SAP Finance: What do GL account fields do?

The gentleman in charge of setting up all of the GL accounts at work and I were chatting about a conversion and he commented to me “I don’t know what all of these settings do. I just follow the instructions that you guys gave me.” It dawned on me that many people do not know what all of the settings on an account do, but making mistakes here can cause serious trouble down the line.

Structure of a GL account

SAP divides the GL master into two parts. First, each GL account is created inside of a single chart of accounts. That chart of accounts is assigned to one or more company codes. Second, the account is extended to each company code. If the account is not extended to the individual company code, it cannot be posted to in the company code. Thus, some characteristics are constant across all company codes (since they are set in the chart of accounts data), while others are different in each company code.

Settings in the chart of accounts

Inside the chart of accounts we have the following settings¹:

Settings in the company code

The settings in the chart of accounts are straightforward. The company code settings though are not so simple.²