&Michael.T.Edwardes; &Michael.T.Edwardes.mail;
&Roger.Lum; &Roger.Lum.mail;
2010-07-25
4.5

# Accounts

## The Accounts View

The Accounts View provides a summary of all the accounts. There are four different account categories: Asset, Liability, Income, and Expense. Typical asset accounts include bank accounts, cash, and investments, while typical liability accounts include credit cards and loans.

There are two ways to view the accounts: List or Icon view, which may be selected by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the view.

In the List view, the accounts are grouped under four headings: Asset, Liability, Income, and Expense. List view shows the name and balance or value of each account. Income and Expense list the categories that each transaction is filed under, and provide similar functionality to the Categories screen. The options and features involving Income and Expense accounts are described in detail in the Categories chapter. The rest of this chapter will focus on Asset and Liability account functionality.

In the Icon view, the Asset and Liability accounts are shown with icons indicating the account type. &kappname; initially places the icons alphabetically, but you can move the icons to any position you want, just by dragging the icon with the mouse. Note, however, that just moving an icon does not currently trigger &kappname; to think that any data has been changed. This means that you need to make some other change, such as editing an account or a transaction and saying OK (even without actually changing any data) so &kappname; allows you to save the file. The saved file will include the new icon positions.

## Creating an Account

NOTE: You must have a file open before you can create a new account. If you do not have an existing file, you will need to create a new file.

To create a new account, you can either select Account New account... from the menu or choose the New icon from the toolbar.

Alternatively, to create an account using the accounts view, click on the Accounts icon in the view selector and then right click on the Asset tree icon in the right hand view and select New account... from the popup menu. The Asset tree holds all of your accounts that are an asset. Assets, and all the other account types, are discussed in more detail later in this manual.

### The Institution (Bank) name

Account Wizard

The first step involves selecting an institution for the account. If this is an account for an institution you have already created, you can select the institution from the dropdown list. If you want to create a new institution, click on the New Institution button. This will bring up the New Institution Dialog, as described in the previous section. If this is not a bank account, or if you do not want to use online banking, you do not need to specify an institution.

The Account Number and the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) are not currently used by &kappname;. These fields may be left blank and filled in at a later time; they are only required for online banking.

To proceed to the next step click on Next.

### Account

Account Wizard

This page is used to configure the type of account.

First, enter a name for the account. This name will be used to identify it.

Next, select the type of account from one of the types available from the dropdown list:

Checking

  A normal checking account, the type you get with any bank or credit union.

Savings

  A normal savings account, the type you get with any bank or credit union.

Credit Card

  An account to represent your credit card.

Cash

  A general purpose account, typically used for accounts not held at a bank, such as the cash in your wallet.

Loan

  An account to manage a loan for money either borrowed or lent. With a Loan account &kappname; automatically calculates interest payments to help you track the remaining principal on the loan. Loans with no interest might use the plain Asset or Liability type below, depending on whether the money is lent or borrowed.

Investment

  An account to manage an investment such as stocks or investment funds.

Asset

  An account to manage an asset that does not fit in one of the above types.

Liability

  An account to manage a liability such as money you borrowed or a future expense. If interest needs to be calculated, you might be better using the Loan type above.

Select the currency to be used for the account from the dropdown list.

Enter the date the account was opened or select it from the calendar using the icon to the right.

Enter the opening balance for the account. If this is an existing bank account this information can be found on your statement. If it is a new account, the opening balance can be left at zero.

Selecting the Preferred Account check box will allow preferred access in some dialogs and views of &kappname;.

To proceed to the next step click on Next.

### Credit Card Accounts

When creating a Credit Card account, you can optionally have &kappname; create a scheduled transaction for you.

Account Wizard

If you want such a transaction generated, make sure the tick box is checked and enter the required information.

Click on Next to continue.

### Investment Accounts

For Investment accounts, you have the option to create an associated Brokerage account. For more information see Investments

Account Wizard

### Loan Accounts

Loan accounts are special accounts used to help you manage Loans with interest and scheduled repayments. By providing &kappname; with information about the loan, &kappname; can help you track interest payments and the remaining principal of the loan.

Account Wizard

On the Details page you enter the general information about the loan.

First, select whether you are borrowing or lending money. If you are borrowing money the loan will be listed in Accounts under Liabilities. If you are lending money the loan will be listed under Assets.

Next, select the payee or payer of the loan. As always, if the name doesn't yet exist in the Payees list, enter it here and &kappname; will create it for you.

The next three items are for handling Loans on which you've already made payments. If you select Yes in the "Have you made/received any payments yet?" item you can then select whether you want to record all payments or just those from the beginning of the current year. If you want to record from the beginning of the current year, you are than asked to input the current balance.

Then, select how often payments will be made and how often interest is compounded. Compounding is where the interest is added to the amount owed on the loan so that when the interest is next calculated there will be more interest paid on the interest. It's common for interest to be compounded at the same frequency that payments are made.

Next, enter the date the first recorded payment will be made.

Finally, enter information about how the interest rate varies. If the loan is fixed-rate there is nothing to do. If the rate varies, select Variable in "Type of interest rate" and then enter the interval between interest rate changes and the date the first change of interest rate is due: &kappname; will ask you to update the interest rate when that date arrives.

Account Wizard

The Payments page is where you enter the payment and interest values for the loan.

First, select whether the interest rate is calculated when the payment is received or when it becomes due. If you don't know, leave it on the default value.

Next, enter the following values:

Loan amount

  The amount of the loan.

Interest rate

  The annual percentage interest rate of the loan.

Term

  The length of the loan. Enter a number and select either Months or Years.

Payment (principal and interest)

  The amount paid for each loan payment. This is the total of the principal and interest paid with each payment.

Balloon payment

  Additional final payment made at the end of the term to pay off the remaining principal of the loan. For a repayment loan this is often zero. For an interest-only loan this will be the same as the loan amount.

Finally, use the Calculate button to check the values you have entered. You must have entered either all or all but one of the values listed above. If you omit two or more values the button is disabled because it is not possible to check that the entered values are consistent: in that case you will not be able to use the Loan account facility in &kappname; and will instead have to use a Liability or Asset account to track the loan manually.

If you omit one value &kappname; will try to calculate it for you. If you have entered all values &kappname; will check the values are consistent. &kappname; will not adjust entered values other than the "Balloon payment", which it may adjust slightly to deal with rounding. If the values are inconsistent or &kappname; cannot calculate the omitted value &kappname; will let you know so that you can correct any errors and repeat the calculation.

Once the values are consistent the Next button is enabled and you can advance to the next page.

Account Wizard

The Fees page is where you can enter any fees added to the loan payments.

If there are any fees press the Additional Fees button. The Transaction Split editor will be displayed for entry of the fees. Any lines added here will be included in the payment schedule for the loan. When you save the splits the Fees page will display the principal and interest payment, the total additional fees and the total periodic payment.

Account Wizard

&kappname; will create a scheduled transaction for your loan. The Schedule page is where you enter the remaining details needed to create the schedule.

First enter the Category to which loan interest will be assigned. Then enter the account from which the loan payment will be made.

The page also displays the first payment date for which the Schedule will be created.

Account Wizard

Optionally, &kappname; can create a transaction representing what was received or paid when the loan was created.

If you borrowed or lent cash select the account from which or to which the loan amount was paid.

If you borrowed money to purchase a car you can select or create an Asset account to help you track the value of the new car.

If you re-financed an existing Loan check the "Refinance existing loan" check box, select the Loan account and &kappname; will create a transfer transaction paying off the existing loan.

If you don't want to create the payout transaction, check the "Do not create transaction" check box.

### Parent Account

Parent Account Account Wizard

This is the penultimate step in creating a new account. A tree of accounts is displayed. The tree will be of your Asset or Liability accounts, depending on the type of account that is being created.

Select the account you wish contain the new account. If you do not select a parent account, the new account will be created at the top level.

The Parent Account page is not currently shown for Loans because they cannot be created as subaccounts. Also, Investment accounts cannot contain other accounts so they are not shown in the tree.

### Review and save the account details

Review Account Wizard

This is the final step in creating a new account. A summary of the information entered is displayed. Review it, and if everything is OK press the Finish button. Otherwise, either press the Back button to make corrections or the Cancel button to abandon creating a new account.

NOTE: The Type and Currency cannot at present be changed after the account is created.

## Opening / viewing accounts

To open an account in the Ledger view you can either click on the link to the account from the Home view, or click on the Ledgers icon in the view selector and select the account in the drop down box at the top of the view. Alternatively, in the Account view, either double-click the account entry or right click and select Open ledger.

## Editing Account Information

To edit a particular account, right-click that account and choose Edit account.... A details window will pop-up. This window allows you to change the name and start or opening date of the account, associated banking institution, and the parent account. Changing the parent account is also possible in the main Accounts screen, by dragging the account and dropping it on a different parent account. In this window, you can also create a new banking institution and associate the account with that institution.

Edit an account Edit account information

## Deleting accounts

To delete an account, first remove all the transactions from that account in the ledger. Next, find the account in the accounts view and after right clicking on the entry to show the popup menu select Delete account... from the popup menu.

If you are unable to delete an account which looks like it has no transactions in it, check your filter. See Settings Configure &kappname; General Filter . Clear all filters. Set the start date to 1.1.1900 or so.

There may be transactions in your ledger that are not shown, for example, if you have inadvertently typed in the wrong year when making an entry so that an entry remains outside the opening date of &kappname;. This appears beneath the ledger page as remaining funds.