Accounting Defaults

Accounting defaults are the choices the system makes for you when you do not make them yourself: which tax to apply, which account a sale lands in, how you value your stock. Set them once and every document afterwards is one decision shorter.

How defaults are picked

The system always takes the most specific answer it can find, working outwards:

1. Whatever you typed on the document line itself.
2. Whatever the stock item says.
3. Whatever the customer or supplier says.
4. Whatever is set here.

So a value here is the last resort, not an override. If a document is not using what you expect, look for something more specific overriding it before changing this screen.

Set your defaults

1. Open System Manager›Accounting Defaults.
2. Pick the default tax for sales and for purchases. This is applied to a line when nothing more specific says otherwise.
3. Choose whether your prices include tax or have it added on top. Getting this wrong makes every total look slightly off, so check it against how you actually quote.
4. Pick the accounts sales, purchases and stock should land in. Each one is a line in System Manager›Chart of Accounts.
5. Choose your stock valuation method.
6. Set the date format you want to read on screen and on printed documents.
7. Click Save Changes.

Change a default later

1. Open System Manager›Accounting Defaults.
2. Change what you need and click Save Changes.

A changed default applies to documents you create from now on. Nothing already recorded is revisited — which is what you want, because reopening old months to apply a new default would change figures you have already reported.

Batch and expiry settings

If you track goods by batch, the numbering and display choices live here too.

• How batch numbers are built, so they come out in a consistent shape.
• What separates a batch number from its expiry date when both are shown.
• Whether the expiry date appears alongside the batch on documents and pickers.

What can stop you

• If the stock valuation method is greyed out, you already have stock movements and it can no longer change. A new workspace is the only way to change it, so this is worth getting right early.
• If an account you want does not appear in a picker, it is the wrong type for that setting, or it is switched off. Check it in System Manager›Chart of Accounts.
• If a tax option is missing, it has not been set up yet. See System Manager›Tax Setting.
• If confirming a document still complains about a missing account after you have set the defaults, the customer or supplier on it has its own account setting that is empty. Fix it on that record.
• If you cannot open this screen, your role does not include it. See Inviting your team.