Review category assignments

When troubleshooting reports, one of the first steps to take is to review the category assignments. Companies that were created using a QuickStart template use category mapping for accounts. If an account is mapped to the wrong category, or to none at all, reports can provide unexpected results.

To find out if your company was created using a QuickStart template, look on the Accounting tab of Company info (Company > Setup > Configuration > Company). If a template was used, the type appears under Setup template. If the field is blank, the company was not set up using a template.

Best practices for reports

Here are some recommended best practices:

  • Assign a category to all accounts. Verify that the category assignment is correct.
  • Don't assign the Revenue category to accounts that will be used on the balance sheet report. The Revenue category doesn't flow into Intacct standard reporting.
  • Create a Smart Rule that requires that all accounts selected for the report have a category.

Assign or edit a category assignment

If an account has been assigned an incorrect category or is not assigned to a category, it must be updated to appear accurately within financial reports.

To add or edit an assignment for an account:

  1. Go to General Ledger > All > General Ledger Accounts.
  2. Find the account.

  3. Select Edit at the end of the row.

  4. Select the new or different category from the Category dropdown menu.
  5. Select Save.
  1. Go to General Ledger > All > General Ledger Accounts.
  2. Find the account and select Edit.
  3. Select the new or different category from the Category dropdown menu.
  4. Select Save.
The Interest expense category is configured to Credit normal, even though sometimes it's assumed to be Debit normal. This is intentional. The interest expense account has a debit balance as the default, but in reporting it appears as a negative amount, offsetting the interest income.

Create a custom view to see accounts not assigned to a category

The way a list is arranged, filtered, and sorted is called a view. Intacct provides standard views for displaying list items or recently viewed or modified list items. In addition, you can create your own custom views to display list items the way you need to see them.

To help troubleshoot your category assignments, create a custom view to find any unassigned accounts. To find accounts without a category associated, a custom view can be generated within the Accounts list.

  1. Go to General Ledger > All > General Ledger accounts.
  2. Select Manage views, and then select New from the dropdown menu.

  3. Proceed through the steps in the Create new view wizard:

    1. Give the new view a name, such as Category assignments.

    2. Include the following columns in the view:
      • Account number
      • Title
      • Account type
      • Normal balance
      • Closing account title
      • Close into account
      • Category
    3. Grab and drag the columns into the following order:
      • Account number
      • Title
      • Account type
      • Normal balance
      • Category
      • Closing account title
      • Close into account
    4. Select the filters that you want the view to use. For example, to show only the accounts that do not have a category assignment, set a filter using:
      • Column = Category
      • Operator = equals
      • Value = Null

    5. Optionally, drag the columns to sort the view.

      For example, instead of creating a filter in the previous step to show only accounts without an assignment, you can set the first column to sort by Category. Then sort the column by Ascending or Descending order. This shows all accounts associated with each category.

  4. Select Save.
  1. Go to General Ledger > All > General Ledger accounts.
  2. Select Manage views at the upper left of the page, then select Create new view from the dropdown menu.

  3. Proceed through the steps in the Create new view wizard:

    1. Include the following columns in the view:
      • Account number
      • Title
      • Account type
      • Normal balance
      • Closing account title
      • Close into account
      • Category
    2. Grab and drag the columns into the following order:
      • Account number
      • Title
      • Account type
      • Normal balance
      • Category
      • Closing account title
      • Close into account
    3. Select the filters that you want the view to use. For example, to show only the accounts that do not have a category assignment, set a filter using:
      • Column = Category
      • Operator = equals
      • Value = Null

    4. Optionally, drag the columns to sort the view.

      For example, instead of creating a filter in the previous step to show only accounts without an assignment, you can set the first column to sort by Category. Then sort the column by Ascending or Descending order. This shows all accounts associated with each category.

    5. Give the new view an appropriate name, such as Category assignments.
  4. Select Save.

When you save your view, you're returned to the Accounts list. Select the newly created view from the Views dropdown list. By default, All is selected. To change your view, select Edit from Manage views.

Use your new view to find GL accounts and some information about them, such as account type, normal balance, and category. This lets you see immediately that the category assignment is correct.