Branches

A branch is an organizational label you attach to a transaction to say which part of the business it belongs to, for example a division, an outlet, or a regional office. It is an independent master file: each branch has a name and, optionally, a parent branch, so you can nest a set of branches under a region or a company. The bookkeeper or accountant sets branches up once, and everyone selects from the list on the documents they enter.

A branch is one of ZyncLedger's organizational dimensions, alongside Locations and Sales Reps. Its job is to group and filter, not to move stock or money:

• Transactions carry a branch. Quotations, sales orders, invoices, delivery orders, invoice credits, bills, bill credits, bank payments, bank receipts, fund transfers, journals, issue notes, and issue returns have a Branch field on the header, so each document can be tagged with the part of the business that made it. The field comes from the form's template, so your template can rename or hide it. If you set a Default Branch under Settings → Defaults, it prefills the field on new documents.
• Reports group and filter by branch. On the Profit & Loss and the Balance Sheet you can add a column per branch (choose Header Branch under Column by; the Profit & Loss also offers Detail Branch, which uses the branch on each line), and you can filter reports to a single branch, so you can read each part of the business on its own. If you use the Planning & Budgeting app and split a budget by branch, Budget vs Actual can show a column per branch too.
• Numbering can be split by branch. You can give each branch its own document number series, so every branch's invoices run in their own sequence. See Document numbering.

How a branch differs from a location

Branches and Locations look similar (both are self-hierarchical master files you stamp on documents), but they do different jobs:

• A location is a physical place that holds stock. ZyncLedger keeps each product's on-hand quantity per location, valued at the product's one moving average cost, and a document's location is what decides which location's stock to raise or reduce.
• A branch is an organizational tag. It records which part of the business a transaction belongs to and lets you group and filter reports by it. It does not hold stock, and it does not change how a transaction posts to the ledger.

So use a location when you need to know where goods physically sit, and a branch when you need to attribute and report on activity by division or office. A single transaction can carry both.

Before you start

Every new business starts with one branch named Main, already active and approved, so you can begin trading immediately. Add more branches only when you need to attribute and report on activity by more than one part of the business.

Access is controlled by the Branches permissions in your user's permission profile, under Administration → Permissions (see Users, seats & permissions). There are separate switches to list, create, edit, delete, and approve branches. You need the list permission to open the Branches screen.

Create a branch

1. Open the Branches list

   Go to Lists → Branches. The table shows each Branch, its Parent, its Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending), and Created By, with child branches nested under their parent. You can search by branch name.

2. Start a new branch

   Select Add Branch. The Create New Branch panel opens from the right.

3. Enter the branch name

   Type the Branch Name (required), for example Colombo Branch. Each name must be unique.

4. Choose a parent branch (optional)

   Use Parent Branch (Optional) to nest this branch under a broader one, for example placing Kandy Branch under Central Region. Search for the parent and select it, or leave it blank for a top-level branch. Only active, approved branches are offered. A branch cannot sit under itself or under one of its own child branches, and a branch can be nested at most five levels below a top-level branch.

5. Set the status flags

   Two checkboxes control whether the branch can be used:

   Field	What it does
   Active	On by default. An inactive branch stays for history but is not offered when you pick a branch on a document.
   Approved	Off by default. A branch is only offered for selection once it is both Active and Approved. Ticking this needs the approve permission. Once a branch is saved as approved, the box is locked and cannot be cleared.

6. Save

   Select Create Branch. The branch appears in the list and, once approved, in the Branch dropdown on transaction screens.

You can also add a branch without leaving a transaction: open the Branch dropdown and select Add Branch. The same panel opens, and the new branch is selected on the transaction straight away if you saved it as both Active and Approved.

Import or export the list

The list also has Export and Import. Export downloads the branches currently shown in the list, with the visible columns, as a CSV file. Import needs both the create and edit permissions. It loads branches from a CSV file: you match its columns to Branch Name, Parent Branch Name, Active Status, and Approved Status, and choose whether to skip or update branches whose name already exists. Branch Name is required on every row. A parent is matched by its branch name, so list a parent above its children in the file.

Edit, deactivate, or delete

Select the edit icon on any row to rename a branch, change its parent, or change its flags, then select Update Branch. Renaming a branch changes the name shown on every document that carries it, past and future. To stop a branch being used without losing its history, clear its Active flag rather than deleting it.

Related

• Warehouses & Locations — the stock-holding dimension, and how a location differs from a branch.
• Sales Reps — the third organizational dimension you can stamp on transactions.
• Document numbering — split a document type into a separate number series per branch.
• Budget vs Actual — compare a budget split by branch with the ledger, a column per branch.
• Users, seats & permissions — where the Branches permissions are granted.