Using Account Codes for P&L reports

I run a small publisher and need to keep separate P&L accounts for each of the books we publish (going back across multiple years from when each book was published) . I use the QF project functionality to track sales and expenditure for each book for internal accounting and to calculate royalties owed to each author. Essentially, each book is tracked as a project. Unfortunately, I have several years of sales data where each sale is attributed to code 4000: General Sales. I really need to break the sales down into subcategories: ebooks, print, website sales etc. I can create the sub-codes, but when I try to transfer the related invoices to the new codes the system will not let me transfer any invoices relating to locked accounting periods. Is there any way around this problem?

Hi @Tony

The good news is - there is a way of doing this.
The not so good news is - it may not be that straight forward, depending on the invoices and how they’re set up.

We offer a bulk re-code tool which allows you to move items from one nominal code to another in the same category (sales to sales, purchases to purchases, etc.). However, when you save an invoice, if they have more than one line with the same nominal code, we group them together. So if you change the code for one, it will be changed for another.

If you have grouped lines together, I think you’re going to be better off moving the balances in bulk by using a journal on this occasion.

I think that makes sense?

Thanks for the quick reply. The bulk re-code feature works for sales invoices that are not in locked accounting periods but refuses to re-code anything before the end of Nov 2015.
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Apologies for that. The year end lock would prevent this (as balances would change and affect the year end report), whereas a VAT lock would work (as the VAT values themselves wouldn’t change).

In this case, you would undo the year end and make the adjustments, and re-save the year end. Any other method (e.g. a journal on a different day) may skew your figures if the transactions are from previous years.

It may be best to just start this from your current accounting year.

If I could temporarily undo the year end and move the relevant transactions that would be neat. It shouldn’t affect any tax calculations from previous tax years, as all the sales are for books, just in different formats.
How would I undo the year end and then restore it, if that’s permitted?

There are 2 steps:

  • Remove the year end journal
  • Undo the year end lock

The journal can be found by going to Reports >> Journals. I would recommend taking a copy of this page, especially if you’ve used the figures for tax returns (just to ensure everything is the same when you put it back).

The lock can be found by going to Account Settings >> All Settings >> Account Lock Date, and just moving it back 1 year.

Once you’re done, you can run the year end tool again and it will recreate the lock and the year end journal for you.

Thanks, Mathew. Ill give that a try.

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