Most ledger accounts in your chart of accounts are shared. A ledger account is an account where a transaction is recorded (for example, Office Supplies or Grant Income). A shared account appears across your whole chart, and any organization can use it to code transactions.
Sometimes an account only makes sense for one organization. ImpactGraph lets you scope a ledger account to a single organization. This is an organization-specific account: it belongs to one organization rather than to the whole chart. If you operate under a fiscal sponsor, this is how an account meant for one project stays out of the rest of the chart.
Decide whether an account should be shared or organization-specific
Decide which kind an account should be before you create it.
Use a shared account when more than one organization would use it. Most accounts are shared. Office Supplies, Grant Income, and similar accounts apply broadly, so keeping them shared avoids duplicating the same account for every organization.
Use an organization-specific account when the account is only meaningful to one organization. An example is an account that tracks a fund, program, or balance unique to a single organization, something no other organization would code against. Scoping it keeps the rest of your chart clean and keeps that account out of everyone else's coding choices.
Scoping an account is a chart-structure decision, not a money movement. It does not move or change any existing transaction. It only controls where the account is available. It also doesn't copy your chart per organization: a shared account stays a single shared account, and an organization-specific account is a single account that appears in one organization's context.
Create an organization-specific account
When you create a ledger account, you can scope it to a specific organization instead of leaving it shared across your chart.
Start creating a ledger account. Open your chart of accounts and begin adding a new account as you normally would.
Set the account's organization scope. When you enter the account's details, choose the organization the account belongs to. Leaving the scope unset keeps the account shared across your whole chart.
Save the account. The account is now available only in the context of the organization you chose. Shared accounts continue to appear everywhere.
How organization-specific accounts behave when coding
An organization-specific account is available in the context of the organization it belongs to. When you code a transaction for that organization, the account appears as a choice alongside your shared accounts. When you code for a different organization, the account does not appear. You see only shared accounts and that organization's own accounts.
This keeps each organization's coding choices focused on what's relevant to it. It also prevents an account meant for one organization from being used against another.
How organization-specific accounts behave on reports
An organization-specific account belongs to one organization, so it shows up where that organization's activity is reported. A report scoped to that organization includes the account. A report for another organization does not. Shared accounts appear wherever they're used, across organizations.
Who can see organization-specific accounts
What someone sees in the chart depends on their role.
Accountants, bookkeepers, and admins see the full chart across every organization: both shared accounts and every organization-specific account. This is the view you want when you own the books and need the whole picture.
A member of a single organization sees the chart filtered to what's relevant to them: the shared accounts plus the accounts specific to their own organization. They don't see accounts that belong to a different organization.
This filtering is automatic. You don't manage per-account visibility by hand. Scoping an account to an organization is what determines who sees it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change a shared account into an organization-specific one later?
Whether an existing account can be re-scoped depends on how it's already being used. Changing an account's scope affects which organizations can code against it, so review where the account is used before you change it. If you're unsure, contact support before making the change.