Material Accounts

Use Material Accounts for suppliers who provide you with materials.

HINT-- The Goldenseal accounting software uses Material accounts for accounts payable, check writing and expense tracking. It's also a convenient "address book" for vendor information.

WORKING WITH MATERIAL ACCOUNTS
When to Use Material Accounts | One-Time Names
Viewing Contacts | Using Material Accounts

ENTERING MATERIAL ACCOUNT DATA
Creating Material Accounts | Data Fields | Billing Setup | Calculated Fields
Status Field | Income Tax Class

Website Info Links
Accounting Software | Accounts Payable Software | Expense Tracking Software | Job Costing Software

RELATED TOPICS
       Material Purchases | Material Takeoffs | Other Cost accounts
       Subcontractors | Vendor Payment Terms | Vendor Sales Tax
       Vendor Withholding

When to Use Material Accounts

Use a material account for any business from whom you buy tangible goods or supplies.

Some common types of Material Accounts:

Lumberyards or hardware stores
Office supply stores
Packaging material suppliers
Raw material suppliers
Wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors
Other retail suppliers

HINT-- Usually for services you'll use Subcontractor and Other cost accounts. However the differences between these three account classes are minor, so it doesn't matter much where you put things.

Creating Material Accounts

To create a new Material account, follow these steps:

Choose Material Suppliers from the Accounts menu.
Click the New button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Enter details for the account.

QUICK SETUP HINT-- You only need to enter an Account Name. For check printing, also fill in Full Name and Address. For billing, fill in Payment Terms, Tax Rate and Credit Limit.

Data Fields

For each Material account, enter the following information:

Account Name-- Enter a short name for the account. This is the text that appears in the Chart of Accounts, and in pop-up menus.
Full Name-- Enter the complete name for the account. This is the text that will be written on invoices, checks, and other printed documents.
Contact-- Enter the name of one or more contact people.
Address-- Enter the address to which payments are sent.
E-mail-- Enter the e-mail address for the account.
Phone-- Enter phone numbers.
Account Number-- If the supplier has given you an account number, enter it here.
Tax ID-- If the account uses a Tax ID number, type it in here. This item is necessary if you file 1099"s for this supplier.

Created-- The date that the account was created is entered automatically. You may change this date so it will appear in different order, when the Chart of Accounts is viewed by date.
Record Number-- Goldenseal automatically assigns a record number to the account.
Comments-- Type in any comments you have about this account. You can enter key words here, to make it possible to find groups of accounts.
Allow One Time Names-- Turn on this check box if you use this account for miscellaneous suppliers that you'll type in for each purchase.

Billing Setup

Click the Billing Setup button to enter additional billing and job cost info for this supplier:

Billing Setup
Payment Terms-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter payment terms that are generally used for this account. By using a payment term that has a due date, bills due to this account are automatically included in the Pay Bills command.
Withholding Rate-- If you need to collect backup withholding from this vendor, enter the withholding rate to use.
Credit Limit-- If you have a credit limit on this account, enter it here. You'll be warned when purchases will go over the credit limit.
Sales Tax Rate-- Enter the sales tax rate that is usually used for purchases from this account.

Job Cost Setup
Cost Type-- Use the pop-up menu to identify the cost type to which this account belongs.
Category System-- Enter the category system to use for itemized purchases from this vendor.
Income Tax Class-- Enter the cost category to use when classifying this vendor's purchases for income tax purposes. If you leave the field blank, they'll be included in the Material Purchases category.
Gets 1099s-- If you need to generate 1099 forms for this account at the end of the year, turn on this check box.
Include in Starter File-- Turn on the checkbox if you'd like to include this account when you create a new starter file .

Calculated Fields

Goldenseal shows two calculated fields:

Total Payables-- The amount that you currently owe to this supplier.
Paid On Account-- The amount you've paid on account to this supplier.

Status Field

Enter the current status of this account:

Active-- You currently do business with this supplier.
Inactive-- You don't currently do business with this supplier, but you may in the future.
Closed-- You definitely don't do business with this supplier any more.

One-Time Names

Turn on the Allow One-Time Names check box for Material accounts that you use for cash purchases from infrequent suppliers that don't deserve their own account.
HINT-- You probably only need one account to handle the miscellaneous vendors that you type in for "one time" payments.

When you enter that supplier into a Material Purchase transaction or a Bank Check, you'll be able to type in a one-time name to identify the supplier.

To make a purchase from an infrequent vendor, follow these steps:

Make sure you have a Material Supplier account that has the "allow one-time names" checkbox turned on.
Create a Material Purchase transaction
Enter the account from step 1 into the Vendor field.
Turn on the One-Time check box.
Type the name of the vendor into the field next to the checkbox.

Income Tax Classes

Use the Income Tax Class field to identify expenses for income tax purposes. You can use any Cost Category for each material supplier, subcontractor and other cost account. If you don't enter a tax class, Goldenseal will include the expenses for this account under "materials".

To make a report of income and expenses divided into tax categories, click here.

The income tax classes are a "quick and dirty" way to group expenses into categories that are good enough for tax forms. It lumps all expenses from each account into a single category. If you change the tax class for any account, it immediately changes the category of all expenses from that account.

HINT-- For more accurate expense tracking, use job costs.

Viewing Contacts

To view contact records for this supplier, click one of the buttons in the right side of the record layout.

Click View Appointments to see Appointment records for this supplier.
Click View Contact Log to see Contact Log records for this supplier.
Click View Document Log to see Document Log records for this supplier.
Click View Problem Log to see Problem Log records for this supplier.

Using Material Accounts

To enter a formal request for materials from a material supplier, choose Purchase & Work Orders from the Costs menu.

To enter cash purchases from a material supplier, choose Material Purchases from the Costs menu.

To pay bills from material suppliers, choose Pay Bills from the Bank menu.