Override the GL account in AP transactions

Configure Accounts Payable to override a default AP GL account for a bill or adjustment. Specifically, you can select an alternative GL account as an override for the following:

  • For an entire transaction
  • At the line-item level
  • For all transactions involving a specific vendor

Currently, this feature applies to bills and adjustments only. It doesn't apply to recurring bills, manual payments, or advances.

When you enter bill or adjustment, you can select an alternative AP account from a predefined list of accounts.

About overrides

By default, transactions entered in Accounts Payable are posted to the GL account selected on Configure Accounts Payable page.

Administrators can configure Sage Intacct to enable users to select different GL accounts when entering bills or adjustments by following the instructions in Set up GL account override.

After the override accounts are set up, they are available for selection on bills and adjustments. Additionally, transactions posted to these GL accounts are automatically included in aging and ledger reports.

If you post unpaid bills or open invoices to an alternative account and then deactivate that account, you must reactivate it to post transactions against the bills or invoices.

There are several reasons that you might want to override General Ledger accounts. Some examples are:

  • To separate out certain types of receivables or payables, for example regular customers and advances made to employees.
  • To differentiate by business type, such as retail and wholesale.
  • To differentiate by product lines, such as hardware and software.
  • To separate purchase types such as capital purchase or trade purchase.
  • To track inventory and non-inventory items separately.

Override the default GL account

If your company has override enabled, you can override the default GL account for a bill or adjustment for every line item, or just at the line-item level.

To override the GL account for every line item in an AP transaction:

  1. In the bill or adjustment page, in the Entries section select Show defaults.

  2. In the Entries default section in AP account, select the account that you want to override the default GL account.

The account you select is populated to all the line items in the transaction. Intacct overrides the default GL account for the entire transaction.

To override the GL account for a specific line item in an AP transaction:

  1. In the bill or adjustment page, scroll down to the specific line item in the Entries section.
  2. In AP account, select the account that you want to override the configured GL account.

Intacct overrides the default GL account for just this line item.

Overriding a GL account in AP affects the Aging Report. When you include overriding GL accounts in the configuration and select the AP GL Accounts to override, any transactions created after the change are picked up in the Aging Report. Previous transactions are not changed.

Set up GL account override

To set up override capability in AP, enable the override option and select one or more GL accounts as alternative GL accounts. Then, provide permissions to individual users to select alternative accounts to override the default GL account in transactions.

You can also set up an alternative GL account per vendor.

Enable GL account override

Tag GL accounts for use in overriding the default GL account

After you enable override in AP, you can tag a GL account for use as an alternative payables account.

  1. Go to General Ledger > All > General Ledger accounts.

  2. Select Edit beside the account that you want to use as an alternative GL account in transactions.

  3. In GL account alternative, select the Payables account as the type of transaction account that this account can override.

  4. Select Save.

This account now appears in dropdown lists of alternative GL accounts in bill, bill adjustment, and vendor pages:

Provide permission for a user to select an alternative GL account

You can change permissions to enable individual users to override the default GL account with an alternative account.

  1. Go to Company > Admin > Users, roles, and groups > Users.

  2. Find the appropriate user.

  3. Select Edit at the end of the row.

  4. In the User configuration section, select Subscriptions.

    The User application subscriptions page for that user appears.

  5. Next to Accounts Payable, select Permissions.

  6. On the permissions page, find Bills or Adjustments, and select Override AP account.

  7. Select Save.

  1. Go to Company > Admin > Users, roles, and groups > Users.

  2. Find the appropriate user, and in the same row select Subscriptions.

    The User application subscriptions page for that user appears.

  3. Find Accounts Payable, and select Permissions.
  4. On the permissions page, find Bills or Adjustments, and select Override AP account.
  5. Select Save.

This user now has permission to override the default GL account for the selected transactions with an alternative GL account.

Set an alternative GL account per vendor

If you want to use a GL account for overriding all transactions involving a specific vendor, you can select that GL account in the Vendor information page.

  1. Go to Accounts Payable > All > Vendors.

  2. Find the vendor that you want to update.

  3. Select Edit at the end of the row.

    To see the Edit option for a vendor, you need the following:

    • Access to the entity where the vendor was originally created.

      For example, if the vendor was created at the top-level, you need to slide into the top level to edit it. If you do not have access to that level, you cannot edit the vendor record.

    • Access to entities where the vendor is restricted.

      For example, say you are a restricted user with top-level access. If a top-level vendor is restricted to the West entity, and you do not have access to that entity, you cannot edit the vendor record at the top level.

    • Permission to edit vendors.

  4. In the Additional Information tab, under Billing details, select the account you want to use as the override.

  5. Select Save.

  1. Go to Accounts Payable > All > Vendors.

  2. Select Edit beside the appropriate vendor.

  3. In the Additional Information tab, under Billing details, select the account you want to use as the override.

  4. Select Save.

Moving forward, whenever you create a transaction involving this vendor, Intacct automatically defaults the GL account to the alternative account selected here.

Order of precedence in a transaction with multiple alternative accounts

Intacct follows a set order of precedence for use of Accounts Payable GL alternative accounts in transactions. The following table provides examples of the order of precedence:

Examples AP setting Alternative GL account choices Account used
  Transaction choice Line-level choice Vendor choice  

1

2000-AP

      

2000-AP: configured AP setting

2

2000-AP

2002-AP Trade

    

2002-AP Trade: alternative transaction choice

3

2000-AP

  

2003-AP Exp

  
  • 2003-AP Exp: alternative for specific line-level item
  • 2000-AP: for remaining line items

4

2000-AP

    

2001-AP Other

2001-AP Other: alternative vendor choice

5

2000-AP

2002-AP Trade

  

2001-AP Other

2002-AP Trade: Transaction choice

6

2000-AP

  

2003-AP Exp

2001-AP Other
  • 2003-AP Exp: alternative for specific line-level item
  • 2001-AP Other: Vendor alternative for remaining line items

7

2000-AP

2002-AP Trade

2003-AP Exp

2001-AP Other

2002-AP Trade: alternative transaction choice