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

Asset accounts represent anything that's owned.  Typically, these are

primarily your cash accounts, or anything that's completely liquid.

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:`.

  1099 for the `Entity` involved.

* `W2`, indicating the amount paid will be part of a USA Federal Form W2

  report for the `Entity` involved.

* `Accountant-Advises-No-1099`, indicating that the circumstances and rules

  seem to indicate a USA Federal Form 1099 should be issued for the `Entity`

  involved, but an outside accountant advised that no 1099 need be issues for

  this `Entity`.

* `Bank-Transfer`, indicating that the amount is a transfer between two

  banking accounts under the control of the NPO itself.

* `Foreign-Individual-Contractor`, indicating that the NPO has established

  that the `Entity` is a contractor residing outside the USA who is not a USA

  citizen and does not for any reason pay taxes in the USA.

* `Foreign-Corporation`, indicating that the NPO has established

  that the `Entity` is a corporation outside the USA.

* `USA-Corporation`, indicating that the NPO has established that the

  `Entity` is an incorporated entity the USA (i.e., "Inc."), and therefore no

  1099 is required.

  has federal 501(c)(3) status in the USA, and therefore no 1099 is required.

* `Refund`, indicating that the amount is a refund owed to the `Entity` from

  an amount previously paid to the NPO.

* `Reimbursement`, indicating that the amount is a reimbursement of expenses

  incurred by the `Entity` and thus it is not income to the `Entity`.

* `Tax-Payment`, indicating this is a tax payment to a taxing authority (such

  as the state or federal government) (e.g., a unrelated business income tax

  payment).

* `USA-LLC-No-1099`, indicating that the `Entity` is an LLC, but not the type

  of LLC for which the USA requires issuing a 1099.

  that is expected to be paid back.

#### Program Tag

The `Program` tag is used primarily to track program activity for `Income:`

and `Expense:` accounts.  This allows for knowing what particular initiative

initiated the income (e.g., a specific fundraising campaign) and/or what

particular program activity an expense is toward (e.g., funding travel to

some specific conference).

The Program tag is always a string with the same format as a Ledger CLI

account (primarily for use with Ledger CLI's `--pivot` and `--group-by`,

### Account Type Documentation Requirements

Each account type has different documentation requirements.  Based on the

type of the account, it requires a different set of tags.

When Ledger CLI's `--pedantic` option is used, these rules are enforced by

ledger itself via the configurations found in `config-tags.ledger` and

`config-accounts.ledger`.

#### Expense Account Documentation

Each `Expense:` account entry must be tagged with the following tags:

* One of: [`Invoice:`](#invoice-tag) [`Receipt:`](#receipt-tag), or

  [`Statement`](#statement-tag).  (The only exception to this rule: an entry

  does not need an `Invoice:`, `Receipt`, nor a `Statement` tag if the

  [payee was never charged](#never-charged-payee).

* A [`Program:`] tag.

#### NEVER CHARGED Payee

The only exception to the standard tagging requirement is when the payee has

closed for the financial period (e.g., the books had already been audited).

Changing the payee was a method for documenting the expense.  You might use

it like this:

    2011/05/28 My Bad Billing Hosting - NEVER CHARGED

        Liabilities:Credit Card:Visa            $-100.00

        Expenses:Conservancy:Hosting             $100.00

    2012/01/01 My Bad Billing Hosting - REVERSAL - NEVER CHARGED

        Liabilities:Credit Card:Visa             $100.00

        Expenses:Conservancy:Hosting            $-100.00

However, going forward, you'd likely never enter anything the ledger

**until** you had real proof via an Invoice, Receipt or Statement that showed

the Expense did/should occur.  This use of `NEVER CHARGED` in the payee is

thus deprecated.

#### Income Account Documentation

Each `Income:` account must have the following tags:

* One of: [`Invoice:`](#invoice-tag),

  [`PurchaseOrder:`](#purchase-order-tag),

  [`Statement:`](#statement-tag) or

     + the income generated from the transaction is less than $800, or

     + the `IncomeType` is `RBI` and the income is for a defined, public

       program (such as conference registration)

* An [`Entity:`](#entity-tag) tag, *iff.* the Income for the transaction is

  for more than $800.

* An [`IncomeType:`](#incometype-tag) tag.

* A [`Program:`](#program-tag) tag.

Analysis of the Data

--------------------

If this methodology is followed, Ledger can be used to analyze the financial

data for the organization.

### Testing Program Success

If you use the [`Program`](#program-tag) tag effectively, you can easily test

the successes of various fundraising programs with a command like this:

    $ ledger -f accounts/books.ledger --pivot Program bal '/^Income/'