This guide includes the following topics:

 

  • Overview
  • Prior Mapping
  • Confidential COA’s
  • COA Classification
  • How to Change COA Classification
  • Change Order and Rename COA’s
  • Classification Guide
  • Rename COAs
  • Opening Balances
  • Non-Financial COA’s
  • COA Mapping
  • Add COA
  • Edit a COA

 


Overview

 

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.  

 

  

Prior Mapping

 

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. 

  1. Select the latest Accounting Period prior to your Inn-Flow start date. 
  2. The prior data is imported in gray text, and the Inn-Flow COA’s are shown in black text. To move the data in gray, select the Change Mapping option to move all history to another COA.
  3. To move the history to a new COA, select the Add New COA option to create a new chart of account.
  4. You can also edit the current COA by selecting Renumber/Rename.

 


Confidential COA’s

 

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

 

The following is the location of the role permission that controls access to Confidential COA’s:  Administration > Roles and Permissions.

 


COA Classification

 

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 for more information.  

 

Types of Classifications

 

Each COA includes the following classifications: 

 

  1. Account Type
  2. Main Group
  3. Sub Group 1
  4. Sub Group 2
  5. Sub Group 3
  6. Row Title  
  7. Cash Flow Mapping


Terms 

  1. Account Type:  The first step in classifying the COA is to select the Account Type.  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.
  2. Main Group:  After the account type is selected, you must select the Main Group.  You can select an option from the existing Main Group categories or create a new group. Each account type has their own groupings. For example; the Main Group options for asset accounts are Property & Equipment, Current Assets, Non-Current Assets, or a new group can be created. Below shows the groupings for a revenue account in the Food & Beverage Department.
  3. 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.  
  4. 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. The group options will vary depending on the Account Type and Main Group.  
  5. 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.    
  6. Row Title:  The next step is to select a 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 one of the existing row titles. This is a way to group multiple COA’s into one row. Instead of showing Sales Tax, Occupancy Tax, Use Tax, etc. on a Balance Sheet, they can all appear in a single row using this feature.
  7. 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.

How to Change a COA Classification

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


  1. Go to Administration > Chart of Accounts.
  2. Select the COA Classification button.
  3. Select the Classification Guide button.
  4. On the Classification Guide pop-up, check the box next to the Balance Sheet and Operating Statement, and select Run Report. Print these reports and use them as a reference.
  5. Back on the COA Classification page, select the COA you want to edit. This will open the COA Classification Details pop-up window.
  6. Edit the categories and save. The Account No. and Account Name fields cannot be edited from here. To edit these fields, select the Rename COA’s button from the Chart of Accounts page. You can also edit the COA name from the main Chart of Accounts page: Administration > Chart of Account. 

 

Change Order and Rename Classification Names

 

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.

 

  1. Go to: Accounting > Administration > Chart of Accounts > COA Classification
  2. Select a COA that is included in the section of the Operating Statement or Balance Sheet that you would like to edit. For example, let’s say you want to edit the order of the Departments on the Operating Statement. You want the Communications department to move below the Guest Laundry department.
  3. Select the Change Order link to the right of the relevant classification. In this example it’s the Sub Group 1.   Macintosh HD:Users:johnerhart:Desktop:Screen Shot 2016-07-31 at 5.23.53 PM.png
  4. Select the up or down arrow to reorder the classifications.
  5. You can Rename the classification by selecting the name, then editing the name in a pop-up.
  6. Save all pop-up windows. You can now run your Operating Statement or Balance Sheet and confirm the sequence and renaming changes.

 

Tip: You can select any of the column headings to sort the page by that heading.  Select the heading once to sort in ascending order and twice to sort in descending order. 

 

Classification Guide

 

These guides are used to understand exactly which COA’s are included in each row of your Balance Sheet and Operating Statements. Run these reports from this button and they will display the COA categories that are associated with each row. If a row in a report contains only one COA, then that COA number will be listed in the COA column. The word “MULTIPLE” appears in the COA column if there are more than one COA include in this row. To determine which COA’s are included, go to the COA Classification page and find COA’s that match the COA Classification settings shown on this report.  

 

The following shows the FOOD & SUNDRIES row from the Operating Statement Classification report.

 

 

The following shows the COA’s from the COA Classification page that match the classification above and are therefore included in the FOOD & SUNDRIES row of the Operating Statement.

 

 

Tip: Other reports have may have classification guides as well. To find these go to the Reports page and look for a link to the guide in the Guide column. For more information see the user guide page for Reports. 


Rename COA’s

 

Use this feature to rename and/or renumber an existing COA. 

 

Opening Balances

 

This is where opening balances are recorded for each COA for all business accounts (E/HID’s). Opening balances can be entered for Asset, Liability, and Equity COA’s. You cannot enter an opening balance for Revenue or Expense COA’s. Inn-Flow entered your starting balances based off the trial balances provide during implementation. DO NOT CHANGE opening balances without careful consideration of how the changes will affect your accounting.

 

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.

 

Tip: If the opening balance of a PMS ledger is edited after your Inn-Flow start date, it will cause the hotels Daily Activity Entry page to be out of balance.  This will cause the Daily Activity Entry to revert to the implementation date. 

 

Non-Financial COA’s

 

Non-Financial COA’s represent COA’s that are not considered an Asset, Liability, Revenue, Expense, or Equity COA. These are used to collect specific data that is 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 the statistic 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, found on the Dashboard.

 

 

COA Mapping

 

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

 

Transactions Linked to COA’s

 

Inn-Flow maps certain internal functions to your companies specific COA’s. 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. Every PMS will categorize each reservation into a segmentation, but the segmentations that a PMS has available may not provide the level of detail required to track your business. If you own hotels that use different PMS brands, then the segmentations offered by each may not be the same. Inn-Flow segmentation categories allow you to determine the segmentations that you want tracked. You will then be able to 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 the segmentation 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.

 

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.

 

Add COA

 

Use this button to create new COA’s. 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 section of this user guide for COA Classification. You will be allowed to edit these fields after saving.



Edit a COA

 

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 COA list. This will open the COA Details page. Then select the Delete COA button. Before editing or deleting a COA, please review the below information related to Chart of Accounts.