An ABOR marshalls a set of components that together enable LUSID to provide an accounting view of all the economic activity in one or more transaction portfolios between two points in time.
For each item of economic activity in those portfolios, LUSID generates a pair of journal entry lines - one representing a (positive) debit amount for posting to a specific general ledger account, and the other an equal and opposite (negative) credit amount for posting from a different account, in accordance with the double-entry system.
The components that comprise an ABOR are currently as follows:
Step 1: Create a chart of accounts (CoA)
A CoA is an index of all the financial accounts in the general ledger of a company. You must create a CoA before you can add general ledger accounts to it. See how to do this.
Step 2: Add general ledger accounts to the CoA
A general ledger account represents either assets, liabilities, income, expenses, capital or revenue. You can add as many accounts to a CoA as you need, and update the set at any time. See how to do this.
Step 3: Add at least one posting module with posting rules to the CoA
A posting module contains an ordered set of posting rules that post journal entry line debit and credit amounts to specific general ledger accounts. See how to do this.
You might add more than one posting module to a CoA in order to post the same economic activity in different ways. You can choose which posting module(s) to use, and the evaluation order if more than one, when you create an ABOR configuration module (see step 5).
Step 4: Optionally, add a general ledger profile to the CoA
By default, LUSID reports each general ledger account in a trial balance on a single line, automatically aggregating all the debits and credits in that account. You can use a general ledger profile to break down account activity according to particular criteria. This might be useful to aggregate debits and credits for one, some or all accounts in a more granular way. See how to do this.
You can add any number of general ledger profiles to a CoA, perhaps to drill down into the same trial balance in different ways. You can then select which general ledger profile to use when generating a trial balance (see step 8).
Step 5: Create an ABOR configuration module
An ABOR configuration module co-ordinates the set of components for an ABOR. You specify a CoA, nominate one or more posting modules from that CoA to use (and the evaluation order if more than one), and identify a recipe that is able to value holdings in all portfolios to calculate unrealised gains and losses. See how to do this.
Step 6: Create an ABOR
An ABOR nominates the portfolio(s) to provide an accounting view for, and specifies the ABOR configuration module whose components to use. See how to do this.
You might have multiple ABORs for the same set of portfolios, each with a different ABOR configuration module targeting a different kind of financial report.
Step 7: Optionally, set up an accounting calendar for the ABOR
You can add accounting diary entries to an ABOR to mark closed periods, and then use those entries to create a trial balance for a particular period. Alternatively, you can just specify two datetimes when creating the trial balance (see step 8).
Step 8: Create a trial balance for the ABOR
A trial balance is a summary view of all the general ledger accounts underlying an ABOR between two points in time. By default, LUSID reports each account on a single line, automatically aggregating all the debits and credits in that account, and providing an opening and closing statement. You can check that the sum of (positive) debits and (negative) credits for all accounts is zero; in other words, that the ledger balances. See how to do this.
You can optionally specify a general ledger profile in order to drill down into accounts and aggregate debits and credits at a more granular level.