About Static Elements in an Account Structure

Static elements are used to determine whether balancing transactions are being made correctly. To create a balanced transaction, the account codes used must contain matching element values in each of the static elements.

The designated fund element is always a static element because all transactions must be balanced within a fund in AptaFund. In other words, every transaction must have matching credit and debit entries within the same fund element. If you debit fund 250, you can't then credit fund 100 — you must credit fund 250 to create a balanced transaction. When you designate one of your elements to be the fund element, AptaFund automatically sets that element to static — even if you created the element as non-static.

You can set additional elements to static if your organization requires them to be balanced as well. For example, if transactions are required be balanced within the fiscal year as well as the fund, you can create an element to represent the year and set it to static. Then in order to create a balanced transaction, the values of the year element in the account codes must match.

The controlling element is automatically set to not static and can't be changed since its value changes to create balancing accounts. The controlling element indicates the account type and is replaced with the balancing account code element designated in the Element Value Maintenance window when the system creates an offset transaction. See About Required Balancing Account Types for more information.

Note: Although you can make an element static after accepting the account structure, we don't recommend this action. Your existing general ledger entries may not balance within the new static elements, and there is no easy way to tell why it is out of balance.

Return to Structure Maintenance Overview