Overview

There are two types of financial accounts:

• Suppliers - this type of account is associated with suppliers that you purchase services from, for example a contractor whose teams carryout repairs or maintenance.
• Customers - this type of account allows you to define the owner of assets within the system and allow you to allocate costs in more detail, for example departments within regional council or company.

The accounts are based on one of two standard designs within your system, which determine the details that are required for an account. The standard account designs within Alloy allow you to start creating financial accounts straight away. The interfaces and attributes associated with each type of account are the same.

Creating an account

The following procedure describes how to create an account from the Finance module. This procedure is similar for customer and supplier accounts. When you begin to create an account from the Finance module, Alloy guides you through a series of steps customised to ensure you enter data required for the account.

There are four key steps to creating an item from the Finance module:

• Selecting a design - this is mandatory
• Entering item details - this is mandatory and determined by the design you select
• Selecting a location - this step is not available for accounts
• Parents - this is optional and allows accounts to be linked to parent items.
• Network references - this step is not available for accounts.

Selecting designs

The procedure to create a customer or supplier account is the same. The following procedure describes how to create an item from the Finance module:

1. From the dashboard select the Finance module.

2. Select Create Financial Accounts, the Item creation process page is displayed on the left.

3. Select step , the Design selection page is displayed. This allows you to define the type of item that you are creating.

Use the following fields to define the account:

• Design - Select this field to display a dialog that allows you to select the account design that defines the account type, either customer or supplier, that you are creating.

• Collection - Select this field to display a dialog that allows you to select the collection that the account belongs to. The list of available collections is dependent on the design that you selected and includes one or all of the following collections:

  • Live
  • Archive

• Template - This field is not available for account designs.

4. When you have completed all the necessary fields, select Next and move to the next step.

5. The first step of the process indicates that it is complete.

Entering item details

The next step requires you to enter some item details.

1. Select step , the Details page is displayed similar to that shown below. Mandatory fields are displayed at the top of the Details page. These can include custom fields and standard fields that are defined by the design for the account type.

The following are mandatory fields:

• Name - this is a mandatory field that allows you to enter the name of the account. You can use any combination of alphanumeric characters and spaces.

• Account No - this field allows you to enter an account number for the account. You can use any combination of alphanumeric characters and spaces.

• Tax applicable - this selection field is set by default and identifies that taxes are applied to this account when raising invoices.

• Internal - this selection field allows you to set the account as an internal type of account.

2. The account designs include additional fields that your processes may require you to complete. Select Show options to display the optional fields.

The following option fields are standard within customer or supplier accounts:

• Company name - this allows you to enter a company name.
• Tax number - this allows you to enter a tax number, for example a VAT number.
• Addresses - this displays a dialog that allows you to select one or more addresses for this account.
• Pricing - this displays a dialog that allows you to select a pricing table for this account.
• Report - this displays a dialog that allows you to associate one or more reports with this account.

3. Select Next when you have completed all the details that are required.

4. The second step of the process indicates that it is complete.

Completing the account

When you have completed all the required steps for the account that you are creating select Next. A notification is displayed to indicate that the account was created successfully and it is displayed in the Item details on the right hand side.