Adding non-trade items to transactions

Introduction

When it comes to running your business, you may want to use Paragon to keep track of your non-trade expenses such as utilities. internet or rent. That's why Paragon includes the option to add non-trade items to transactions by allowing you to add a GL account to use as the expense account on invoices, credits, vendor invoices, and vendor credits from a separate tab on the add item modal. You also have the option to add any receive payment from a customer or make payment to a vendor and will be posted directly to the GL account specified. Non-trade items will not be counted as stocked items and will not be tracked anywhere else in the system, allowing you to manage your expenses without causing any disruption in your data.

Configure which GL accounts can be posted to as non-trade items

Each GL account has an accessible as a non-trade item attribute that determines whether the account will show up in the list of non-trade items. 

 
 
If you try to turn on the attribute on a gl account category  you will see the following notification:
If you try to turn on the attribute on a parent account while the setting disable posting into parent account is turned on you will see the following notification:
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
You can can also set the attribute when first importing your chart from Excel.
 
Note that if the parent ID value is null, the value for the accessible as non trade item attribute cannot be 1. If you try to import, you will see the following error:
 
 

Create a manual transaction

To get started you will need to create either an invoice, credit, vendor invoice,  or vendor credit . You can navigate to any of these modules by clicking the more button on the navigation bar from anywhere in Paragon.
 

To add a new transaction, simply click the add new button in the top left and then select manual.

 

Add non-trade items

To open the add item modal, click the add item button on the bottom left of the screen.

 
When the modal opens, make sure to select non-trade items. It will be selected when it is highlighted in purple. The non-trade tab should show the columns GL account, account type, number, and description.


You can also add columns to the transaction grid for the attributes you have for your GL accounts by expanding the columns tab on the right side of the modal.

 
Select the GL account you wish to use by ticking the box. If you have created GL accounts to represent your utilities or rent (for instance), this is where they would be listed and available for selection. You can click the accept button to confirm and proceed or click cancel at any time.
 


After choosing the accounts you wish to use they will be added to the transaction with the quantity being defaulted to 1. This cannot be changed but the price can be edited as needed. 
By clicking the GL account under the product column you will be redirected to that account in the GL module.
 
 

Non-trade items in payments

Non-trade items can be added to any receive payment from a customer or make payment to a vendor and will be posted directly to the GL account specified. 
 

Add early payment discounts for customers

Create a receive payment for the original invoice, then add a non-trade line for the GL account that the discount should be booked to. 

You have to enter the total on the line as a negative amount so that the full invoice is marked as paid and cleared from your AR

 
 
 

Action button 

After saving your transaction you can proceed using the action button. From here you can use the default action (in this case, issue), or you can use the more actions arrows to email, copy, print, or void the transaction. 

 
 
 

Even though you have non-trade items on this transaction, you can still print as usual.


 

What can I do after issuing?

When you have issued a transaction with non-trade items you can proceed the same way you would with that transaction normally. This means you can use it to create and link other transactions as well as proceed to make or receive payments. One example could be that you created a vendor invoice for your rent or utilities. Once that is issued you can create a new make payment from this to keep track of any payments you have made towards that invoice.

 

Journal entry

Issue your transaction from the action button and you will receive a notification that you have created a journal entry. 

 
 

As mentioned above, you can navigate to the account used on your transaction by clicking the product line. From here you will be able to see your new journal entry in the activity panel of your GL account.

 
 

You can also view this journal entry by clicking the more button on the navigation bar and clicking journal entry.

 
 
 

Non-trade items on detail reports 

Your non-trade items will also be available in the corresponding WIGO detail reports. For example, we can see our vendor invoice from the example and our GL account is listed in the item field. 



Your GL account attributes will not be available in the column selector, you can always go back to your transaction or GL account to view these attributes.

 
 

What's next?

If you're looking for more information on GL accounts or getting around the transaction screen, why not take a look at these articles:

Setting up GL accounts

Setting up fiscal years and GL periods

How do transaction screens work