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Adaptive Planning
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Concept: Balance Types and Contra Accounts

Concept: Balance Types and Contra Accounts

Balance Type
 is an account setting for general ledger accounts. The setting indicates when accounts are
Credit
 or
Debit
. In the general ledger, the root accounts have balance types that follow general accounting principles.

Root General Ledger Balance Types

You can't change the balance type of general ledger root accounts.

Changing the Balance Type

You can change the balance type of accounts that roll up to the root accounts. Example: Expenses is a
Debit
 account. You can create a child account that has a
Credit
 balance type.
We call accounts with different balance types than their root account, contra accounts.

Contra Accounts and Rollup Calculations

Most parent accounts aggregate the total of descendant accounts as a sum. Example: Expenses has 3 descendant accounts with values of 50 each. The rollup value in Expenses is 150, the sum of the 3 descendants.
Contra account descendants reduce the value of the rollup. Example: Expenses has 3 descendants with values of 50 each. One of the descendants is a contra account. The rollup value is 50.

Benefits of Contra Accounts

Contra accounts make it easier to align with standard accounting practices and simplify data entry in sheets. You can enter positive integers in contra accounts even when you want the value to decrease the rollup value.
Example: Total Material Expenses is a debit account with 2 child accounts:
  • Material Expenses (debit)
  • Material Discount (credit)
Material Discount is a contra account that reduces the total in Total Material Expenses.
Total Material Expenses
50
-50
100
Materials Expenses
100
50
50
Materials Discount (Credit-Contra)
50
100
-50

Identifying Contra Accounts

  • Modeling: Look in the
    Balance Type
     section of the account setting for
    This is a contra account
    .
  • Account structure export: Look for
    Yes
     in the
    Contra
     column.
  • Sheets, Explore Cell, Excel Interface for Planning, and reports: Look for an icon that's a half-filled circle.
  • OfficeConnect: You can add the
    Account Contra Indicator
     label to the report. When you refresh, the label adds an icon that's a half-filled circle.
  • Sheet downloads when accounts are in the rows: Look for
    Yes
     in the
    Contra Account
     column.
  • Sheet downloads when accounts are in the columns: Look for
    Yes
     in the
    Contra Account
     row.
  • Dashboards: Hover over accounts in charts.

Limitations of Contra Accounts

  • You can't change the
    Balance Type
     of:
    • Built-in root accounts.
    • System accounts in the general ledger hierarchy.
    • CTA accounts.
    • Accounts with journal entries.
  • Contra accounts are available for general ledger accounts only and cube-entered general ledger accounts.

Changing Accounts to Contra Accounts

To change accounts to contra accounts, you can use:
  • Account settings in General Ledger Account admin.
  • Spreadsheet imports in General Ledger Account admin.
  • Integration Planning Account Loaders.
  • updateAccounts API.

Downstream Effects

When you make accounts contra to their root, you change the data in the rollup. To avoid changing the rollup data, export the account data. Reload it after you make the account contra with the correct sign. Check the rollup values to ensure that your data is correct.
In Dashboards, when you break waterfall charts down by metric, the chart displays the inverse variance for contra accounts.
In OfficeConnect:
  • When you apply 2 or more contra accounts to a custom intersection, the report returns the sum of the contra accounts as a positive integer.
  • When you apply a mix of regular and contra accounts, the report returns the sum of the regular accounts minus the sum of the contra accounts.
In web reports for matrix reports:
  • When you apply 2 or more contra accounts to a filter, the filter sums the values of the contra accounts as a positive integer.
  • When you apply a mix of regular and contra accounts, the filter subtracts the sum of the contra accounts from the sum of the regular accounts.
In the formula calculations for web reports, the default
Rollup
 function behaves this way:
  • With 2 or more contra accounts, the formula returns the sum of contra accounts as a positive integer.
  • With 2 or more accounts that are contra and regular accounts, the formula returns the sum of the regular accounts minus the sum of the contra accounts.