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. Sales, purchases, banking documents, and journals have a Branch field on the header, so each posting can be tagged with the branch that made it. If a default branch is set on your user, it prefills that field on new documents.
• Reports group and filter by branch. You can column-group financial reports such as the Profit & Loss and the General Ledger by branch, and filter reports to a single branch, so you can read each part of the business on its own.
• 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 tracks on-hand quantity, cost, and value per product at each location, 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.

You need the create branches permission to add one, the edit branches permission to change one, the approve branches permission to approve it, and the delete branches permission to remove one. These are set per user under Permissions.

Create a branch

1. Open the Branches list

   Go to Lists → Branches. The list shows every branch with its Parent, its Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending), and who created it.

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 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. A branch cannot be its own parent, and the hierarchy can be at most five levels deep.

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 approved, this box is locked.

6. Save

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

Edit, deactivate, or delete

Select the edit icon on any row to rename a branch, change its parent, or change its flags. 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.