Tier 2 — Business Setup

Set Up Your Chart of Accounts

Your chart of accounts is the list of accounts AxiomBlue records sales and purchases against. Set it up once under Settings > Accounting: the accounts themselves, which income account each kind of sale goes to by default, and how GST applies.

Applies to: anyone who can view invoices (erp:finance:ar:view) can see this page. Adding and changing accounts and defaults needs the business owner or erp:finance:gl:edit.

Prerequisites: Setting Up Your Business

What the accounts are for

Every business starts with a default chart. Invoices record their income against it, bills and supplier payments record against it, and your Stripe payments are recorded against one of its bank accounts. If you use Xero, you map these accounts to your Xero accounts under Settings > Integrations.

AxiomBlue does not keep your books. It has no journals and no end-of-period statements; your accounting software does that job.

Add or change an account

  1. Go to Settings > Accounting and open Accounts.
  2. Click Add account, or Edit next to an existing one.
  3. Enter the Account code and Account name, and choose the Account type: revenue, expense, asset, liability or equity.
  4. Click Save account.

Once an account is saved, its code and type are fixed; only its name can change. To stop using an account, click Archive, and Restore brings it back. System accounts cannot be archived.

Accounts added here are never bank accounts. Payments and your Stripe payment account can only use the bank accounts in your default chart.

Choose where each kind of sale is recorded

  1. Open Sales defaults.
  2. For each category, choose an income account: General sales income, Services income, Billable labour income, Materials and product income and Other job charges.
  3. Click Save defaults.

A category left blank uses General sales income. An account chosen on a product or on an invoice line overrides the default. Billable labour income is what customers pay for your team's time; it is separate from what that time costs you in wages.

How GST applies

Tax settings shows whether the business is registered for GST. Change that under Settings > Business Info. A business that is not registered charges no GST.

GST is set by the treatment on each sale, not by the income account it is recorded against:

  • GST on income — 10%
  • GST-free income — 0%
  • Input-taxed sales — 0%
  • Outside BAS / out of scope — 0%

The three zero-rate treatments mean different things when you report to the ATO, so choose the one that fits the sale rather than any zero rate.