FAQ Accounting

This Wiki is read-only for reference purposes to avoid broken links.

Basics

Q: "Your role does not allow you to view the accounting information"

Short answer:

1. Verify that the login Role is set to Show Accounting

2. Login with that Role and check the option Tools -> Preferences -> Show Accounting Tabs

A longer answer from Kathy Pink can be found here -> Where is my Compiere Accounting Information?

Q: "Period Closed Error When Processing Documents"

1. Check if your period is open in Calendar, Year and Period.

2. Check if period control for your document base type is open

3. Untick Automatic Period Control in your accounting schema - use manual control instead.

4. Turn off Window Caching in Tools{{#if: Preferences | →Preferences }}{{#if: | → }}{{#if: | → }}

5. Restart the Application Server and have the users log back in

See SourceForge Thread.

Importing Charts of Accounts

Q: Why does my chart of account appear flat after the initial client setup process?

• In the initial client import, Adempiere is unable to read in the structure, because the account element value lines could come in any order. Therefore it is necessary to import it a second time with System Admin->Data->Data Import->Import File Loader and ...->Import Account, which will then create the structure

Q: Why does importing my COA throw errors when importing from a CSV file which has been exported from a corresponding Excel file?

• It looks like the account number and the parent account number must not be enclosed in double quotes (") as opposed to all other fields. OpenOffice encloses all fields by default in quotes. Here is a simple awk script which fixes that:

BEGIN { FS = ","; OFS = "," }
function unquote (t) { return gensub ("\"", "", "g", t)}
{ 
  print unquote($1) "," $2 "," $3 "," $4 "," $5 "," $6 "," $7 "," $8 "," unquote($9) "," $10 "," $11 "," $12 "," $13 "," $14 "," $15 "," $16 "," $17 "," $18 "," $19
}

Understanding Posting in ADempiere

Q: What is the significance of Search Key in Accounts Element?

• Other than searching of course
• In reference to field C_ElementValue.Value
  • Search key can be used also to print on reports.
  • And to represent visually the tree (although this is not enforced in any way)

Q: What if I want to change the Search Key, after the system went live?

• There is no problem until you don't define any external reference to Search Key.
• Note that initially there is none foreign key referencing Values, only referencing _ID's, this is why external codes (search key's) can be easily changed by users without affecting functionality.

Q: What are summary elements?

• Summary elements are used to group accounts in a hierarchy way (tree). Summary accounts can't have associated movements in GL facts.

Q: Do summary elements show the summarized value of all its child elements, if selected to show on Financial report?

• Yes, in fact you can define different hierarchies for accounts (and other items, like BPartner, Orgs, etc) and show it with different hierarchy on financial reports.

Q: What is Update Balance? Is this required if we perform a reposting?

ADempiere accounting is based on a table called FACT_ACCT, all book entries are recorded in this table. To speed up the generation of financial reports ADempiere has a table called FACT_ACCT_BALANCE. Basically this table is a summarized view of FACT_ACCT. There is a checkbox in the parameters of "Financial Reports" called "Update Balances". If this checkbox is checked when you send the report, the FACT_ACCT_BALANCE is recalculated. If this checkbox is not checked, the FACT_ACCT_BALANCE is not recalculated, which will be quicker but the last few book entries may not appear in the report.

Note: Updating the Balance can be a lengthly procedure - especially if you have a very large FACT_ACCT table.

Q: In the GL, some of the posting are done manually also. What will happen to them if we Reset and run Re posting?

• Manual GL postings are managed via GL Journals.
• In the case of running the "Reset" accounting, these documents will be reprocessed just like the other documents.
• In this way manual GL postings are taken into account.

Q: What is the best way of changing the Chart of Accounts after the system went live?

• You can change CoA after system went live, but please take account of default accounts are spread in a lot of tables, i.e. C_AcctSchema_Default, and all tables finishing with _Acct (like C_BankAccount_Acct, C_BP_Group_Acct, etc.

• You can watch a YouTube movie about Default Account Changing.

Q: Can I transform an element value to summary level?

• If account doesn't have any movement and is not associated with any default, there is no problem doing this.
• If account have movements or is associated with any default is better not to touch this.

Q: After reposting, the product costs have changed. Why ? Is it good or bad ?

• This is true for Standard Costing.
• When you repost a transaction it will use the static cost defined at the product level.

Use Case :

• When you change your standard cost (every year) you will have to first close your periods of the previous year. All transactions of the previous year must use the corresponding cost.
• Because you will not be able to load your new cost before any new transactions happened on the new year, the reposting from the first day of the new year will allow you to reset these transactions with the new cost when they will be available.
• This discussion is not true for Non Standard Costing