Since Manager doesn’t manage Memorandum Accounts (accounts outside both BS and P&L) how would you suggest to keep track of this kind of numbers?
Control Accounts don’t fit since their movements show up inside General Ledger Transactions.
Any suggestions?
If I understand what you mean by memorandum accounts, I just use separate spreadsheets. What is your use case?
I would like to keep track of amounts through memo accounts which are very similar to Subaccounts that we have only under Capital Accounts.
For some accounts I may use special accounts, ie the ones that don’t have a specific module.
Example. I have a bank financing for a real estate development. The financing is 5.000.000 on paper but they give me money only after I reach certain development stage.
I open the Special Account with three subledgers:
But here is a first problem. Balance sheet is correct. I have financing at 0. But if I print the GLT I will have a first transaction, a Journal Entry of 5m Vs 5m in the same account which doesn’t make any sense (my chartered accountant would even say it’s illegal but he is a terrorist!).
All the successive accountings are standard:
I receive money? Bank Vs Financing (with subledger Financing to be received). I repay financing? Financing (with subledger Financing repaid) Vs Bank
But I need the same thing for a development contract (which goes under Inventory), for equity subscribed but not recalled and so on. And here is the second problem. In specific modules I don’t have subaccounts (except for capital accounts).
The reason of this thing? I need to keep track of everything contractualized since from October I’ll have to start ESMA Liquidity Stress Test.
Starting from the BS, I have to create an adjusted BS with contractiualized amounts (even if not matured) and make stress test simulations. So it would be great to have it directly in Manager.
A possibile solution in two steps:
Don’t know if it’s feasible and if @lubos may agree for such an use of Subaccounts.
I hope to have it explained in an understandable way.
That is not what I thought you meant. When you said “accounts outside both BS and P&L”, I thought you were referring to auxiliary records, such as contemporaneous allowance logs used for calculation of month-end expense claims or journal entries. What you are referring to are not outside the balance sheet. They just do not appear explicitly on it, but are buried in accounts that do.
Ok… let’s call them Buried Accounts!
The idea have come into my mind during the discussion about Capital Subaccounts when someone correctly stated that they shouldn’t necessarily close to zero at the end but only their sum.
I think that, under this new point of view, they should be extended to every account of BS with the possibility to set their complementary setup value, given the fact that everything will be balanced by the Empty value).
If there would be a functionality like this, then Capital Accounts are obsolete because Special Accounts would be able to replicate the same function. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I would hate to see you do away with Capital Accounts, @lubos. Many users with relatively little accounting or computer expertise can barely understand them, but at least they are covered in standard accounting references. Depending on Special Accounts would a step too far, even if the functionality would be the same, because they are features of the program, not standard accounting.
It would be a big step further for every account under BS.
I’m just thinking, isn’t this basically what tracking codes already do actually? Granted, there are no reports looking at the data that way but when you think about it, you are really just decorating transactions with tracking codes and the result would be that you can get individual account balances per tracking code.
Yes. But there are two problems to be resolved:
2. each account should have its own unique set of subledgers, in this case it’s own set of tracking codes;
2. you should find a way to set up the complementary setup value of the subledgers of each account without a journal entry
I did some testing and saw same other accounting software. Effectively Tracking Codes can do the job.
But there should be a way to categorize Tracking Codes and to link them only to P&L or BS and even to specific Accounts.
Secondly there should be a flag (or better a new Tab) to register those inter Tracking Code Journal Entries on the same Account that should not appear in the General Ledger Transactions.
This, together with Custom Fields for Tracking Codes, would do the job.
I did some testing and tracking codes can reach the goal.
Can you please add a filter so that they can be filtered if they are related to P&L (actual standard use) and to BS (for custom reporting use)?