aACE comes populated with a handful of default accounts. Some of these are samples, but many are required for the successful operation of aACE. The presence of existing data that cannot be easily deleted makes importing your chart of accounts more complicated than other imports in the system. Below are a list of helpful steps to get you started.
Removing sample accounts
Follow the steps below to delete as many of the existing accounts as possible:
1. Navigate to GL Accounts: Accounting > GL Accounts.
2. Here you'll find a list of active general ledger account records. Select "Deactivate GL Accounts in List" from the Actions menu as shown below.
3. You will be presented with a message on how many accounts were deactivated and how many accounts could not be deactivated. Run the process repeatedly until the message reads "0 accounts were deactivated." The number of times the process must be run depends on the number of levels there are for the chart of accounts. Header accounts cannot be deactivated if they contain active accounts, so the process needs to be run at least twice. The first run will deactivate the detail accounts; the second run will deactivate the header accounts. (Note: Sorting the list in descending order by Account ID will reduce the number of times this process needs to be run.)
4. Use the quick search to find all inactive accounts. Select "Delete GL Accounts in List" from the Actions menu as shown below. You may need to run this process several times for the same reason as above.
Accounts that could not be deleted using the process above have related data. The accounts may linked to categories, be part of the system setup in aACE Preferences, or have related general ledger records generated from test transactions. Each account will need to be dealt with individually.
Determining why an account cannot be removed and next steps
Select an active account and attempt to deactivate it by selecting "Deactivate GL Account" from the Actions menu as shown below.
aACE will provide you with a message like the example below listing the specific reasons why the account could not be deactivated:
The easiest solution for these issues is to simply reuse the accounts by assigning them the name and number of the corresponding equivalents from your chart of accounts. This will save you the effort of needing to reassign the related records twice: once now and once after you have imported your chart of accounts. If this is not possible, then you will need to create a temporary account that can serve as a placeholder. We recommend creating an account like "9999 Temporary Placeholder" for this purpose. Once all of the related records have been reassigned to the placeholder (instructions here), you will be able to delete the remaining accounts using the process above.
Importing your chart of accounts
Once you have removed as many of the default accounts as possible, simply follow the normal process for importing records to import your chart of accounts. The import process will allow you to import records that have the same Account # as existing records, but you will not be able to activate these records. Delete the imported records that fail to activate for this reason.