Everything you do to an account starts on the Chart of Accounts. New account at the top creates one; the three icons at the end of each row edit it, make it inactive (or active again), or merge it into another account.
None of these actions changes a posted amount. Editing and deactivating leave every entry where it is; merging moves an account's entries to another account of the same type and cannot be undone.
Add an account
- Open the chart (Lists ▸ Chart of Accounts, or Ctrl+A).
- Click New account. The New account form opens.
- Type the Account name.
- Choose the Type: Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense.
- Optionally type a Code.
- Choose the Sub-type. Once you have, Detail type and Parent account appear.
- Fill in anything else you need (see the table below), then click Create.
The chart refreshes and the new account appears, under its parent if you gave it one.
The account form
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Account name | The name shown on the chart, on forms and on every report. Required. |
| Type | Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense. Decides which statement the account belongs to and which side it normally sits on. It cannot be changed once the account exists, so choose carefully. Changing the type while creating the account clears the sub-type, detail type and parent. |
| Code (optional) | The account number, for example 1200. Spaces are not allowed. Each code can be used by one account only. |
| Sub-type | The group the account belongs to inside its type. Required. It decides where the account is grouped and subtotalled on the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet, and SeroBooks also uses it to sort balances on the Statement of Cash Flows and to suggest the GIFI line for the corporate tax return. See the list below. |
| Detail type | A finer description inside the sub-type, such as Bank, Savings or Undeposited funds under Cash and cash equivalents. Optional; choose None to leave it blank. Shows None available when the sub-type has no detail types. |
| Parent account | Makes this a sub-account of another account. Only top-level accounts with the same sub-type are offered, so sub-accounts go one level deep. Choose None for a top-level account. |
| Description (optional) | A note about what the account is for. |
| USUAL TAX (OPTIONAL) | The sales tax this account normally carries. When the account is picked on a line of a cheque or bill, this tax fills in by itself; it can still be changed on the line. Click the box to choose a tax rate, or No tax to clear it. A dash means no usual tax, which is not the same as a zero-rated tax code. |
| Amount (under Opening balance) | New accounts only. The account's balance on the As of date, if it had one before you started using SeroBooks. Leave it blank for a brand-new account. A positive amount is a balance on the side the account normally grows (a debit on an asset or expense account, a credit on a liability, equity or income account); a negative amount is on the other side. |
| As of | New accounts only. The date of the opening balance. Defaults to today. You can type the date or pick it. |
The buttons are Cancel and Create (Save when editing). While SeroBooks is fetching the sub-types or detail types, "Loading types…" shows beside them. Esc cancels the form.
What an opening balance posts
If you type an Amount, SeroBooks posts a two-line journal entry dated the As of date:
- the new account, on its normal side for a positive amount (or the other side for a negative one), and
- Opening Balance Equity, on the opposite side, for the same amount.
If the company does not have an Opening Balance Equity account yet, SeroBooks creates one. The entry keeps the books in balance; clear Opening Balance Equity later with a journal entry, usually to retained earnings or owner's equity, as your accountant advises.
To bring in a whole trial balance at once, use Enter Opening Balances instead of typing an amount on each new account.
The standard sub-types
These are the sub-types every company starts with, shown as they appear in the list. Your company may have others.
| Type | Sub-type | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Asset | Accounts Receivable (A/R) | What customers owe you. |
| Asset | Cash and cash equivalents | Bank, savings and cash accounts. Detail types include Bank, Savings, Cash on hand and Money market. |
| Asset | Current assets | Inventory, prepaid expenses, undeposited funds, loans to shareholders and other assets you expect to use within a year. |
| Asset | Fixed assets | Land, buildings, vehicles, equipment, furniture and their accumulated depreciation. |
| Asset | Non-current assets | Goodwill, intangible assets, long-term investments, security deposits. |
| Liability | Accounts Payable (A/P) | What you owe vendors. |
| Liability | Credit Card | Company credit cards. |
| Liability | Current liabilities | Sales tax payable, payroll liabilities, a line of credit, loans due within a year, accrued liabilities. |
| Liability | Non-current liabilities | Long-term debt, notes payable, shareholder loans. |
| Equity | Owner's Equity | Share capital, retained earnings, owner's or partners' contributions and draws, opening balance equity. |
| Income | Income | Sales of products and services. |
| Income | Other income | Interest earned, dividends, other income that is not your main business. |
| Expense | Cost of sales | The direct cost of what you sell: materials, freight in, direct labour. |
| Expense | Expenses | Ordinary running costs: rent, advertising, bank charges, insurance, utilities, wages. |
| Expense | Other Expense | Depreciation, amortisation, exchange gains and losses, penalties. |
Messages when saving
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Give the account a name." | Type an Account name. |
| "Choose a sub-type — it decides which statement this account appears on." | Pick a Sub-type. |
| "Code 1200 is already used by another account." | Codes are unique. Use another code, or leave it blank. |
| "This opening balance is dated …, which falls in a period closed on …" | The As of date is on or before the closing date. Choose a later date, or ask an administrator to move the closing date. See Set Closing Date and Year-End. |
| "Could not create an Opening Balance Equity account to balance this entry, so nothing was saved." | Create an equity account named Opening Balance Equity first, or save the new account without an opening balance. |
Edit an account
- On the chart, click the pencil icon (Edit account) on the account's row.
- The Edit account form opens with the account's details filled in.
- Change what you need and click Save.
You can change the name, code, sub-type, detail type, parent account, description and usual tax. Renaming or re-filing an account changes no posted figure: its whole history moves with it to the new name or group, and reports run afterwards show it under the new one.
What you cannot change:
- Type. It shows with a padlock. Hover over it: "Type cannot change once an account exists — it would reverse every figure already posted to it." If an account was created with the wrong type, create a new account of the right type and move the entries with a journal entry, then make the old account inactive.
- Opening balance. The Opening balance section is not on the edit form. Correct an opening balance with a journal entry.
Make an account inactive, or active again
- On the chart, click the Deactivate (never deleted — history is kept) icon on the account's row.
- SeroBooks makes the change straight away and confirms, for example "Telephone deactivated."
The account leaves the chart's list; tick Include inactive at the bottom of the chart to see it again, dimmed, with the status Inactive. Its history and balance are kept, and it still appears on reports for the periods it was used. The account lists on forms such as Write Cheques, Enter Bills, Make Deposits, Receive Payments and Pay Bills, and the account boxes on an item, no longer offer it.
To bring it back, click the Reactivate icon (a curved arrow) on the same row.
Merge two accounts
Merge when two accounts hold the same kind of money, for example "Telephone" and "Phone", and you want one.
- On the chart, click the Merge into another account (irreversible) icon on the account you want to get rid of.
- The window Merge "Phone" into… opens. It warns: every entry moves to the account you pick, the merged account is deleted, reports run before today will not match reports run after, and the merge cannot be undone.
- In Keep this account, choose the account to keep. Only accounts of the same type are offered.
- Click Merge (it stays greyed out until you choose), or Cancel.
SeroBooks confirms what it did, for example: "Phone" is now part of "Telephone". 214 ledger entries moved. If the merged account was one of your posting accounts in Accounting Setup, the message also names which postings now go to the kept account.
What moves to the kept account:
- every ledger entry of the merged account;
- its sub-accounts, which become sub-accounts of the kept account;
- anything else that pointed at it: budgets, fixed asset accounts, bank account links and bank rules, deposit accounts, sales tax registrations, payroll item accounts, and its place in Accounting Setup.
Then the merged account is deleted.
When a merge is refused
| Message | Why |
|---|---|
| "There is no other asset account to merge this into." | There is no other account of the same type. Accounts of different types can never be merged. |
| "… of its entries are on or before the closing date of …" | The merged account has entries in a closed period. Merging would change which account they are in after the period was closed, and usually filed. Move the closing date first only if that is really what you mean. |
| "… is a … account and … is a … one. Merging them would change what the books say, not just where." | The two accounts have different types. |
Delete an account
SeroBooks has no Delete for accounts. An account with history is part of your records, and tax authorities expect you to keep them for years. Make an unused account inactive instead. The only way an account disappears is by merging it into another, which keeps all its entries.
Permissions
| Action | Permission in the role |
|---|---|
| New account | Add Account |
| Edit | Edit Account |
| Deactivate / Reactivate | Activate / Deactivate Account |
| Merge | Merge Accounts |
These are under Chart of Accounts in the role's permissions. A user without the permission sees an Approval Required window, where someone who has it can sign in and approve. See Roles and permissions explained.
Common problems
The Sub-type list is empty. Wait for "Loading types…" to go. If the list still says None available, SeroBooks could not read the sub-types; close the form and try again when the connection is back.
The account I want is not in Parent account. Only top-level accounts with the same sub-type can be parents. Change the sub-type to match the intended parent's, or make the intended parent a top-level account first.
Could not change it. A red message "Could not change it: …" after Deactivate or Reactivate gives the reason. The most common is a dropped connection; press Refresh on the chart and try again.
The wrong tax fills in on a cheque or bill. The account's USUAL TAX (OPTIONAL) is set to that tax. Edit the account and change it, or choose No tax. Lines already entered keep the tax they were saved with.