The Chart of Accounts (COA) is a listing of accounts available in the accounting module that are used to record financial activity. This page is used to create, change, and classify the client's Chart of Accounts. A COA is classified by an account type and subgroups. These classifications determine the account's placement in the key financial reports.

The Prior Mapping page is used to import and map prior accounting history during the implementation process. After the trial balance data is imported, you are able to edit the history.

Some COAs contain sensitive transactions that only corporate management should have access to. You can use the Confidential COA feature to mark any COAs that you deem as confidential. This will restrict users' ability to select or see these COAs from pages within Inn-Flow, including the Accounting Search page. This feature is typically used for COAs like owner distributions and mortgage payments.

The role permission that controls access to Confidential COAs is located at: Administration > Roles and Permissions.

The categorization of a COA determines how that COA is handled in your key financial reports. Before changing the categorization of any COA or creating a new COA, we recommend that you print the Classification Guides for the Balance Sheet and Operating Statement (see the Classification Guide section below).

Types of Classifications

Each COA includes the following classifications:

Terms

Account Type: The first step in classifying the COA is to select the Account Type. Options are Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, and Expense. Assets, Liabilities, and Equity accounts are Balance Sheet accounts. Revenue and Expense accounts are Operating Statement accounts.

Main Group: After the account type is selected, you must select the Main Group. You can select an option from the existing categories or create a new group. Each account type has its own groupings.

Sub Group 1: After the main group is selected, you will have an option to select a Sub Group 1. You can select from the existing options or create your own groups. The group options will vary depending on the Account Type and Main Group.

Sub Group 2: After the Sub Group 1 is selected, you will have an option to select a Sub Group 2. You can select from the existing options or create your own groups.

Sub Group 3: If Payroll in Sub Group 2 is selected, an option for Sub Group 3 will appear. Sub Group 3 allows another breakdown of payroll expenses: Management, Non-Management, Payroll Taxes, and Employee Benefits. Assigning these Sub Groups creates the last page on the Operating Statement titled Payroll-Related Expenses.

Row Title: The row title determines the account's placement within the financial report. You can select to match the row title to the account name, create a new row title, or select from existing row titles. This is a way to group multiple COAs into one row. For example, instead of showing Sales Tax, Occupancy Tax, Use Tax, etc. on a Balance Sheet, they can all appear in a single row.

Cash Flow Mapping: The Statement of Cash Flows summarizes the change in Cash and Temporary Cash Investments. Each COA falls into one of the preassigned Cash Flow Mapping options.

Changing a COA's classification is best completed from the COA Classification page.

You can change the name and sequence of section headings in your Operating Statement and Balance Sheet by using the Change Order feature on this page.

These guides show exactly which COAs are included in each row of your Balance Sheet and Operating Statements. Run these reports and they will display the COA categories associated with each row. If a row contains only one COA, that COA number will be listed. The word MULTIPLE appears if there is more than one COA in that row.

This is where opening balances are recorded for each COA for all business accounts (E/HIDs). Opening balances can be entered for Asset, Liability, and Equity COAs. You cannot enter an opening balance for Revenue or Expense COAs.

When adding or editing opening balances, remember that the sum of all Assets must equal the sum of all Liabilities and Equities (A = L + E). If this does not balance, you will not be able to save this page.

Note: Opening Balances for Bank Accounts can also be entered via the register using a withdrawal or deposit, so that the Opening Balance Entry is tied to a specific date.

Non-Financial COAs represent COAs that are not considered an Asset, Liability, Revenue, Expense, or Equity COA. These are used to collect specific data used in reporting, like statistics.

PMS statistics are collected in Daily Activity Entry. These statistics can be used to drive Operational Budgets in Accounting and Labor Budgets in Labor Management.

Use the + Statistics button to add a new statistic.

To edit a statistic, select it from this page and edit the fields in the Statistics pop-up window. Select the Add to P&L check box to add this statistic to the summary page of the Operating Statements. Select the Add to Snapshot check box to add this statistic to the Snapshot report on the Dashboard.

This page is configured by Inn-Flow during implementation and some sections cannot be edited.

Transactions Linked to COAs

Inn-Flow maps certain internal functions to your company's specific COAs. This allows Inn-Flow to properly place this data in reports and use it in calculations.

Payment Types

Payment Types allow you to map each daily activity payment type to a specific COA that appears in bank reconciliation. To add a new Payment Type, like POS American Express, select + Type. You may want to create additional payment types depending on how credit card or cash is deposited into the bank accounts.

Segmentation Categories

Segmentation Categories are used to categorize each room rented. These are meant to universally apply to all hotels. Inn-Flow segmentation categories allow you to determine the segmentations you want tracked. You can then compare those segmentations across all of your hotels, regardless of brand, in the same reports. You can budget ADR and Occupancy using these segmentations. Detailed analysis can be found in reports like Operating Metrics and Segmentation Report.

Select the + Segmentation Categories button to add a new segmentation.

To edit a segmentation category, select it from this page and edit the fields in the pop-up window. Select the Add to P&L check box to add this statistic to the summary page of the Operating Statements.

Use the Group Name to organize similar categories into a single group. Segmentation reports will provide subtotals for each group. For example: Transient-Retail, Transient-AAA, and Government might be part of the Transient group.

Use this button to create new COAs. You will need to complete all required fields. Before completing the classification fields (Account Type, Main Group, Sub Group 1, Sub Group 2, and Row Title), review the COA Classification section of this guide. You will be allowed to edit these fields after saving.

To edit a COA, select the COA from the list. This will open the COA Details page. You can edit all fields from this page except for the COA number. To edit the COA number, use the Rename COA button found on the Chart of Accounts main page.

You can delete a COA as long as it has not been used in a transaction. To delete a COA, select the COA from the list, then select the Delete COA button on the COA Details page.