3-dots menu at the start of its row.
On the General tab, fill in the fields described below.
If the account already holds money, open the Starting Balances tab and enter its opening balances. See Starting balances below.
Click Save. To add several accounts in a row, check Keep open to add another first.
Tip: To create a new equity account, add a fund instead. One is created for it automatically. See How do I add or edit a fund?.
General tab fields
Number - the account number. This field is required. Use the first digit to show the account type: 1000 to 1999 for assets, 2000 to 2999 for liabilities, 4000 to 4999 for income, and 5000 to 5999 for expenses. Equity accounts in the 3000 range are created for you when you add funds. If your account has more than one organization, numbers only need to be unique within each organization, so two organizations can each have an account numbered 1000.
Name - the name of the account. This field is required.
Type - Asset (something you own, such as checking), Liability (something you owe, such as a credit card or loan), Income (money you receive, such as contributions), or Expense (money you spend, such as salaries). This field is required. Equity can't be chosen here. See What are the account types in accounting?.
Category - a group within the type, such as Current Assets. This field is required. Use the 3-dots menu next to the field to add a category.
Options - checkboxes that mark the account for certain uses, such as Use as register?. The choices depend on the type. See What do the account options mean?.
Default Fund - the fund chosen automatically when someone uses this account in data entry. It can always be changed.
Sub-Account - check Make this account a sub-account to place it under another account of the same type. A drop-down appears so you can choose the parent account.
Active? - shows whether the account is active. To deactivate an account, use the 3-dots menu on the chart of accounts list. See How do I deactivate or delete an account?.
Description - click more fields to add an optional description.
Starting balances
The Starting Balances tab is for asset and liability accounts. Click choose funds, check the funds this account holds money for (or check all), then enter an opening balance and date for each fund. See How do I set starting balances?.
Note: A fund that already has reconciled activity on this account can't be removed from the list.
With more than one organization
Each organization keeps its own chart of accounts.
Accounts, funds and tag groups belong to one organization and are never shared.
An account's parent account and default fund must be in the same organization. So must the transfer account, transfer fund and fee replacements you choose when deactivating.
Merging accounts from two organizations is refused, and so is merging an archived organization's account. The account being merged away needs the same access as deleting it.
Accounts and funds have no campus, so staff limited to some campuses still see their organization's whole chart. Balances cover the whole set of books.
The Chart of Accounts lists every account whatever your campus selector shows. Only its draft and pending-check counts follow the selector.
Deactivating an account with a balance
Deactivating an asset, liability or equity account that has a balance asks for Transfer Balance To, an active account of the same type in the same organization. Saving posts a journal entry dated that day that moves each fund's balance into it. An income or expense account posts no transfer: the window still asks for one when it has a balance, but nothing posts. How do I deactivate or delete an account? explains deactivating.
When an organization has no Accounting seat
Saving anything to an organization's books is refused if that organization has no Accounting seat. The message reads:
[organization] has no Accounting seat. Assign one under Account Settings > Organizations.
How do add-on seats work? explains how seats are assigned, and How do books work with more than one organization? explains how the books are split.