Setting up a new company from scratch. Thinking of setting all the default posting accounts to dummy accounts - for all series. Force correct GL accounts to come from the Cards, which comes from the Classes. Then if anything is in the dummy accounts I'd be able to trace it and find out why.
Is setting all the default posting accounts to dummy accounts a good idea? Comments please.
JDM
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Ok Victoria, you convinced me. I will heed your advice. Thanks all.
Not all accounts that can be defaulted on the Posting Accounts Setup are available on the Customer, Vendor or Item cards. Some of the Sales examples that I can think of without comparing the lists are NSF charges, debit memos and credit memos. If these are all set to dummy accounts, users may not know to change them and you're going to be spending a lot of time reclassing transactions after the fact.
My advice would be to use the Posting Accounts as much as you can (for CORRECT accounts) and only use the accounts on the customers, vendors, and items when they need to be different. For example, if you only have one AR account in your GL and it will be same for all customers, there is no reason to have to fill it in on every customer or customer class. To me, the best possible setup of a system results in the correct accounts being defaulted (as much as possible) for all transactions and the least amount of work being needed to set up new master records, like customers, vendors and items.
What accounts would be a problem if default posting accounts were all set to dummy accounts?
If I understand GP correctly, the default accounts should never be used if you setup All the cards correctly. GP always looks to the cards first...as it should. So this forces you to setup the cards.
And this way, if a dummy account is holding any value then someone changed something that should not have been changed and this makes it much easier to track down.
If you really think this is going to be a problem, I'd like to know why and know now before I do this but I don't see an issue. If there is constantly values in the dummy accounts that should be a flag itself.
I have actually recommended to clients that dummy accounts be used for SOME default accounts. You cannot do that for ALL of the default accounts. For inventory, customers, employees, vendors, where other tables of accounts exist, a dummy account ensures that new items (customers, et cetera) are set up correct and puts a big red flag in front of the accounting team if not.
Just my 2 cents, but I would recommend setting up all the posting accounts correctly upfront, so there is no need to look at dummy accounts and figure out why something got in there. You're just creating more work. Instead, spend the time on proper setup and train users so that they understand the implications of changing account numbers or not setting them up correctly on new customers, vendors, items, etc.
If your goal is as Richard stated, I would go by what he suggested. If it is the ability to find mistaken posting accounts, I would use security to limit who can set up GL accounts. I would also utilize the checkbox on the account maintenance window (name escapes me and no access to the window) but it prevents the account from being manually entered into a trx. Great for the controlling accounts (IV, AR, AP, Cash). Have the classes via the 'cards' drive the accounts for Inventory, AR and AP as needed, setup in the main posting accounts window those accounts that you know would be correct all the time (maybe Freight in, Freight Out, Accrued Purchases, and the like), and then leave all the rest blank. If the goal is to find entries posted to the wrong accounts, then having multiple dummy accounts will not gain much. I am a proponent of leaving them blank so they do not post. Post daily and any that get 'stuck' in the GL for lack of accounts, you research when the trx are fresh in your mind as opposed to trying to figure out a trx from the 1st week of the month a month later.
Dan Liebl | Senior Consultant | OTT,Inc | dliebl@OTT-inc.com
That is not necessarily true. The GL accounts from the classes do not really come into play here.
When you enter an AR tansactions it will look at the GL accounts on the customer card at that time. The accounts could also come from how you have your default posting posting accounts set up. What are you trying to accomplish? If you are trying to determine where posting accounts come from, I would set the varying sources to different GL accounts. That way when you see the GL account you can backtrack it to its source. There are also TK's that describe from where GL are pulled but if you want to actually see it for yourself I would set up a series of dummy GL accounts and then assign them.
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