Default G/L Settings

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Default G/L Settings picks which G/L Accounts TBA uses automatically for routine transactions — item sales, receivables, payables, sales tax, and banking. Most of these can still be overridden per item if needed.

Default General Ledger Settings table with Item Info, Receivables, Payables, Tax, and Banking sections

Getting Started #

Click Use Default Accounts to fill in every role with a sensible default in one click, then review or change any of them before saving. If an account you need doesn’t exist yet, click + Add New G/L Account to create it without leaving the page.

Key Roles #

  • Item Info — COGS, sold/rental revenue, inventory asset, inventory adjustment.
  • Receivables / Payables — the AR/AP control accounts, plus write-off accounts.
  • Tax — the sales tax liability account.
  • Banking — your default bank account, credit card liability, and Undeposited Funds (where client payments land until Deposits batches them to the bank).

Every Setting #

The page is a table: Section, Name, the G/L Account to choose, and a Description. Pick an account for each row and click Save. Refresh Data in the sidebar reloads the account lists after you add accounts elsewhere. Open the full chart of accounts shows G/L Accounts in a new window.

Item Info #

  • COGS — Cost of Goods Sold, the default expense when you sell an item.
  • Sold revenue — the default income account for items and services you sell.
  • Rental revenue — the default income account for items you rent out.
  • Reimbursed expense revenue — income for expenses billed back to a client at cost (for example imported QuickBooks invoice lines with no item). Leave blank to use Sold revenue.
  • Inventory asset — the default asset account for stock on hand.
  • Client special order asset — the asset account for items you ordered for a client and now have in your possession.
  • Inventory adjustment — the offsetting account for inventory added manually (not received on a Bill) or otherwise adjusted.

Receivables and Payables #

  • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable — the control accounts that invoices and bills post to.
  • AR write-off — the bad debt expense account. AP write-off — where write-offs and discounts taken on bills go.
  • Vendor deposits — an asset account for prepayments you make against a PO before its bill exists.

Tax, Banking, and Year-End #

  • Sales tax liability — where collected sales tax is recorded.
  • Default bank account and Credit card liability — the defaults for receipts and payments.
  • Undeposited funds — where client payments wait until a Deposit batches them to the bank.
  • Default deposit fee account — the expense account for bank or processor fees taken out of a deposit. Default Connect fee account — the same for Stripe fees when you reconcile a payout (see Payment Processing).
  • Retained earnings — used by the year-end closing entry (see Fiscal Year and Year-End Closing).
  • Unearned revenue — the liability account for deferred revenue.

Miscellaneous (how reports look) #

  • Show negative amounts — Yes shows negatives with a sign; No shows the amount in the opposite debit/credit column instead.
  • Use parentheses — Yes shows negatives as (100.00); No uses a minus sign.
  • Show page numbers — adds page numbers to the bottom of financial reports.
  • Show/use GL account numbers — the company-wide default for whether account numbers appear throughout TBA. Each person can override it on their own preferences page.