Posting rules
A posting rule says where money goes in the general ledger when something happens to an account. It names one transaction type, and the two ledger accounts to debit and credit.
Posting rules belong to a posting group, and every posting group serves one account type. So a rule you add here only ever applies to accounts of that one type.
Choosing the transaction type
Select Transaction Type and pick from the list. The list holds only the transaction types the posting group’s account type can actually generate.
That is why it is short. A savings account never charges an arrangement fee, so “Arrangement Fee” is not offered on a savings posting group — a rule naming it could never fire.
Each entry shows its label and, in brackets, the name the account type declares it under. The label is what a person reads; the name is what the account type calls it. Both point at the same thing.
You cannot type a transaction type by hand. Before, you could, and a single mistyped character produced a rule that looked right in this table and moved nothing in the general ledger — the customer balance changed and the ledger did not, and nobody found out until the accounts were reconciled.
When a transaction type is missing from the list
If the type you want is not offered, the account type does not declare it. There are two remedies, and which one you need depends on why it is missing:
| What happened | What to do |
|---|---|
| The account type should generate this transaction, but nobody has said so | Add the transaction type to the account type, then come back |
| This transaction never happens on this kind of account | Nothing — the rule would never fire |
Saving a rule that names a type the account type does not declare is refused. The message tells you which posting group, which account type, and which transaction type, so you can tell the two cases apart without asking a developer.
Rules that were saved before this check existed
A warning triangle next to a transaction type means that rule books nothing. Its posting group’s account type does not declare the type it names, so nothing in the ledger moves when that transaction happens.
Hover the triangle to see why. To fix it, either declare the transaction type on the account type, or edit the rule onto a type that is declared. If the rule was never needed, delete it.
A clean table is the normal state. The triangle only ever appears on rules saved before the check existed, or loaded from a configuration file.
FX revaluation rules
A posting group can also carry FX revaluation rules. One says which ledger account holds a foreign-currency position, and which transaction type the revaluation books under.
You pick the transaction type from the same list, scoped the same way, and refused the same way if it names something the account type does not declare. Everything in the sections above applies here too.
An FX result never moves the account
An FX revaluation restates what a position is worth in your reporting currency. The account’s own balances are held in the account’s currency, and they do not change.
So an FX result moves the general ledger only. You cannot post one by hand on an account, and it carries no rules about which account balance to move — because it moves none.
Say Woodgrove Bank holds a loan of 100,000 US dollars and the rate moves. The customer still owes 100,000 dollars. What changes is what those dollars are worth in the bank’s reporting currency, and that difference books to the general ledger.
Pairing a revaluation rule with a posting rule
An FX revaluation rule names the position. A posting rule on the same posting group, naming the same transaction type, says where the result goes.
Both are needed. A revaluation rule whose transaction type no posting rule names books nothing, and says nothing — so after adding one, check that a posting rule for the same transaction type exists in the table above.
Currency
Leave Currency unset and the rule applies to every currency. Set it and the rule applies to that currency only, overriding the unset rule for the same transaction type.
That lets you send one currency to a different ledger account without writing a rule for every other currency.
Seeing which account types a group serves
A posting group names the account type it serves. That is the one place the pairing is recorded, so it is also where you change it.
To read the pairing from the other end, open Settings > Account types, select a type, and read Posting groups. It lists every group serving that type, or says the type is off the books — no group serves it, and accounts of that type post nothing to the general ledger.
Check that line after you create an account type. A type no group serves is a valid choice, but it is rarely the one you meant, and the first missing balance is a slow way to find out. See multiple posting groups.
What your organisation configures
- Which account types exist, and which transaction types each one declares. See transaction types.
- Which posting groups exist, and which account type each one serves.
- The ledger accounts a rule can debit and credit.
- Whether a rule is currency-specific.
- Which ledger accounts hold foreign-currency positions that are revalued.