Chart of Account Setup

Introduction

Setting up the General Ledger is a foundational step in configuring your Route Accounting system, ensuring that all financial transactions are accurately recorded and reported. The General Ledger serves as the central hub for tracking your company’s financial activity, including sales, inventory movements, payments, and adjustments. By properly defining your chart of accounts and mapping key operational processes—such as invoicing, cash collections, and inventory transactions—you enable seamless integration between your day-to-day operations and financial reporting. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to set up and configure your General Ledger, helping you maintain accurate records, support compliance, and gain clear visibility into your business performance.

Prerequisite

The AR Add on must be enabled in AAC.

Setups

Chart of Accounts – this is required before the GL accounts are assigned to any part of the application

1. Go to AR > General Ledger > Chart of Accounts
2. Click on +New
   • Account Number – this is the unique identifier of the GL account
   • Name – this is the name of the GL account
   • Account Type – There are 5 to choose from:

• Asset: Resources owned by the business that provide future economic benefit (e.g., cash, inventory, equipment). 
• Liability: Obligations the business owes to others (e.g., payables, loans, accrued expenses). 
• Equity: The owner’s residual interest in the business after liabilities are deducted from assets. 
• Revenue: Income earned from normal business operations, such as sales of goods or services. 
• Expense: Costs incurred to operate the business and generate revenue (e.g., rent, salaries, utilities).

See below for sample accounts that can be set up:

Company / Branch Level GL Setup – This is required on the Accounting tab of the Company setup.

• AR GL Account
  • Used whenever invoices are posted (debit AR).
• Cash GL Account
  • Used for payments received (debit Cash/Bank).

Impact if missing:

• Transactions that need these accounts fail posting.

Item Setup - requires GL setup of items being invoiced to ensure that every transaction automatically posts to the correct financial accounts. 

On Item > Accounting tab, dropdowns are restricted by GL account type - these are all required for inventory items. 

1. Sales Revenue - Only GL accounts of type Revenue. (if item is non-inventory, all GL accounts are shown)
2. Discount - Only GL accounts of type Expense.
3. Cost of Goods - Only GL accounts of type Expense.
4. Inventory Adjustments - Only GL accounts of type Assets. The Company AR account is removed from this list.
5. Inventory Shrinkage - Only GL accounts of type Expense
6. Inventory Gain - Only GL accounts of type Revenue
7. Inventory Clearing - Only GL accounts of type Liability

Note: for non-inventory items, only Sales Revenue will be required.

Sales Tax GL Setup

• On Sales Tax Rate screen:
  • Add dropdown to assign GL Account #.
  • Filter available accounts to GL accounts of type Liability.
• Posting:
  • Transaction posting allocates tax to the selected tax liability GL account per tax rate.

Key GL-related rule across them:

• All GL allocations for sales tax are based on rounded per-authority tax amounts; unrounded 4-decimal values are stored only for audit.

Missing Item/Sales Tax Rate GL Accounts – Posting Behavior

When an item has no GL accounts configured, inventory transaction posting:

This refers to posting from the Transactions > Posting function as well as the Inventory Posting functions.

Examples:

 Once these Chart of Accounts/GL setups are done, transactions can be posting without issue.