Account Types (NEW)

This page explains the different account types used in the JobBag Chart of Accounts, how they behave, and how they are displayed in financial reports.

Posting Accounts (Including Bank Accounts)

Posting Accounts are the accounts where all transactions are posted. Although there are several account types in JobBag, only posting accounts can have transactions recorded against them.

Example: Bank accounts are posting accounts.

Key Rules for Posting Accounts

• Posting accounts must add to a Total account on the same financial statement
• A posting account assigned to the Profit & Loss cannot add to a Total account on the Balance Sheet, and vice versa

Natural Sign of Accounts

Posting accounts have a natural sign, meaning they normally carry either:

• a Debit balance, or
• a Credit balance

This affects how balances are displayed and how transactions are generated.

Examples:

• Revenue accounts normally have a credit balance
• Asset accounts normally have a debit balance

When an account’s balance matches its natural sign, it appears as a positive balance. When it is the opposite, it appears as a negative balance.

Exceptions

There are two exceptions to this behaviour:

1. The account is configured to display a different name when the balance is opposite to its natural sign
2. The account is paired with a non-posting account

Paired Accounts (Posting and Non-Posting)

Paired Posting Accounts

Posting accounts may be paired with a non-posting account so that when their balance is opposite to the natural sign, the balance appears elsewhere on the same financial statement.

Common example:

• A Bank account normally appears under Current Assets
• If the balance becomes negative, it may be paired with a Bank Overdraft account under Current Liabilities

Paired Non-Posting Accounts

A paired non-posting account:

• Exists only to support a paired posting or total account
• Has no transactions posted to it
• Appears on the financial statement when the paired account has a balance opposite to its natural sign

Rules for paired non-posting accounts:

• Must have the opposite natural sign to the paired account
• Must appear on the same financial statement
• Must add to a Total account on that statement

Totalling Mode and Reset Behaviour

Posting accounts have a Totalling Mode that controls how balances are handled at period-end and year-end.

Revenue and Expense Accounts

• Use Period-to-Date totalling mode
• Reset to zero at the end of each period
• Balances are transferred to a Reset account at period-end and year-end

The Reset account must use a Cumulative totalling mode.

In the default JobBag chart, the reset account is 8200 – Retained Earnings Brought Forward (this can be changed).

Balance Sheet Accounts

• Use Cumulative totalling mode
• Do not reset at the end of the period or year

Totalling Accounts

Totalling accounts accumulate balances from accounts that add to them.

Key characteristics:

• Have a natural sign and totalling mode
• Must add to another Total account
• Cannot have transactions posted to them
• Cannot be mapped to kinds, bank accounts, or job types

A Total account does not reset independently—its balance is derived from the accounts that add to it.

Supplementary Accounts

Supplementary accounts are a type of Total account that appear only in user-defined reports.

They:

• Do not appear in standard financial statements
• Are used for analysis by division, department, or employee

Example Use Case

• Create posting accounts for each employee’s expenses
• Add them to Total Operating Expenses in the main chart
• Assign each posting account to an employee-specific Supplementary account
• Build a user-defined report to analyse expenses by employee or department

Supplementary accounts can also add to other supplementary accounts for layered reporting.

Heading

Text accounts are used as headings on financial statements.

• They do not hold balances
• Transactions cannot be posted to them
• They have no natural sign, totalling mode, or supplementary relationships

How to Create a New Chart of Accounts

The same Create New Account window is used for all six account types.

• The fields displayed depend on the account type selected
• Rules specific to each account type can be viewed by clicking Help within the Create New Account window