Configuration: Chart of Accounts (Version 2+)

Financials: Configuration: Chart of Accounts

1. This tutorial will cover how to configure Chart of Accounts within the system.
2. The Chart of Accounts is the list of accounting or "general ledger" codes that your organization uses to categorize/track financial transactions. In CRM, you can attach accounting codes to the various sources of revenue tracked by CRM - memberships, donations, pledges, event registrations, event other items, and invoice other items.
3. Before configuring your Chart of Accounts, read this tutorial the various fundraising configurations/on how Chart of Accounts differs from Funds, Campaigns, and Programs.
4. To see the list of the Chart of Accounts that are already in your system, click Financials on the Main Menu to open the Financial sub-menu and then select Chart of Accounts under Configurations.

   

5. This will open the Chart of Accounts screen where all currently configured accounts will be shown.

   

6. If you have the QuickBooks Sync turned on and have synced Chart of Accounts from QuickBooks, an icon will show on the screen indicating which Chart of Accounts have been synced from QuickBooks.

   

7. You can search your Chart of Accounts using the search field in the upper right hand corner.

   

8. You can Edit or Delete any item in the Chart of Accounts list by clicking on the drop down to the right. Please Note: any Chart of Accounts synced to QuickBooks will not be able to be edited or deleted. You will only be able to edit the default Revenue Source for those items. To edit synced Chart of Accounts, you will need to make the edits in your QuickBooks account and wait for QuickBooks to update the item - please note that updates to Chart of Accounts via QuickBooks sync happen overnight. Please see the last section of this tutorial about syncing Chart of Accounts for more details on how synced updates work. Please also note: you will not be able to delete any Chart of Accounts item that has been tied to any transactions (that is, any transactions that are assigned that Chart of Accounts). You will only be able to inactivate the item.

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10. Make the changes and click Save to the right of the item being edited or to close without saving, click Close.

    

11. To Inactivate a Chart of Accounts, clicks the green status check mark. It will turn gray, indicating that Chart of Accounts is inactive. You can reactivate Chart of Accounts by clicking the gray status checkmark to turn it green, indicating the Chart of Accounts is active.

    

12. There are three ways to add your Chart of Accounts to CRM: a) manually add them, b) import them from a spreadsheet, and c) sync them/automatically add them from QuickBooks online when setting up the QuickBooks Online sync with CRM.
13. To add Chart of Accounts items manually:
    • Start by clicking Financials on the Main Menu to open the Financial sub-menu and then select Chart of Accounts under Configurations.

      

    • To create a new Account, in the Code and Description fields respectively, indicate the account code and description of the account you wish to create. If you will be using the QuickBooks sync function, it is critical that the Code and Description match what is in QuickBooks exactly in order for transactions assigned that code to sync. If even one letter, space, or character is different, the transaction(s) will not sync.
      

      

    • Next, use the Revenue Source drop down to indicate if a certain type of revenue within the system should always be marked with this chart of account/account code by default if the transaction is not otherwise assigned it's own Chart of Accounts. That is, should all transactions of that category/type (event registration, donations, grants, etc.) that do not have any Chart of Account assigned to them (based on the fund/program/campaign/event/membership level configurations) be assigned this chart of account/account code by default. So, for example, in the screenshot below, we have assigned the "fall back" or default chart of accounts for all Grants that do not get assigned their own chart of accounts code at time of data entry, to automatically be assigned code "3000 - Grant Income." Only one account may be tied to a particular transaction type within the system as the Revenue Source (because how could a transaction be assigned more than one account code? Logically, it wouldn't make any sense for the system to try to assign two different account codes to the same transaction).
      

      

    • When these fields have been entered, click the Add button to the right.

      

14. To Import a Chart of Accounts from a spreadsheet:
    • Create a spreadsheet with two (AND ONLY TWO) columns: one labeled Account Number and one labeled Account. You must use these names exactly. This spreadsheet can be exported from your accounting software or manually typed/created.

      

    • Enter the short, numeric "codes" in the Account Number field. If you don't use codes, you can enter random sequential numbers. The code is required. If you use Codes in QuickBooks and plan to use the QuickBooks sync, the code must match what is in QB Chart of Accounts Code field exactly.

      

    • Enter the name of the account associated with the code in the Account field. Keep these fairly short as these are what will appear in the drop down field within the system wherever you can select Chart of Accounts. If you plan to use the QuickBooks sync, the description must match the QB chart of account name EXACTLY - every space, every character, etc. must be an exact match.
    • Both columns are required for EVERY ROW that has data. That is, for every row that has data, each row must have BOTH a code and a description.
    • Once you complete set up of your spreadsheet, save the file as a .csv. ONLY .csv files are accepted.
    • Navigate to the Chart of Accounts index screen (Main Menu: Financials: Chart of Accounts) and click the blue Import button in the lower right.

      

    • In the pop up box that appears, click on the Upload CSV box to browse your computer and select your file.

      

    • After uploading the file, click the Import button.

      

      

    • The import will happen immediately/in real time. As soon as the import file pop up window closes, the chart of accounts index page will refresh and your imported chart of accounts should appear. If they do not, then something has gone wrong and you will need to try again. Make sure the column names in the spreadsheet are spelled correctly, only say "Account Number" and "Account", make sure every row has both a code and a description, and make sure you only have two columns in the spreadsheet. If you still are having trouble, contact CRM support for assistance. Please send us your Chart of Accounts import file when contacting us for help importing the Chart of Accounts.
    • After the import completes, you can edit or delete any of the chart of accounts and/or add/edit the default revenue source.
15. To sync a Chart of Accounts from QuickBooks:
    • When setting up the QuickBooks sync, if you select to sync individual transactions, you will be given an option to sync your Chart of Accounts FROM QuickBooks to CRM.

      

    • If you select this option: a)QuickBooks will immediately sync the Chart of Accounts from QB to CRM upon completion of the sync set up, and b) will perform an overnight update every night, going forward, to update the Chart of Accounts in CRM based on any changes made in QuickBooks (edits made to existing Chart of Accounts and/or any new Chart of Accounts added to QuickBooks).
    • Please Note: only Chart of Accounts in the Income, Other Income, and Accounts Receivables categories will sync from QuickBooks to CRM. No Chart of Accounts in any other category will sync to CRM.
    • Please Also Note: Chart of Accounts do NOT sync FROM CRM to QuickBooks per se. If you add a new Chart of Accounts to CRM it will not sync to QuickBooks. However, when a financial transaction syncs from CRM to QuickBooks, if it is assigned a Chart of Accounts that does not match a Chart of Accounts inside QuickBooks, then a new Chart of Accounts will be created in your QuickBooks online account. In this way, you CAN sync Chart of Accounts from CRM to QuickBooks Online. But be aware that simply adding the Chart of Accounts to CRM won't add it to QuickBooks - it must also be added to at least one transaction.
    • Chart of Accounts from QuickBooks will sync to CRM using the following logic:
      • The system will attempt to match each Chart of Accounts from QuickBooks to an existing Chart of Accounts item in CRM based on name. If the system finds an EXACT match (including all spaces and punctuation), then the system will sync to that item.
        • If the existing Chart of Accounts item has a code in Quickbooks and that code differs from the one assigned to the item in CRM, then the code in CRM will be updated to match what is in Quickbooks.
        • If the existing Chart of Accounts item has no code in Quickbooks, then nothing will happen to the code assigned to the Chart of Accounts item in CRM (as code is required in CRM).
      • If the system does not find an existing Chart of Accounts item in CRM that matches the QuickBooks Chart of Accounts item exactly, then the system will create a new Chart of Accounts item in your CRM Account.
        • If the new Chart of Accounts item has a code in QuickBooks, then that is the code that will be assigned in CRM.
        • If there is no corresponding code in QuickBooks for that Chart of Account item, then CRM will look at all existing Account Class and Chart of Account Codes and assign the next number chronologically to the Chart of Account item in CRM (as code is required in CRM but not in QuickBooks) (that is, if your highest existing account code/class of account code in CRM is 4550, then CRM will assign the new Chart of Account item coming from QuickBooks without its own code the code "4551").
      • The system will email your CRM system admin overnight (one email for all changes made that day) every time any change is made to the CRM Chart of Accounts by the QuickBooks sync. The email will include every time a new Chart of Accounts item has been created or if an existing Chart of Accounts item has been updated.