Organize account groups

Account groups are a powerful tool for reporting and dashboards, but it does require some understanding to organize them well. The considerations in the topic will help you set up your account groups so that experienced and new users alike can find the right account group and use it effectively.

Organize your account groups

It's typical to begin by creating account groups that will consist only of individual GL accounts or categories. Then create the types of account groups that contain other account groups, those that are part of a computational formula, and so on. These account groups are more likely to form the basis of your financial reports.

Consider expandability

One of the primary considerations when organizing your account groups is extendability, controlling what happens when new accounts are added.

As you add accounts, you need only to make sure they're in the right account group for them to be included in reports that use that group. Generally, this means using an account number that falls within an account number range or category set up for this purpose.

For example, if you have an account group for Accounts Payable that includes account group members assigned the category Accounts Payable, adding an account and assigning it to the Accounts Payable category automatically includes the account in the account group.

Similarly, if you have an account group for Cash and Equivalents that uses the Account numbers 1000 to 1500, creating an account that uses the account number 1450 automatically includes the account in the account group. In this case, consider how many accounts you're likely to add, and set up the account number range accordingly.

Use the account group purpose

The account group purpose was designed to make organizing your account groups easier. By providing each account group with an account group purpose, users can filter even large numbers of account groups to see only relevant groups.

Standardizing purpose names also ensures that as accounts get added to groups and account groups get added, filtering for purpose is consistent.

For example, if you have an account group that's a group of accounts, you might want to include an account group purpose. In this case, account group purposes let users filter the list by just a section of the report.

Standardize naming conventions

If your company was set up using a QuickStart, you were provided with some account groups out of the box. These account group names cannot be changed.

In many cases, the Account Group Purpose can act as a naming convention.

Best Practice is to share common account groups across reports in which you are using the same groupings routinely and don't change in grouping frequently, such as "Expenses." This will help you easily tie across statements, but it also means that changes to these account groups can have a greater impact and need to be considered carefully.

Best practice is to use a separated set of account groups if you are creating a dedicated report with custom account groupings. Use the Acct Group Purpose or a Prefix on the Acct Group name when working with the Dedicated report for ease of working with these groups.

If your format is for a specific entity, include an entity identifier if you're creating account groups at the top level of a multi-entity company.

Always either spell out the full name or always use an acronym. Consistency is key.

Shared groups

A shared group is a group where a same account group is used on multiple reports. These shared groups can be quite useful and make reconciling across reports easier. Keep in mind, however, that they sometimes have the unwanted effect where changes to the account group cascade into all reports.

For example, if you have an account group called "Assets" that's used in several reports, adding another account or account group to that group will include the new addition into all reports that use the Assets account group.

Best practice when sharing account groups depends on your company setup and reporting needs.

The Account group purpose can be used to tag the section of the report that the account group belongs with to make it easier to build.

Hierarchies

Groups of accounts

The simplest account group is 1-level deep, and consists of member accounts. When you’re establishing an account group hierarchy, start by creating groups of member accounts.

• To create a group of GL accounts, select Accounts as the structure type.
• To create a group of statistical accounts, select Statistical accounts as the structure type.

If your company was configured using a setup template, you already have a set of predefined account groups based on the Category or Statistical category. These work the same way as groups of accounts or statistical accounts, except that they’re based on the category assigned to accounts rather than a specific list of accounts. Learn more about category-based account groups.

Groups of groups

After you've created a group of member accounts, you can build the next level of the hierarchy, which consists of groups that contain other groups.

For example, you might create a "Current Assets" account group that contains other account groups.

Appearance on Reports

When you design your account groups, keep in mind where you want headings and totals to appear, and where you want your grand totals. On income statements, it's typical to have only 1 account group (Net income), which contains other account groups. That way, your income statements contain a grand total for Net income.