Define GL accounts for items—Purchasing

The applications Purchasing and Accounts Payable track expenses differently. Purchasing tracks expenses by items while Accounts Payable tracks expenses by GL account.

Posting a PO purchase invoice in Purchasing creates an AP supplier invoice in Accounts Payable. This AP supplier invoice is linked to the supplier defined on the PO purchase invoice. The item appears as a GL account on the AP supplier invoice.

This process is determined differently depending on whether your company is using standard workflows or advanced workflows.

Define GL accounts for items in standard workflows

In standard workflows, define GL accounts directly on the item.

The table below describes the item account fields.

Field	Description
Expense account	The expense account to debit for this item in a purchase transaction. This account is not applicable when the Item type is set to Non-Inventory (Sales only).
Accounts Payable GL account	The credit account (offset) for this item in a purchase transaction. Select an account in this field if you want to override the default Accounts Payable account defined on the Configure Purchasing page.

Troubleshoot standard workflow posting issues

The following table describes some common posting problems and provides possible solutions.

Problem	Possible solution
Expenses are posting to the incorrect expense account	On the Item information page, verify that the Expense account is correct.
Purchases are posting to the incorrect AP account	On the Item information page, verify that the Accounts Payable GL account is correct. On the Configure Purchasing page, verify that the Accounts Payable account is correct. Sage Intacct uses this account if there's no Accounts Payable GL account defined on the item.

Define GL accounts for items in advanced workflows

If you use advanced workflows, use item GL groups to control how items post to GL accounts.

How it works:

• Assign each item to an item GL group.

• Map each item GL group to the applicable accounts payable and purchase expense accounts in the transaction definition.

• When you create a transaction, Sage Intacct uses this mapping to post to the correct accounts.

Changes made to an item GL group affect transactions posted or edited after the change is made.

Troubleshoot advanced workflow posting issues

The following table describes some common posting problems and provides possible solutions.

Problem	Possible solution
Purchases are posting to the incorrect Accounts Payable account	On the Item information page, verify that the item GL group is correct. On the Posting configuration tab of the transaction definition, verify that the offset account for the item GL group is correct and that Is offset is selected. The AP account is typically the account credited when a PO purchase invoice is posted. The Item GL group, Warehouse, and Supplier GL group can be defined together as the criteria set for the account mapping. Make sure that the correct combination exists on the purchase transaction in question.
Purchasing expenses are posting to the incorrect expense account	On the Item information page, verify that the item GL group is correct. On the transaction definition, verify that the debit account for the item GL group in the Posting configuration tab is correct. The Item GL group, Warehouse, and Supplier GL group can be defined together as the criteria set for the account mapping. Ensure that the correct combination exists on the purchase transaction in question.