Account groups — the shape of your statements

An account group is the folder an account belongs to — Sundry Debtors, Bank Accounts, Indirect Expenses, and so on. The group an account sits in decides where it appears on your statements, so getting groups right means your Trial Balance, Profit & Loss, and Balance Sheet organise themselves.

Add a group

1. 1

   Open Masters → Account Group and choose Add

   You'll see the standard groups already in place — most businesses simply use these. The Add page lets you enter several groups in a row and save them together (press Ctrl+Enter to add each to the list, Ctrl+S to save).

2. 2

   Name the group

   Use a name your accountant would recognise on a statement.

3. 3

   Decide where it sits

   Set Primary to Yes for a top-level group, or No to nest it — then pick the parent in Under Group. Nesting lets sub-groups roll up into a bigger head.

4. 4

   Set the Nature

   Asset, liability, income, expense, or capital. The nature decides which statement the group — and everything in it — belongs to.

5. 5

   Set the Role

   A finer label for special handling, such as bank, cash, or fixed asset. Leave it on the ordinary setting unless the group needs special treatment.

6. 6

   Save

   The group is immediately available when you create or edit accounts.

Fixed-asset groups

Give a group the fixed-asset role and the accounts inside it gain an asset-details section — cost, depreciation rate, and so on. Those details feed the Depreciation and Capital Gains reports, so your machinery, vehicles, and equipment are tracked as the assets they are.