Your chart of accounts is the backbone to your organization’s finances. Since every organization is different, your chart of accounts should be different as well. This guide will cover the process of setting up your chart of accounts in Aplos, and includes a helpful webinar to walk you through these processes.

Adding a Fund

When creating a Fund, within Aplos, you will want to locate the Fund category on the page, and click on the “+ Add Fund” option:

This will then prompt you to assign a Name and Color for your Fund:

The color you choose will be helpful in identifying your Fund on the Chart of Accounts page, as well as, in the Fund Balance Chart that appears within your Register accounts (i.e. Checking, Savings, Credit Card):

Adding a New Account/Group

When creating an account, within Aplos, you will want to click the + sign on the Account Group where that account should be listed:

*If you need to create a new Account Group, you’ll find the option to add this from the bottom of each account category (shown below)*

From there, you will assign an account number and name, and can enter values for optional fields such as assigning a default fund, or making that account a sub-account:

Fund & Sub-Account

Populating the Fund field will assign a default fund for the account, so that the fund will automatically populate when recording a new transaction with that income/expense account.

If you are making a Sub-Account, you’ll need to check the box for “Make this account a sub-account”, and then enter in what the parent/main account should be (example shown above).

Type & Activity

If you are creating an asset or liability account, you will be asked to select a Type and Activity for that account as well:

Type refers to how you would like to use the account in the software. The three options are:

• Use as a Register – You would like to record transactions to that account, and would like to see a running balance for it. You can then choose to work in that account in the Register screen. A good example of this would be a bank account like a Checking or Savings account.
• Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable – You would like to use this account to hold a balance for your invoices/bills, and can select this in the Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable modules in the software.
• None – The account does not meet the previous criteria, but you would still like to use it for transactional purposes. An example of this would be an account for a Fixed Asset that your organization owns.

Activity refers to how you would like the account to appear on the Statement of Cash Flows report in the software. The four options you can choose between are:

• Cash 
• Operating – the changes in cash other than those reported in the investing and financing sections
• Investing – the amounts spent to purchase long-term assets such as equipment, vehicles and long-term investments. The investing section also reports the amount received from the sale of long-term assets.
• Financing – the amounts received from borrowings and also any repayments.

*If you would like some more clarification about these options, click HERE to view a resource from the Accounting Coach that covers how a Statement of Cash Flows works*

Status

Lastly, you’ll notice a Status field when building your accounts. This field allows you to mark an account as Enabled or Disabled.

Enabled means that you would like this account to be active in the system so you can record transactions to it.

Disabled means that you no longer wish to use this account when recording new entries. Although inactive, this account will still appear on reports if there is transaction data tied to it.

Once your chart of accounts is set up, you can enter the starting balances for your asset and liability accounts from your Starting Balances page. For more documentation about this step, please click HERE.

To learn more about the process of creating your accounts, please review the following video: