Bank accounts are sources or repositories of money maintained by a financial institution of any type. Virtually every business needs at least one bank account. Possibilities include:
- Bank accounts
- Credit cards
- PayPal accounts
- Crypto-currency accounts (e. g., BitCoin)
Cash accounts are used to record current transactions involving bills and coins. They are maintained by a business as physical repositories of cash. Possibilities include:
- Petty cash funds
- Cash tills
Enable the Bank and Cash Accounts tab
Before you can create a bank or cash account, you must enable the Bank and Cash Accounts tab. Click Customize below the left navigation pane, check the box for the tab, and click Update:
You will see the Bank and Cash Accounts tab added to the navigation pane:
Create an account
Click the Bank and Cash Accounts tab, then New Account:
Define the account:
-
Namethe account so it will be recognizable. The name could include a description, a bank’s name, a credit card designation, or an account number. -
Codeallows you to set the order in which accounts are listed. Enter an integer number. If blank, accounts will display in alphabetical order. -
Currencyoptions will be available if you have set at least one foreign currency. By default, accounts are undenominated. But if you specify a base currency, they are assumed to be in your base currency, whatever that is. If you plan to use multiple currencies, or just want your currency symbol to appear on forms and reports, set a base currency. Accounts will then automatically be denominated in your base currency unless you edit this field. - A
Divisioncan be selected if the account will be used or controlled by a single division of the business. This field will not appear if no divisions have been defined. -
Control accountoptions are available if a custom control account comprising bank and cash accounts has been defined. The default control account for new accounts is Cash & cash equivalents. - If migrating to Manager from an earlier accounting system, enter a
Starting balance. - Check the box for
Can have pending transactionsif you want to monitor Cleared and Pending status of transactions. You might not do this for bank accounts if you will always import your statements, because imported transactions are, by definition, always cleared. A cash account never has pending transactions. -
Credit limitcan be set, especially for credit cards. You can also use this field to indicate the amount of overdraft protection. - An
Inactivebox appears after an account has been created. It can be checked if the account is closed. (Accounts cannot be deleted from Manager if they have any past transactions, because doing so would eliminate the records of those transactions and affect active Balance Sheet accounts.) If the box is checked, the account will not appear in lists for transactions in the Receipts or Payments tabs. The account will be greyed out in the Bank and Cash Accounts tab listing. Edit it to restore to active status.
Notes
You should only add accounts that belong to the business. Personal credit cards and personal bank accounts used infrequently for business transactions should not be added as bank accounts. Transactions using such personal funds should be entered as expense claims.
The same form is used for entering cash accounts as for bank accounts.
Example
Brilliant Industries, an Australian company, has one business bank account used to receive money from customers and pay suppliers and employees. The business also maintains an account with a London bank for transactions in the United Kingdom. The business owner occasionally uses a personal credit card for business expenses. Brilliant Industries creates two bank accounts in different currencies, both with the ability to have pending transactions. It also creates a petty cash account, with no such ability:
Brilliant Industries does not create a bank account for the personal credit card of the owner because it is a personal account. The owner’s use of the personal credit card will be recorded in the Expense Claims tab.
View account balances
By default, all accounts are combined into an automatic control account named Cash & cash equivalents for Balance Sheet reporting. Foreign currencies are converted into your base currency on the Balance Sheet according to exchange rates you have entered. This is necessary so books are balanced in your base currency.
Example
Drilling down from Cash & cash equivalents on Brilliant Industries’ balance sheet on the Summary page shows the sum of all account balances converted to Australian dollars, the base currency, as well as their denominated currencies (with actual, not cleared, balances):
Note that the Australian dollar balance includes both the main business account and the petty cash account.
Brilliant can see individual bank transactions by drilling down on any of the blue figures:
Note
In the Bank and Cash Accounts tab, you can find information about all accounts, even if you have modified your chart of accounts so they are reported on the Balance Sheet under different control accounts.