{"schema":"exacc.help.page/1","url":"https://exacc.au/help/general-settings/","title":"General settings","description":"Financial year, lock date, GST, default accounts, invoice numbering and defaults, timesheet units and payroll options for your business file.","category":"Start & Users","summary":"General Settings control how books, invoicing, timesheets and payroll behave in a business file. Open **Manage › Configuration › General Settings**, pick a tab, change a value and click the **Save** that appears beside it. Each setting saves on its own. Only administrators of the file can change them.","lastVerified":"2026-09-29","apps":["app"],"processIds":["general_settings"],"start":{"label":"Open General Settings","url":"https://app.exacc.au/{dbId}/settings"},"menuPath":["Manage","Configuration","General Settings"],"before":["You must be an administrator of the business file. For other users the page stays empty."],"steps":[{"step":1,"title":"Open General Settings","body":["Open **Manage** (the tile with your business code at the top right) and under **Configuration** click **General Settings**."],"url":"https://app.exacc.au/{dbId}/settings"},{"step":2,"title":"Change a setting and Save","body":["Each setting shows its name, what it does and its current value. Change the value and click **Save** beside it (or **Cancel**). Exacc saves that one setting and refreshes the list.","If the value goes back or does not stick, the change was refused: check the rules below, for example the lock date."],"image":"https://exacc.au/help/general-settings/step-2.png"}],"sections":[{"heading":"Accounting","body":[],"list":["**Financial Year date**: the last day of your financial year as dd/MM, e.g. 30/06.","**Accounts Lock**: nothing dated on or before this date can be added or changed. It cannot be blank, and cannot be moved past a date that still has draft invoices or bills.","**Debtors**, **Creditors**, **Private portion**, **Suspense**, **Current year earnings**, **Retained earnings**, **Deposits paid**, **Deposits received**, **Bad Debts**: the accounts Exacc posts or reports these to. Suspense also triggers warnings."]},{"heading":"General","body":[],"list":["**GST Registration details**: is the business registered for GST (the same setting as in Business Details).","**GST Accounting method**: cash or accruals.","**GST Cycle**: monthly, quarterly or annually. **PAYG Withholding Cycle**: monthly or quarterly.","**Add BCC to emails sent** / **Add CC to all emails sent**: an address that gets a copy of every email the file sends.","**Time Unit in minutes**: the smallest timesheet unit, e.g. 6 or 15 minutes. **Timesheet warning**: warn when one entry is longer than this many minutes."]},{"heading":"Invoicing","body":[],"list":["**Income account**, **Tax code** and **Default Payment Terms**: pre-filled on new invoices (customers with their own terms keep theirs).","**Next Invoice Number**: the number the next invoice gets; numbering continues from there.","**Group 1 to Group 4 - max days**: the overdue ranges on your receivables summary."]},{"heading":"Payroll","body":[],"list":["**Public holidays**: the public-holiday calendar for this file.","**Payroll ABA reference**: the reference employees and you see on bank statements for pay runs.","**Payroll reporting settings**: report pay events by period end date or payment date.","**Working Holiday Maker registration**: whether you are registered to employ working holiday makers at 15% tax.","**Time entries verification for payroll**: the minimum timesheet status that can go into a pay run.","**Unpaid leave treatment**: the pay item to show unpaid leave on payslips.","Showing leave balances at the bottom of payslips.","**Notify Payroll move to Exacc**: tell the ATO, with your next STP report, that payroll moved to Exacc. Needed once, if you move mid-year."]},{"heading":"ToDo","body":[],"list":["**Default project type** for automatic and quick projects, and **Default Project activity**."]}],"related":["https://exacc.au/help/update-business-details/","https://exacc.au/help/create-invoice/","https://exacc.au/help/how-to-add-and-manage-payment-terms/"],"linkNote":"Links containing {dbId} open that screen in the business file whose id is dbId. A person can also open this help page with ?db=<dbId> to get the same links as buttons."}