Chart Preferences
Default accounts, period locking and who is allowed to post a journal.
Two settings, both about account codes, and one permission that matters more than either of them.
Settings
Go to SettingsFinanceAccountant. The tab carries a single Chart of Accounts section, and there are two switches in it.
| Preference | What it does | Worth changing when |
|---|---|---|
| Make Account Code mandatory | Refuses a new account with no code. | You report by code, or you are importing into a coded structure. |
| Require a unique Account Code | Refuses a code that is already in use. | Almost always. Duplicate codes make a chart unsortable. |
What lives somewhere else
| Expected setting | Where it actually is |
|---|---|
| Base currency | Real, but not here. It is on your organisation profile, and it is set once. |
| Financial year start | Real, but not here. It sits beside base currency on the organisation profile. |
| Lock date | Not a single date. Periods are locked individually, each one Open or Locked, and unlocking is recorded against your name. |
| Default income account | Does not exist. A sales line takes its account from the item. |
| Default expense account | Not a setting. A bill line with no account falls back to the Purchase Adjustments account. |
| Rounding account | Does not exist as a preference. |
Journal permission
Posting journals is a separate permission on the Finance role, and it should be held by as few people as the work allows. A journal is the only document in Finance that can post any amount to any account with no counterparty, no tax treatment and no other document behind it.
- Separate it from the permission to raise invoices and bills.
- Combine it with the monthly journal review, which is the control that makes it safe.
- Locking periods promptly limits how far back a journal can reach.