Here is the thing. Neither MYOB nor Quickbooks have any support for capital accounts. The reason why you are confused is because you are trying to transfer your knowledge from MYOB/Quickbooks and apply it to Manager.
It will work but you are not getting the most out of Manager because Manager has specially designed module for Partnerships, Superannuation Funds and Trusts. MYOB or Quickbooks have no such a thing.
So… let me explain it step by step how you setup SMSF in Manager…
Start with empty business.
Who are the members of the fund?
- Jenna Perry
- Justin Perry
You activate Capital Accounts tab and create these two members under Capital Accounts tab like this:
Then what are the sub-accounts of SMSF members?
- Employer contributions
- Member contributions
- Share of income
- Tax payable
So go to Settings, then Capital subaccounts and add these 4 sub-accounts:
As you can see, you only create them once. You don’t repeat yourself for each member.
Then go to Chart of Accounts and rename Capital accounts to something more appropriate such as Members benefits
That’s it. Your setup is done.
Now you can set up starting balances and record transactions.
For example, when SMSF receives employer contribution from Jenna Perry, you go to record new receipt and categorize it into Members benefits → Jenna Perry → Employer contributions
When you make journal entry at the end of the year and want to allocate share of income and tax payable to each member, you again debit/credit Members benefits and then select member + their sub-account…
Then finally you want to print some report after all is done…
Go to Reports then Capital Accounts Summary and generate report for the period you need. Just make sure to rename the report to something more appropriate such as Members Information Statement.
As you can see, at no point, you are creating some convoluted structure in Chart of Accounts like you would on MYOB or Quickbooks. This is because Manager has specially designed module to manage balances of members, partners and beneficiaries. We call this module Capital Accounts. It allows easier setup, better reporting capabilities and easier data-entry.