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Adding or Editing an Account

You can add the details of a new account by clicking add located above the central area of the Accounts screen. You can view or edit the details of an existing account by double-clicking the name of the account in the Accounts screen.

Options in this Screen

Name

Each account should have a unique name so you can identify it easily.

Category

Choose the appropriate category for the account. For information about categories, please refer to"Selecting a Category".

 

Active

Over time you may find you add new accounts, especially customer accounts regularly. When you need to select an account - for example when entering a new transaction - you may find the list of accounts becomes long and contains accounts you no longer use. You can simplify the list, removing accounts you no longer use by marking the account as inactive.

Inactive accounts do not normally show up in the account selection. If you want to list all accounts, both active and inactive, set Show Inactive Items, which you can access using Preferences in the EasyBooks menu.

Type

An account can be set to one of two types:

  • Account - A normal account.
  • Container - A container account cannot contain transactions itself, but acts as a container for one or more normal accounts. This is useful if you want to group accounts together, or if you want to hide details such as individual employee costs from reports such as Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss.
Opening

It is normal to leave this set to zero unless you are starting to use EasyBooks after your business has already started trading. If you have a software package keeping track of your accounts already, use it to prepare a Trial Balance on a date you want to start using EasyBooks. Use the balances as opening balances in EasyBooks.

Once you have set all your opening balances, remember to check your accounts are balanced by using the Trial Balance report. Check there is no Opening Balances line as described further in "What does the line 'Opening Balances' indicate?" in Using the Trial Balance Report.

VAT Exempt

This setting applies to Income and Expense accounts only.

Some accounts such as investment income and employee costs should be excluded from your VAT return. This is to prevent payments to employees from appearing as purchases and interest earned from appearing as income. If you are using the flat rate VAT scheme this is especially important because the amount of VAT is calculated using the total income.

Tax Rate

This setting applies to "Tax rate on sale" and "Tax rate on purchase" accounts only.

Set the percentage rate for VAT. To set the standard rate, you may find it easier to do this using Business Settings because it changes both the sales VAT account and the purchase VAT account at the same time.

Budgeting

This setting applies to Income and Expense accounts only.

If you want EasyBooks to compare actual income and expenditure against your budget, see Setting a Budget.

Supplier Invoice Address, Their Reference and Email Address

The following settings are available for supplier accounts only. Use the settings to enter information about the supplier. This is optional, and may be useful if you intend to use EasyBooks to send remittance advices.

  • Invoice Address - Set the address of your supplier. It is normal to include the name of your supplier as the first line.

  • Their Reference - Some suppliers may allocate you a unique reference to identify your account with them. If so, enter this reference here. Note that the reference is an account setting, not a per-invoice value such as a purchase order reference.

  • Email Address - Setting the supplier's email address allows you to send remittance advices to them direct from EasyBooks.

Notes

You can use this field to enter any additional information about the account. This information is not presented in any invoices, statements or reports.

Further Information

This help topic describes the options in the form. If you require other introductory information, please refer to: