Last reviewed: 2026-06-16

Accounts

Purpose

Accounts classify accounting activity and preserve the meaning of historical entries.

Accounts classify activity by type, code, and normal balance.
Account codes must be unique within a company.
Account identity is the immutable internal account id, not the visible account code.
Account codes are strings and may preserve leading zeros.
Financial behavior must depend on explicit account properties, not account-number patterns.
BooksPlus standard account-number ranges are conventions for standard charts only.
Posting accounts are distinct from report headings and presentation groups.
Report headings and financial statement groupings belong to Reporting, not account master data.
Used accounts may be retired but not deleted.
Used accounts may be renamed or renumbered with audit history, but their account id remains unchanged.
Posting requires an active account unless an authorized historical or correction process allows otherwise.
Routine posting requires an active account that is configured for posting and direct posting.
Historical entries must retain their original account reference.
Historical journal lines display current account code and name unless a future report snapshot explicitly preserves historical labels.

Users choose an account to categorize each transaction.
Retired accounts remain visible for history and audit.
Active accounts are required for new postings.
Startup companies may install the BooksPlus starter chart.
Existing companies may import a chart of accounts through a staged review process.

Enforce unique account codes per company.
Preserve references to retired accounts in existing entries.
Differentiate active, inactive, and retired records.
Treat account code lookup as exact-match first; shorthand padding is a chart-level convention.
Reject ambiguous account resolution rather than selecting silently.
Record material account changes in account history.
Enforce role cardinality explicitly for semantic account roles.