Chart of Accounts

Overview

Chart of Accounts is a list of all the accounts that your company identifies and makes available for recording transactions in its general ledger. A company has the flexibility to tailor its chart of accounts to best suit its needs. The accounts vary from one industry to another. When a new company is created, BQE CORE offers you a pre-filled chart of accounts to use for your business. After selecting a template, you can add, edit, or delete accounts to customize it further. Click to watch this video on creating accounts in CORE.

Chart of Accounts are generally parent accounts with sub-accounts under them. Some account types are fiscal year-to-date and others are from inception. You can create balance sheet accounts like asset, liability and equity (for example, bank, A/R, credit card and retainer) that never reset or non-balance sheet accounts called profit and loss accounts (say, income and expense) that are year-to-date and reset. Balance sheet accounts have a running balance.

From the functionality viewpoint, the Chart of Accounts screen is used to set up general ledger accounts, check the debit, credit and running balances of accounts, view registers and reconcile accounts. It displays a list of active accounts. You can look into the detailed registers that itemize each transaction, thus allowing you to track possible mistakes.

There are primarily five accounts under two account types, which can further have their own sub-accounts.

Note: You can get a visual overview of this feature in CORE from the General Accounting flowchart. You can also check the Account FAQs here.

Field Descriptions

How To

Create New Accounts

Edit Accounts

Create Trust Fund Accounts

Add Custom Fields

Add Documents

Send Accounts

View Audit Trail

Use Account Registers

Reconcile Accounts

Merge Accounts

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

Expand/Collapse Sub-Accounts

Import Chart of Accounts

Export Chart of Accounts

Set Starting Balances for Migrated Accounts

View Reports

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Create New Accounts

To create a new account, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. Click Create New Account on the top-right.
3. On the New Account > General screen, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   
   
    
   • Type: or category of account
   • Name
   • Bank Account Number
   • Account Number: it is not the actual bank account number, but rather the Chart of Accounts number in CORE.
   • Status
4. You can enter other information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    
   • Sub-Account of
   • Cost Pool
   • Restrict Posting to Parent Account
   • IRS Form 1099 Category
     
5. Click Save & Done or Save & Create New.
6. Next, on the Starting Balance tab, you can enter the Starting Balance individually for your non-migrated accounts or from the detail view. For migrated accounts, however, you must always use the bulk update option. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   •  
     • Starting Balance Date
     • Starting Balance
       
       
7. Click Save to save the account, or Save & Create New to continue adding additional accounts.

Edit Account

You can view, enter, and edit account details in the detail mode. However, you cannot delete accounts that have transactions; if no longer needed, make them inactive instead.

To edit an account, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. Select all accounts on the grid that you want to delete and click Actions > Delete. Alternatively, you can use the row-action menu to delete them individually.
3. In the list view, click on the account row that you want to edit and select Detail.
   
   
4. On the Edit Account > General screen, enter more details or make changes, as needed.
5. Click Save & Done.

Create Trust Fund Accounts

In some situations, professionals hold money in trust funds for their beneficiary clients. The legal industry (including attorneys, lawyers, paralegals) typically use interest-bearing trust fund accounts to hold the client retainers or settlements on the client's behalf. So, the legal industry has an obligation to follow well-laid out conventions to manage the clients' trust funds. These funds are separate from their firm's own funds (called operative banks accounts) as they belong to their clients, and they are only holding them in 'trust' as a fiduciary. This means that attorneys and lawyers can only spend the funds in a manner that conforms with the laws and regulations. So, lawyers who receive the trust funds must place them in a trust fund account that can be a separate bank or deposit account (Bank IOLTA) in which the money is owned by your client, managed by your company and can be used to pay off your client's liability.

A Bank IOLTA account is a checking account that earns interest on the funds in the account. The interest is given to the state's IOLTA board because attorneys or lawyers cannot keep the interest earned on the client's money.  Some trust fund accounts are created under the company's Tax ID while some are under the client’s Tax ID. Interest accrued on those with company's Tax ID is paid to the state.

You can create multiple trust fund accounts of the type Bank (IOLTA) for your clients to track the amount of funds you receive from them. Along with that, you must also have a trust fund liability account to track all the accounting. You need to decide whether to assign a separate trust account to each client project (matter) or a single account to multiple matters. We recommend maintaining a separate trust fund account and liability account for each client’s matter. This ensures that each trust fund’s transactions are well-maintained and easily reported.

To create a new trust fund account, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
2. Click Create New Account on the top-right.
3. On the Add Account screen, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Type: Bank (IOLTA)
   • Name
   • Account Number
   • Trust Liability Account
     
     
      
4. You can enter other information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Sub-Account of
   • Cost Pool
5. Click Save & Done.

The trust fund is created for your client. However, you cannot specify an opening balance for this account because all its transaction should be linked to a project. So, you can enter the opening balance for this account from the Payments screen by recording a payment as 'Accept as Trust Fund'.

Add Custom Fields

Using custom fields, you can track extra characteristics and attributes of your accounts. You can enter any information (up to 50 characters) about the account. You can even customize these fields in the Custom Labels screen.

To add a custom field, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
2. In the list view, select an account on the grid and click to select Detail.
3. On the Edit Account screen, go to the Custom Fields tab.
   
   
    
4. Click Add Custom Field and select the type of field you want depending on the purpose, say Text Box.
5. On the Add Text Box dialog, enter the required information:
   • Name
   • Type
   • # of Characters
6. Check Show in List View if you want this field to appear under the Show/Hide Columns list and show up on the grid. Click Save.

Note: You can display a maximum of three custom fields on the list view per screen.

You can also check the detailed video on managing custom fields in CORE.

Add Documents

To add a document to a client record, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
2. In the list view, select an account on the grid and click to select Detail.
3. On the Edit Account screen, go to the Documents tab and click Add.
   
   
    
4. On the Add Documents dialog, select the relevant tab, depending on the type of attachment.
   • Computer: To attach files stored on your computer, enter its Description and drag your file or click to browse to that location.
   • Hyperlink: To attach an external link, enter its Description and then insert the hyperlink.
   • Dropbox: To link files stored in your Dropbox account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
   • Google Drive: To link files stored in your Google Drive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
   • OneDrive: To link files stored in your Microsoft OneDrive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
   • Box: To link files stored in your Box account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
   • Resource Library: To link company resources, select the resource from the library. This is available in CORE CRM only.
5. Click Add.

CORE pre-fills some of the information about the attached documents in the grid. You can send the documents to your clients, employees or other contacts for getting their digital or electronic signatures (eSignature via DocuSign) using the eSign option from the row-action menu. CORE automatically adds the signed documents to the Documents folder of the entity (record) as separate attachments. It displays the status of the document, whether it has been delivered via DocuSign, viewed by the recipients, declined or completed by the recipients, etc. This column does not show up if you are not connected via the DocuSign integration. You can also check the detailed video on managing documents in CORE.

Send Accounts

In CORE, you can send the chart of accounts to your accounting program, such as QuickBooks Online, Xero and MYOB AccountRight.

To send an account to your accounting program, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click on the account row that you want to send and select Detail.
3. On the Edit Account screen, click Actions > Send To on the top-right.
4. Select the relevant option from the drop-down, say QuickBooks. Your data is sent.

CORE allows you to send accounts to QuickBooks using the Send to QuickBooks option from the row-action menu in the list view. You can send a maximum of 25 records from the chart of account list to QuickBooks without having to drill down into the detail view. CORE displays a progress bar when sending these records to QuickBooks.

View Audit Trail

CORE allows you to track all key actions taken in Chart of Accounts. You can view actions, and know who performed them, and when someone performed them. 

To view audit trail, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. Select an account on the grid and click the row-action menu to select View Audit Trail.
3. On the Audit Trail screen, select an account on the grid and click Preview on its row to track its changes.
   

Use Account Registers

Balance Sheet accounts have a register associated with them. You cannot, however, open a register for inactive accounts.

To view an account register, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click Use Register on the account row whose register you want to view. You can also open it from the detail view.
3. On the Registers screen, you can see the transaction details of the account and create new transactions. Check Registers for details.

Reconcile Accounts

You can perform reconciliation on any bank or credit card account using this option. However, you cannot reconcile the system accounts (with account numbers 12000, 12010, 3900 and 2200) and tax accounts (with account numbers 25100, 25200, 25300 and 25400).

To reconcile an account, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click on the account row that you want to reconcile and select Reconcile. You can also do it from the detail view. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
3. On the Reconcile Accounts dialog, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Statement Date:  statement's end date.
   • Statement Balance: ending balance of the statement being reconciled
   • Service Charge, Date and Account
   • Interest Charge, Date and Account
     
     
      
4. Click Continue.
5. On the Reconciliations screen, you can sort the columns by date or amount to save time in searching for records for reconciliation. You can also select the relevant date range from the Period drop-down. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
6. Typically, the Cleared Balance is zero when you begin a reconciliation session for the first time. You can view the cleared transactions in CORE and check them off one by one by checking their Clear box against Checks/Payments so that the closing balance (cleared balance) in CORE is the same as the statement balance. Select the deposits or credits to clear, if any. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

7. Next, click Save Reconciliation > Final. If the Difference Balance is $0, your accounts are reconciled!
   
   Note: CORE auto saves your reconciliation details as a draft or you can save them manually using Save Reconciliation > Draft. You can click Undo All to clear and reset all the changes made in this session, including the statement details. You can also click Continue Later to cancel the process and resume it later.  

8. However, if there is a discrepancy between the transactions in CORE and your statement balance, then CORE prompts you to choose one of the options. 

   • Auto Adjust: You can fix the issue by selecting Auto Adjust to force CORE to create a journal entry for the difference. The G/L entry created for the difference either debits or credits the Reconciliation Discrepancies - 66900 system account. You can set the Adjustment Date for that entry.
   • Cancel: You can use this option to return to the screen without making any adjustment. You can then fix the issue manually by opening that account register and entering the transaction there. When you return to Reconciliations, the new transaction is automatically added and you can clear it here.

   Note: If needed, you can click Modify Details anytime to go back to the Reconcile Accounts dialog and make changes there.

Merge Accounts

CORE allows you to merge one account with another. All the attachments of the source account get merged into the destination account. However, you cannot merge accounts of different types, accounts linked to cloud feeds, accounts that have been reconciled, and parent accounts with their sub-accounts.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click on the account row that you want to merge and select Merge. You are prompted if the account being merged is linked to an accounting software.
3. On the Merge Accounts dialog, select a destination account from the drop-down into which you want to merge your account.
4. Click Merge.

You can also check the detailed video on merging data in CORE.

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

You can configure the fields or columns that appear on the grid in the list view. You can hide or show columns, and sort the order of columns according to your requirements.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click More > Show/Hide Columns on the action bar.
3. Select or unselect the column names in the drop-down list, say Number.
4. Next, click the column name you want to sort the data by, say Type.
5. Click once for ascending order (A-Z) and twice for descending order (Z-A).

Note: You can resize the column widths on the grid and then reset them, if needed (More > Reset Column Widths).

You can also check the detailed video on navigation and customizing grids in CORE.

Expand/Collapse Sub-Accounts

CORE allows you to indicate if you want to see the Chart of Accounts list view expanded to reveal the hierarchical accounts and sub-accounts or as collapsed. This preference is remembered for the logged in user.

To expand or collapse the account hierarchy, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click More > Expand Sub-Accounts or Collapse Sub-Accounts, as needed.

The list view grid will display the Chart of Accounts accordingly.

Import Chart of Accounts

CORE allows you to import accounts into the Chart of Accounts screen from a .CSV file. This is especially useful during implementation or bulk data migration, as it enables you to rapidly populate account data without manual entry.

To import accounts, follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. Click More > Import Accounts from CSV.
3. On the Import Accounts from CSV dialog, choose the CSV (UTF-8) file to be imported. You can drag-and-drop the file or click to browse to its location. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
4. Click Upload.
5. Select the appropriate CSV header for each CORE field listed. Each record must include the required fields (Name, Account Number, and Type) for the import to complete successfully. Click Continue.
   
   
    
6. Next, CORE displays a summary of the records based on your field mappings. This step allows you to verify the imported data and confirm that each field is correctly matched before it is added to your Chart of Accounts. If any record appears incorrect or is missing required data, click Back to return to the mapping step and make adjustments.
   
   
7. Review the details and click Import.

Note: Records with missing required fields or incorrect data formats will not be imported.

Export Chart of Accounts

In CORE, you can export the chart of accounts to the Comma Separated Values file format. CORE exports data from all available columns and not just the columns visible in the grid.

To export the chart of accounts to a .CSV file, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click More > Export as CSV.
3. A .csv export file is created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. Click to open the spreadsheet.

You can also check the detailed video on exporting data in CORE.

Set Starting Balances for Migrated Accounts

CORE allows you to enter the opening balances of all your financial accounts when you initially start using the system. These opening balances are crucial because they guarantee that your company's financial data remains accurate and consistent, seamlessly continuing from your previous accounting system. By entering these balances, you establish a clear and precise financial position as of the date you migrate to CORE. A starting balance reflects the amount carried over in each account at the moment you transition to CORE. This encompasses all types of accounts, including assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses, capturing their status exactly as they were before you began recording any new, live transactions within CORE.

To enter starting balances, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click More > Starting Balances.
3. On the Starting Balances dialog, review the welcome message and click Get Started.
   
   
4. Enter the Starting Balance Date from which CORE should begin recording opening balances. This date must be after your go live date.
   
   
5. Under Account Balances, enter the debit or credit starting balance amount for your imported accounts. Leave blank or enter 0 if there is no balance. If a warning appears, review existing transactions by clicking View Transactions.
6. In the Balance Review section, verify that Debit Totals and Credit Totals match. If they do not, select an Adjustment Account to balance the difference automatically.
   
   
7. Click Complete Setup to save your starting balances.

View Reports

To view a report, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
2. In the list view, click More > View Reports.
   
   
    
3. In the list view, click More > View Reports.
4. Select a report from the Report List dialog. It opens in the viewer.
5. Preview the report and then choose to export or print it.

You can also check the detailed video on running and managing reports in CORE.

Apply Filters

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click on the right.
3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down and specify individual records or range.
4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.
5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.
6. In the list view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking on each. To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings. 

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts screen from the side menu > Accounting.
   
   
    
2. In the list view, click on the top-right.
3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.