Managing ledgers
The first step to submitting your user’s transactions is to map their real-world financial accounts, such as their
bank account, to a corresponding ledger in their chart of accounts. The process works a bit differently
depending on the end user’s accounting package. This section outlines how the process works for PlatformGL
and QuickBooks.
Create a financial account ledger
Real-world financial accounts are represented by financial account ledgers. You create these ledgers like any ledger by using the Create Ledger endpoint.
Financial account ledgers must have a financial_account_type. By selecting the financial account type, we
set smart defaults to ensure that the accounting treatment is accurate. For example, setting financial_account_type to
bank automatically sets type to asset, debit_credit to debit, and report_cash_flow to true.
Each real-world financial acount should have its own individual ledger. You can see the complete list of supported financial account types here.
Map the ledger
Once you have created a financial account ledger, you must store the association between the ledger_id of the
financial account ledger and the real-world financial account it represents.
We call this mapping, and you will use this mapping for various use cases such as submitting transactions.
Set the opening balance
It is important that the balance of the financial account ledger matches that of the real-world financial account on your user’s start date, or else their accounting will be inaccurate.
If the real-world financial account was opened before your user’s start date, an opening balance must be set via the Opening Balance endpoint.