How Do I Set Up a GL Account?

A General Ledger (GL) account is a unique record type used in accounting to classify and track financial transactions within an organization. It serves to organize various financial activities such as revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities, providing a clear overview of the company's financial position.

If you use QuickBooks Online, your GL Accounts are imported from QuickBooks with Refresh Accounts (the button only appears while Discovery is connected to QuickBooks), and you can’t add them by hand. See Quickbooks Online Integration. The steps below are for QuickBooks Desktop.

Alternatively, you may wish to manually create GL Accounts. Here's how to accomplish this:

1
Click on your name in the navigation. Select Settings.
2
In the left-hand side menu, select Integration.Click-on-integrationGL Accounts are managed on this page. They’re used for client payments (through Receipt Locations), line item categories, sales taxes, and your Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable accounts.
3
In the Accounting System dropdown, select QuickBooks Desktop.click on quickbooks desktop
4
Click the Save button.click-on-save
5
Eventually, we'll need to select the Accounts Payable GL Account and Accounts Receivable GL Account to complete our Accounting Integration. However, selection options for these are populated by GL Accounts we create in the GL Accounts section below. Since none yet exist, we'll first need to create the GL Accounts used here and in Client Payment processing.No-GL-accounts-exist
6
Open the GL Accounts tab. To create a new GL Account, enter its name in the Add New Account box. Here, we’re creating the Accounts Payable GL Account. The name must match the account’s full name in QuickBooks Desktop exactly (for example, "Occupancy Costs:Rent" for a sub-account).enter-new-account-name
7
Click the Add button.Add-new-gl-account
8
Repeat for the Accounts Receivable GL Account and any other GL Accounts you need to exist in Discovery.
9
To complete our Accounting Integration, we can now select the respective GL Accounts for the Accounts Payable GL Account and Accounts Receivable GL Account fields.select-AP-GL-and-AR-GL-accounts
10
Click on the Save button.

GL Accounts are now ready for use.

Removing a GL Account: click the trash icon next to it on the GL Accounts tab. Discovery also removes it from any Receipt Location, Client Invoice Sales Tax and Line Item Category that used it, so choose a replacement on each of those.


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