Map franchise departments to accounting accounts

Department accounting mappings let HQ decide where each department's sales land in every branch's accounting system. For each branch and each connected accounting system, you map a department to an income account and the tracking that system uses, so every branch reports departments the same way in its books.

Accounting systems and what each mapping holds

Before you begin

• Each branch connects its own accounting system from its workspace. See connect QuickBooks, Xero and Wave.
• The branch's chart of accounts and tracking categories must be loaded in FieldCamp. If they're missing, ask the branch to click Refresh Accounts in its accounting integration settings.
• To view mappings, your franchise role needs View department accounting mappings. Owners, admins, members and viewers have it.
• To add, edit, auto-map or validate mappings, your role needs Create and validate department accounting mappings (all branches) and access to the whole franchise. The buttons appear only for roles that can also create and retire departments.
• To turn the posting gate on or off, your role also needs Turn the department posting gate on/off.
• Owners and admins have all of these. See franchise roles and permissions.

Open a department's mappings

In the franchise console, select Departments, open a department, and select the Accounting tab. To create the department first, see roll out departments across branches.

The table under Department → accounting mapping, per branch lists every branch twice, once for Xero and once for QuickBooks. Each row shows:

• Mapping: the revenue account (or default account) and the tracking option, plus the branch's Fallback mapping underneath.
• Status: Not mapped, Inactive, Valid, or the validation error.
• Held: how many documents the posting gate is holding for this department in this branch.

How a mapping is applied

When a branch posts an invoice or quote, FieldCamp looks for the mapping in this order:

1. The branch's mapping for the document's department.
2. The branch's fallback mapping.
3. No mapping: the document posts with the branch's default revenue account, as before.

Only a mapping that is active and valid is used. For Xero, when one applies:

• Revenue account: replaces the default revenue account on every line, including markup, discount and shipping lines. If you leave it empty, the default account is kept.
• Tracking category and option: added to every line, so you can report on the department in Xero.

Add or edit a mapping

If the branch isn't connected to that accounting system, the editor says the catalogue is empty. If a Xero mapping fails validation, the row shows the reason:

Set a fallback mapping

Click Fallback on a branch row to map documents that have no department. The fallback is also used when a department has no mapping of its own in that branch.

Map many departments at once

• Auto-map by name creates Xero mappings for every active or retiring department in every connected branch that doesn't have one yet. It looks for a tracking option named after the department's reporting code first, then its name. It never changes existing mappings. Departments without a match get an inactive row marked No tracking option with this name.
• Validate all rechecks every mapping against each branch's accounting data.

Hold invoices until a mapping exists

The card at the top of the tab controls Require a department accounting mapping before posting. It's off by default and applies to the whole network.

When it's on, an invoice or quote from a branch isn't sent to Xero or QuickBooks until its department has an active, valid mapping for that branch and provider. Before you turn it on, the card tells you how many unsynced invoices would be held. Held documents show in the Held column. They're released automatically once a valid mapping is saved.

When a job changes department after posting

If a job's department changes after its invoice or estimate is already in Xero, FieldCamp tries to correct it. This applies to Xero only:

• Unpaid and not paid or voided in Xero: the document is re-sent to Xero with the new department's mapping.
• Anything else: for example the document has payments, or the gate is on and the new department isn't mapped. The branch's Xero settings show it under Reclassification needed in Xero. The branch owner gets a notification, corrects the document in Xero, then clicks Done, or Dismiss with a reason.

What the branch sees

In its accounting integration settings, a branch sees Department → account mapping (set by HQ), a read-only list of its mapped departments and their status.

Related articles

• Roll out departments across branches
• Connect QuickBooks, Xero and Wave
• Franchise roles and permissions
• Network performance reporting