Why is gl account field not a reference to the General Ledger Accounts table

[mbeaver]

In the Asset form, financial tab, the GL account (gl_account) field is just a string. Why wouldn't it be a reference to the General Ledger Accounts (itfm_gl_accounts) table?

[Noah Drew]

Hi @mbeaver !

I agree it is a bit weird that it is a String rather than a reference.

It looks like the reason it is not a reference field is because the GL account field is present even when the Financial Management Plugin is not installed.

It would surely cause issues if the table did not exist and we had a reference field to it.

Hope that makes sense!

If it did, please mark as Helpful and consider setting the reply as the Correct Answer to the question, thanks!

[mbeaver]

Of the two answers, this one is the most applicable in our current implementation but I could not say for sure if it is more correct than the second one.

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

[sachin_namjoshi]

GL account is referred in expense lines too which adds to your project actual costs.

In case of managing projects, project managers may not have GL accounts ready while creating expense lines. Being string field, this gives flexibility for project managers to create expense lines related to projects.

Regards,

Sachin