Grouping accounts into meaningful entities, such as Assets, Receivables, Payables, etc., is essential to shape a comprehensible model (chart of accounts) that facilitates reporting and financial analysis.

Groups sum all the debits and credits of the accounts that it gathers into a total balance value. The above example groups the accounts Meals, Rent and Transport accounts and immediately gives the balance value of all expenses together

Groups can gather Asset and Liability type accounts or Incoming and Outgoing type accounts.

The Income group in the sample above gathers both incoming (green) and outgoing (red) type accounts. The balance value sums all the debits and credits from both account types in the group, resembling an Income.

Groups cannot gather Accounts from the Balance Sheet (Asset & Liability types) with accounts from the Income Statement (Incoming and Outgoing types).

Groups can also gather groups to create hierarchical structures that propose even more meaningful information to analyze and report on finances.

In the example above the Income Group is the Root of the Hierarchy with a Revenue and an Expense Group. Groups that gather other Groups (eg Income) cannot gather Accounts at the same level.

An Account can be used in separate hierarchical structures that start with different roots. The example below has two structures, one starts with the root group Assets and the other one starts with the group Portfolio and gives a specific insight of the portfolio that you want to track.

A Group has no debit or credit characteristics, instead it inherits these characteristics from the accounts it gathers.

A group with Asset type accounts inherits the characteristics of Asset type accounts.

A group with Liability type accounts inherits the characteristics of Liability type accounts

A group with both Asset and Liability account types is Gray with the balance value of the debits and credits of all accounts grouped.

A group with Incoming type accounts inherits the characteristics of Incoming type accounts.

A group with Outgoing type accounts inherits the characteristics of Outgoing type accounts

A group with both Incoming and Outgoing account types is Gray with the balance value of the debits and credits of all accounts grouped.

For details on how to create, edit, delete Groups go to Using Groups