Required accounting settings

What this does

Accounting → Settings holds the handful of choices the posting engine reads on every transaction. A new shop has none of them set, and until two of them are, no invoice can post.

Before you start

accounting_settings.edit: Owner, General Manager. Seed the chart of accounts first; see Chart of accounts.

The settings

AR Account (Asset) — the receivables account. Required. On the default chart it's 1100 Accounts Receivable. Issuing an invoice, recording a payment, and AR onboarding all refuse without it.

Sales Tax Payable Account (Liability) — credited with the tax on every issued invoice, debited when you remit. Required for any shop that charges tax: a taxed invoice refuses to issue without it, and so does an edit that changes the tax. 2200 Sales Tax Payable on the default chart, and seeding the chart sets it for you. A shop that charges no tax can leave it empty.

Default Revenue Account — where a line's revenue goes when the line has no account of its own, and where discount and rounding residue lands. Required for a clean posting. 4000 Labor Revenue on the default chart; parts and other lines carry their own accounts.

Default Checking Account and Default Credit Card — which bank and card the transaction inbox matches to when a feed doesn't say. "None — match by bank name / card last-4" is fine once the feeds are labelled.

How payments reach the bank — the Hold payments in Undeposited Funds switch. On (the default for new shops): recorded payments go to Undeposited Funds and reach the bank when you post a deposit. Off: payments debit the bank immediately. It applies only to payments recorded from then on; nothing already booked moves. See Undeposited Funds.

Default reporting basis — cash or accrual as the default view for Profit & Loss and Sales Detail. Report-layer only; the ledger is accrual regardless. See Cash and accrual reports.

Fiscal Year Start Month — for the year-to-date reports.

Lock Date and Temporary Override — see Period locking.

Receivables Onboarding — the entry point for a shop with imported invoice history and no ledger yet. See AR onboarding.

Common problems

"Cannot post invoice: no AR account configured." Set AR Account and re-issue.

Payments used to hit the bank and now don't (or the reverse). Someone changed the Undeposited switch. It isn't retroactive, so the register shows both behaviours with the changeover date in between.