Planning Line Items and Sub-Line Items

A general ledger account is a detailed record of transactions for a specific revenue, expenditure, asset, liability, or equity.

The line item is the segment of the account number that designates the specific type of revenue, expenditure, asset, liability, or equity that posts to the account. Accountants sometimes refer to it as the “natural account segment.”

Note: Most agencies set up their line items and sub-line items in consultation with Tenmast when they first install the General Ledger program. Please use caution when considering changes to them.

HUD publishes its prescribed chart of accounts in HUD Guidebook 7510.1: Public and Indian Housing Low-Rent Technical Accounting Guide. Public housing authorities must use those account numbers on various HUD reporting forms.

For most agencies, we very highly recommend that the line item segments and sub-line item segments of your account numbers correspond exactly to this HUD-prescribed chart of accounts. If you choose to use different line items, each of your accounts still must correspond to a line item in the HUD-prescribed chart of accounts.

The sub-line item is an optional segment of the account number that allows your agency to customize your chart of accounts while still adhering to the HUD-prescribed chart of accounts.

Line Items

For each of your line items, you can define an unlimited number of sub-line items. You should first plan your line items and create a line item code and description for each of them. Line item codes can be up to fifteen characters. They are usually numbers, but the program allows you to use numbers and/or letters. Each code must be unique, but they must all follow the same pattern (the exact number of characters and whether letters and/or numbers are allowed). The HUD-prescribed chart of accounts, for example, assigns a four-digit number to each line item. Descriptions can be up to sixty letters and/or numbers.

Sub-Line Items

Next, plan any sub-line items you would like to use. You must assign each sub-line item to a specific line item. Sub-line items have codes and descriptions, just like line items. The only difference is that sub-line item codes can be a maximum of only eight characters. All other criteria are the same.

The line item is a required segment in your account numbers. After you have planned your line items, define the line item segment to fit the criteria you used for your line items (the exact number of characters and whether letters and/or numbers are allowed). If you choose to use sub-line items, follow the same steps to define and activate the sub-line item segment.

Note: Although sub-line items are optional, we highly recommend you use them to implement the HUD-prescribed chart of accounts and to take full advantage of General Ledger’s features.

For help on defining these segments of your account numbers, See "Planning Account Segmentation" and See "Maintaining Account Segments".

After you have defined these account segments, set up the line items and sub-line items themselves. You will create one record for each of them in the Line Items area of Setup. See "Setting Up Line Items and Sub-Line Items"