xBoox

Understand Categories and the Chart of Accounts

Use Categories to decide where a transaction is recorded for accounting and reporting.

Category and transaction type are different

  • Transaction type decides whether a record appears in Expenses, Income, or Transfers.
  • Category selects the accounting account used by that transaction.

Changing a transaction type resets Category and Tax so an incompatible selection does not carry into the new type.

Account information

A Category may include:

  • account number;
  • account name;
  • account type;
  • detail type;
  • tax default;
  • posting and special-workflow eligibility.

Account numbers help users search and identify accounts, but xBoox does not use the number alone to determine accounting behavior.

Manage the Chart of Accounts

Open Accounting > Category (Chart of Accounts) to search, sort, and review accounts. The list begins with Account Number, Account Name, Account Type, and Detail Type, followed by tax, amount, status, origin, and action information. Workspace Owners can create or change eligible Categories.

Origin distinguishes accounts created by xBoox from accounts added by a user. System · Modified means the Account Number or Account Name of an xBoox-managed account differs from its system default. Changes to status, locking, tax, description, balances, or transaction activity do not change the Origin label. A user-created account remains Manual after later edits.

Add or edit a Category

Select Add Category to create a custom account, or select Edit beside an existing account. The drawer includes Account Name, Account Number, Account Type, Detail Type, Default Tax, Status, Lock Account, and Description.

An account may be created as a one-level subaccount of an active account with the same Account Type. After selecting Yes for This is a subaccount, search Parent Account by account number, account name, Account Type, or Detail Type, then select the matching result. The Parent Account selector uses the same searchable Category menu pattern as Bank Transactions. The parent is fixed after creation. A parent cannot be made inactive until all its subaccounts are inactive, and it cannot be deleted while any subaccount remains.

Locked accounts stay in reports and retain their history, but cannot be used for new manual, imported, bank-rule, receipt, or journal postings. They remain visible in ordinary Category and Journal Entry Account menus with a lock icon; selecting one explains the restriction. Unlocking an active account, including a parent account, permits direct posting to it and its eligible subaccounts.

New Categories start as Active. The Add and Edit drawers use the same field order so an account can later be made inactive without changing workflows. Some accounting fields are locked for xBoox-managed accounts because those fields control setup, reporting, and calculation behavior.

The built-in Vehicle structure uses locked parent 6700 Vehicle Expense, subaccounts 6701 through 6708 for Fuel, Parking, Insurance, Repairs & Maintenance, Licence & Registration, Financing Interest, Electricity & Charging, and Supplementary Insurance, plus separate top-level 6750 Vehicle Lease Expense. 6702 Vehicle - Parking(Business Only) and 6708 Vehicle - Supplementary Insurance(Business Only) default to 100% business use in the Vehicle working paper. Other eligible rows default to the vehicle's overall business-use percentage. The Vehicle working paper lets an Owner or permitted accountant adjust Business Use, Business, or Personal for an individual row and reset that row to its default without changing the underlying transactions.

You may rename or renumber an xBoox-managed account. Its Account Type and Detail Type remain locked. A custom account can change Account Type or Detail Type only through the guarded classification-change workflow below.

If required information is missing or incompatible, xBoox opens one validation dialog, marks the affected fields, and moves focus to the first field after the dialog closes. Select Help Center in the dialog to open the relevant rule in a new tab.

Account number rules

Account numbers organize the list and support accountant review and exports. They do not determine reporting, tax, managed-feature membership, or posting behavior by themselves.

  • The number must be unique among current accounts in the Workspace.
  • The number must fit the broad accounting range for the selected Account Type.
  • xBoox does not suggest or automatically select an available number.
  • The recommended custom operating-expense range is 7000-7999, but it is not

the only permitted expense range.

  • Changing a number changes display and sorting, not the account's identity or

transaction history.

Choose numbers carefully and ask an accountant when the numbering structure is uncertain.

xBoox-managed account numbers

An active account number in the xBoox account matrix cannot be assigned to a custom account. This protects current and future setup groups from being linked to an unrelated custom account.

Retired xBoox accounts are not offered to new Workspaces. If a retired account has historical bookkeeping activity, it remains inactive and reportable so prior financial statements do not change. An unused retired account may be removed from the Workspace. Retiring a generic built-in account does not remove its Account Type; for example, a Workspace can still create a deliberate custom Direct Costs / Cost of Sales account in the 5000-5999 range.

Optional investment, financing, asset-disposal, dividend-income, and foreign- exchange accounts are not automatically added merely because a Workspace uses Bank Account-Based Tracking or represents a corporation. An Owner may create a custom account with the appropriate Account Type when the business actually needs it.

If a later xBoox update introduces a managed account whose proposed number is already used by a custom account, xBoox does not overwrite or automatically renumber the custom account. The conflict must be reviewed and the custom account renumbered deliberately before the managed account can use that number.

When Business Profile is saved, xBoox reconciles the managed accounts required by Bank Account-Based Tracking, Corporation, and GST/HST registration. Missing managed accounts are restored without changing existing account history. Accounts that the Owner manually made inactive remain inactive.

Change account classification

Account Type and Detail Type decide whether an account belongs on the Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet and how its normal balance is interpreted. They are more than display labels.

For a used custom account, xBoox shows the affected transaction count and date range before saving an Account Type or Detail Type change. Confirming the change reclassifies current and historical reports, including Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and General Ledger. It does not change transaction amounts, tax snapshots, attachments, source documents, or the account's stable identity. The before-and-after classification and confirmation are recorded in the Audit Log.

xBoox-managed accounts cannot change Account Type or Detail Type. A bank or credit-card account also cannot be changed into or out of statement-account classification after it has an opening balance, statement-cycle setting, imported bank rows, Statements, or reconciliation history. Create a correctly classified account and consult an accountant rather than attempting to reuse the historical statement account.

Changing only Account Name or Account Number does not reclassify history.

Protected Categories

xBoox blocks ordinary posting to Categories that are:

  • inactive or deleted;
  • marked Lock Account = Yes;
  • part of a disabled xBoox-managed bookkeeping feature.

System-calculated and special-workflow metadata does not override an unlocked active account. Vehicle summary parents are locked by default; if an Owner unlocks one, it may receive ordinary transactions. Home Office household costs are normally entered in the Home Office Working Paper, while 6600 Home Office Expense may receive the final claim. If you post a manual claim to 6600, xBoox warns before the Year End Review workflow could record the same claim again.

Lock Account and posting

Lock Account = Yes prevents new posting while keeping the active account visible. Select the locked account in an ordinary Category or Journal Entry Account menu to see the explanation. Lock Account = No permits an active, non-deleted account to receive a posting when it plays the role of that field. Bank and credit-card accounts remain in their dedicated payment, statement, reconciliation, and transfer fields rather than ordinary Category menus.

Deactivate or delete

xBoox checks Category usage before changing or deleting it. A Category with historical activity may need to remain inactive for reporting rather than being deleted. Built-in accounts may also be protected by Business Profile or accounting rules.

Additional Bookkeeping Features

Home Office, Vehicle, and Residential Long-term Rental are controlled through Business Profile. Disabling a feature hides its managed Categories from normal posting options but preserves existing transactions and historical reports. Custom Categories do not expose a Business Activity field.

Permissions

All Workspace members with read access may view Categories. Structural Category changes require the Workspace Owner.

Additional Vehicle groups (dev)

The second group uses parent 6710 Vehicle Expense - Second Car, children 6711-6718, and independent lease account 6751. The third uses parent 6720 Vehicle Expense - Third Car, children 6721-6728, and independent lease account 6752. Each parent remains non-posting. The child names intentionally repeat across groups; use the number in the menu to choose the intended group. Selected controls may show only the account name, but retain the selected account's identity. Existing first-group account names are not overwritten.