MoneyWorks

Structuring your Accounts

MoneyWorks offers great flexibility in naming your accounts. However experience has shown that the following guidelines are worth following:

• Use simple codes where possible. Although MoneyWorks allows up to seven characters, three of four should be enough for most businesses.
• As a general rule, numeric codes such as “120” are preferable to alpha-numeric codes such as “POST”. They are both easier to type, and offer some advantages in reporting and extracting information.
• If using numeric codes, group all like codes together. For example all income accounts could be in the 100 - 199 range, direct expenses in 200 - 299, overheads in the 300 - 399 and so forth. Also make sure that the codes all have the same number of digits.
• Look for common structures, such as the product lines, types of activity and so on. Examples might be projects that you run, actual cost centre departments in your business, vehicles, staff and so on. If you have these, and are using MoneyWorks Gold, consider using departments —see Departmental Accounts.

Above all, before you start, think about what you are trying to achieve. Possibly the best way to focus on this is to think about what sort of information you want to get out of the system. Often this will determine what you need and how to put it in.