@Lubos,
Is it an idea to facilitate the possibility to bulk-import general ledger-accounts so that a “more or less” standard general ledger scheme can be entered. It would also be very nice to have the option “inactive” to lock a general ledger like in customers and suppliers this in order to prevent mistake bookings on accounts.
Hope to read your response soon.
Kind regards,
Hennie
This capability has already been promised as a future development. I assume that you are referring not to the general ledger itself, but to general ledger accounts.
Isn’t that what @lubos was suggesting here - but leaving it to the community
“Isn’t it easier to just make new business, set up Chart of Accounts as per those standards and publish it online? Then anyone can import that business into Manager without re-creating the Chart of Accounts from scratch”
Hi Brucanna,
Consider the following:
Very often there is legislation about a chart of accounts. For instance in Belgium the set of accounts is obligatory.
Very often a chart of accounts is adapted to the kind of business. It is a hell of a difference when you are in the agro-business or that you have a trading company or provide professional services. The chart of accounts should reflect the kind of business you are in.
Very often, you can find on the internet very good charts of accounts (in Excel) that are ready for import in a business. At least that’s the case in the Netherlands.
I think that there is a good chance that our forum will be flooded with chart of accounts. That’s why I would like to see the bulk-import facility.
I@Brucanna,
I think were are not on the same level of thinking. When there is a facility to import a set of accounts, everybody could enter his own set of accounts. Found on internet, a copy of a college, from a branch-organisation, his accountant, it doesn’t matter whatever the source is. It helps to set up Manager without having to enter all individual accounts which is time-consuming.
The difficulty with bulk importing a chart of accounts is that a COA is more than a table-style listing. In that sense, it is not like, say, inventory items. A COA includes relationships between accounts. There are both hard-coded and custom control accounts, special accounts, groups, totals, and so forth. Additionally, some accounts require specific tabs to be enabled before they are automatically generated. So you cannot just create such an account in a vacuum.
In short, creating a complete COA involves more than creating or importing a spreadsheet. So importing a complete business structure will work, but a bulk import of a list will not. I think @lubos’s idea was fairly creative.
@Tut
Thanks for the very clear answer why bulk-import is not possible. I now understand the reasons why. Could we say case closed. What’s left is the code “inactive”. I hope this can be realized fairly soon.
This has already been mentioned as a future development, because sometimes the need for various accounts goes away. There has also been mention of a “purge” capability for old data. Presumably, that would involve something akin to new carryover balances before purging old data.