@@ -27,57 +27,109 @@ this information and this information is provided for discussion purposes
only. Readers of these tutorial and templates are urged to seek professional
advice from a CPA and/or tax legal counsel in constructing an accounting
system appropriate for your organization.
Furthermore, given the authors' limited knowledge of accounting requirements
outside the USA, the suggestions herein probably are not particularly useful
at all for organizations outside the USA.
Configuration of Chart of Accounts
----------------------------------
The first thing any accountant will ask to see if your so-called "chart of
accounts". The first time I heard this phrase, I thought it was something
complicated. Fact of the matter is, it's really just a list of all the
accounts that you use. Accountants also use "account codes", which, as near
as I can tell, are of primary interest because they get better sorting.
Ledger CLI doesn't really support account codes, so I've ignored them.
The real place that Ledger CLI stores your chart of accounts is if you use
the `account` directive along with the `--pedantic` CLI option. This will
ensure that only accounts you declared explicitly will used.
### Asset Accounts
Our recommendation for asset accounts FIXME.
Asset accounts represent anything that's owned. Typically, these are
primarily your cash accounts, or anything that's completely liquid.
Many accounting tutorial materials will note that Loans, accounts receivable
and other receivables are assets as well. Most accountants will
say that they are, but with regard to accounts called "Assets", this system
uses the account hierarchy `Assets:` only for tangible, liquid,
cash and/or cash-equivalent assets. You'll find that account hierarchy
commonly in the examples herein.
### Liabilities Accounts
Similar to assets, most accountants will point out that any amount owed to
someone else is a liability, and that is of course accurate. Like with the
`Assets:` hierarchy, this system uses `Liabilities:` hierarchy only to refer
to formalized accounts, such as credit cards, where a monthly statement is
sent and have an ongoing liability relationship with the organization.
### Accrued Accounts
For items that are receivable or payable, this system uses `Accrued:`
hierarchy. Under this top-level account, you'll find accounts payable,
accounts receivable, loans payable and loans receivable.
### Expense Accounts
These accounts contain any expense of the organization, and all begin with
`Expense:`.
### Income Accounts
These accounts contain any income of the organization, and all begin with
`Income:`.
### Unearned Income Accounts
`Unearned Income:` accounts are used to refer to revenue that is currently
received for services which have not yet been delivered. The most typical
and common place an NPO encounters this type of income is for conference
registrations. Since conference registrations arrive in advance of the
conference, it is not proper under accrual accounting to call it income until
such time as the conference successfully completes.
### Reporting The Chart of Accounts
The
[`general-ledger-report.plx` script in the `non-profit-audit-reports` Ledger CLI contrib directory](https://github.com/ledger/ledger/blob/next/contrib/non-profit-audit-reports/general-ledger-report.plx)
will generate a file called `chart-of-accounts.csv`, which is the chart of accounts.
The main command-line program though, that generates the chart of accounts