What effect will deleting ledger accounts have on my company data file?

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1 Deleting Accounts from the Accounts List Number: 1491 This support note is suitable for: Accounting Accounting Plus Premier AccountEdge BusinessBasics FirstEdge Premier Enterprise Introduction When reviewing your accounts list, you may find that some ledger accounts are no longer needed. The flexibility of your MYOB program enables you to safely and easily delete these unwanted accounts and maintain a streamlined accounts list. How do I delete a general ledger account? To delete a ledger account: Go to the Accounts command centre and click Accounts List. Click the relevant category tab (Assets, Liabilities ). Click the unwanted ledger account s zoom arrow. Go to the Edit menu and choose Delete Account. What effect will deleting ledger accounts have on my company data file? When MYOB permits the deletion of a ledger account, you can be assured that

2 the integrity of your accounting data will be maintained. Ledger accounts that are needed for the successful operation of your data file cannot be deleted. The following window shows a typical alert that will prevent the deletion of a required ledger account. What things will prevent me from deleting a ledger account? To be able to delete a ledger account all of the following criteria must be met: Please note: In this support note, the term Current Financial Year refers to the financial year shown in the Company Information window. To access the Current Financial Year in your MYOB data file, go to the Setup menu and choose Company Information. The account must not be used as an integral linked account Alert Message: be deleted. An account that is being used as a linked account may not When viewed in the Accounts List window, an integral linked account will have an asterisk placed against it in the Linked column. Select the account and click the zoom arrow next to Linked Account for. Identify the link, then click its drop down arrow and select another ledger account. In most instances, these linked account fields can not be left blank, therefore, a substitute ledger account will need to be entered. The account must not be used for other links Alert message: (or similar message). An account that is linked to a Tax Code can not be deleted The below ledger account links are typical of this alert message. Cards: all card types except Personal.

3 Tax Code Item Time Billing Activity Payroll Category These links can not be identified in the Accounts List window the same way that integral links are viewed in the Accounts List. How can I locate where another type of link is set for an account? The following reports can be used to quickly identify which Card, Tax Code..., the unwanted ledger account is linked to. Cards Card List Detail; Customised to include the Account report item. Note: For instructions on designing a report please see next paragraph. Tax Code Tax Code Lists; Customised to include the Tax Paid and Tax Collected report items. Item Items List Detail; Customised to include the Asset, Income & Exp/COS report items. Time Billing Activity Activities List; Customised to include the Income Account report item. Payroll Category No reports are available that will display linked accounts for payroll categories. Each payroll category will need to be opened to determine the linked accounts. These linked account fields will require a substitute ledger account. Linked accounts for cards are not compulsory and may be left blank. Place your cursor in the linked account field on the card and press the <delete> key on your keyboard. Designing reports The report Customise function enables you to include or remove report items. This allows you to customise a report for a specific purpose; such as determining linked ledger accounts. To Design a report: Click Reports, then click the relevant report category tab (Accounts, Banking ).

4 Highlight the report then click Customise and click Report Fields. Mark the report fields you want included in the report. Similarly, clearing a report item will remove it from the report. The account must have a zero balance Alert message: An account with a non-zero balance may not be deleted. A Ledger account can only be deleted if the current balance is $0.00 and the account has no transactions listed in the ledger. The account must not have a transaction history Deleting an unwanted ledger account with a transaction history will result in one of the following alert messages (see next page). The date of the transactions and the company file s Current Financial Year will determine when the unwanted ledger account can be deleted. The reason MYOB needs to retain ledger accounts with transactions from the previous financial year is to produce Profit & Loss reports for Last Year/ This year comparisons. Alert messages: An account linked to an invoice or purchase may not be deleted. A ledger account used in a sales invoice or purchase order cannot be deleted until the transaction has been fully paid, and, the Current Financial Year rolled over. Basically, the Current Financial Year must be later than the date of the payment that closed the transaction. Example: A sale was dated and recorded on 1/6/03 (2003 financial year), and the payment closing the invoice was dated 1/7/03 (2004 financial year). The income ledger account used in the sale cannot be deleted until the Current Financial year is rolled over to For additional information on deleting profit and loss ledger accounts, see alert message An account with any non-zero periodic balances may not be deleted. An account with journal entries may not be deleted. This alert is displayed when the unwanted ledger account has been used in transactions other than sales invoices or purchase orders. Deleting the unwanted

5 ledger account will only be possible when the Current Financial Year is rolled over. Example: A General Journal was recorded and dated 1/1/03 (2003 financial year). The ledger accounts associated with this General Journal cannot be deleted until the Current Financial Year has been rolled over to The only exception to this is with banking transactions; Receive Money, Spend Money, Receive Payments, Pay Bills and paycheques. Unwanted ledger accounts associated with banking type transactions can only be deleted: After the transaction has been reconciled; and The Current Financial Year is rolled over to a financial year later than the transaction s reconciliation date. Example: The last Spend Money transaction using a cheque account that is no longer used, was recorded on the 1/1/03 (2003 financial year). All withdrawals and deposits for this cheque account were reconciled on the 1/2/03, and the account has a zero balance. Deleting this unwanted cheque account will be possible when the Current Financial Year is rolled over to In this example, the ledger account (expense or income) the Spend Money transaction was allocated to, could also be deleted. This is providing it too had a zero balance before the Current Financial Year was rolled over to For additional information on deleting profit and loss ledger accounts, see alert message An account with any non-zero periodic balances may not be deleted. If the cheque account was reconciled in the 2004 financial year, then the unwanted ledger account(s) associated with the transaction can only be deleted when the Current Financial Year is rolled over to 2005; being the financial year after the reconciliation date. An account with any non-zero periodic balances may not be deleted. This alert is only given for income and expense ledger accounts (4-xxxx, 5-xxxx, 6-xxxx, 8-xxxx and 9-xxxx). The start a new financial year process transfers the balances of all income and expense ledger accounts to the Retained Earnings account, via the Current Year Earnings account. This is known as Closing the ledger, and leaves all income and expense ledger accounts with a zero balance for the start of the new financial year. Therefore, even though the unwanted ledger account has a zero balance, you may still not be able to delete it as it had a non-zero balance when the financial year was rolled over. Deleting this ledger account will only be possible when the Current Financial Year has been rolled over twice.

6 Example: A Spend Money transaction was dated and recorded on the 1/1/03 (2003 financial year), and allocated to an expense account. The transaction was reconciled on 1/2/03, and the expense account had a non-zero balance when the Current Financial Year was rolled over to This unwanted expense account can only be deleted once the Current Financial Year is rolled over once again; to The account must not have been used in a transaction where a job number was applied against it Alert message: An account that is linked to a job history record cannot be deleted. This alert indicates the unwanted ledger account: Was used in a transaction dated in a financial year previous to the Current Financial Year and A job number was applied to the amount that was allocated to the account. Overcoming this alert will require you to determine and then delete the job that is preventing the account s deletion. Determining the job will require you to restore the backup of your data file that was made just prior to rolling over the financial year. With the restored data file open, go to Accounts and click Reports. Highlight the Jobs Activity Summary report then click Customise. Click the Selected option and enter the unwanted ledger account in the adjacent field. Set Source Journal to All and date the report so it spans the financial year. The report will then list all the jobs that were used with this account in that financial year. Open your current working data file and delete the job(s) that is preventing the account from being deleted. To delete the job, go to the Lists menu and click Jobs. Click the job s zoom arrow then go to the Edit menu and click Delete Job. The above steps will need to be repeated if other jobs were used with the account in other previous financial years. Basically, once a job is used with a ledger account, the account can t be deleted until the job is first deleted. If I can t delete a ledger account, can I prevent it from being used, allowing me to delete it in the future? Yes, you can take steps to prevent the unwanted ledger account from being used. This will allow for it to be deleted in a future Current Financial Year; this is providing criteria other than just the Current Financial Year is met.

7 Go to the Accounts command centre, click Accounts List, then click the zoom arrow next to the unwanted account. Mark the Inactive Account option. Renumber the account to x-9998 (for example ), and rename it to Do Not Use. Disclaimer: This information is of a generic nature. For specific advice regarding your particular circumstances please seek assistance from your Accountant, the Australian Taxation Office or your IT Consultant as appropriate.