Do this once per client and journal entries work for every year you file for them.
Open a return and go to the GL accounts tab. The chart belongs to the entity, not to one return, so the work carries across.
Steps
Classify each account. Edit an account and set Account Type: Asset (cost), Accumulated Depreciation, Depreciation Expense, Gain/Loss, or Clearing. Accounts you never post depreciation through can stay Unclassified.
Pair each Asset (cost) account. Two dropdowns appear once the type is Asset (cost): Depreciation expense account and Accumulated depreciation account. Both start at "— Not linked —" and list only accounts you have already classified into those roles, so a wrong pick is not really available.
Set the disposal posting accounts. Below the accounts table, the Disposal posting accounts card takes a Gain/loss account and a Proceeds clearing account for the whole entity. Click Save posting accounts.
Assign your assets to the cost account. An account only reaches an entry through the assets on it. Assign on the asset, during import, or in bulk from the Assets tab. See Change routing or assign in bulk.
Watch the callout drain. As you classify, pair, and assign, the amber banner near the top of the tab counts down. It disappears when every asset is ready.
New accounts take an account number up to 20 characters and a name up to 100.
Pairing is per account, not per asset
A cost account with 400 assets on it is one pairing, done once. Assets you add later, by hand or by import, inherit it the moment they are assigned to that account. The form says so under the two dropdowns:
Every asset assigned to this cost account inherits this pair on journal-entry reports — no per-asset setup.
When each disposal account is required
The gain/loss account is always required. Without it, no disposal entry composes.
The proceeds clearing account is required only when a disposal has non-zero net proceeds. DepreciationPro computes net proceeds as sale proceeds less selling expenses, both read from the asset. A disposal with neither recorded composes without a clearing account.
Your firm's chart of accounts determines which accounts you select for both.
The amber callout, and Show assets
While any asset is still unfinished, the tab shows a count and the money at stake:
12 assets aren't set up for journal entries yet — $18,442.19 of current-year book depreciation won't post.
Show assets opens the list, grouped by return, with each asset's own reason and its current-year book depreciation. Each name links straight to that asset.
The reasons distinguish the cases. An asset with no cost account at all reads No GL account assigned. One whose account is assigned but not yet classified reads GL account isn't classified as Asset (cost), and one whose account is classified but not paired reads No depreciation expense / accumulated depreciation pair linked on the cost account.
This count is about account setup, not book data. An asset with no GAAP book shows here with $0.00 next to it, because there is no book depreciation at stake.
Importing a chart
Import CSV takes a file with Account Number and Name columns, plus an optional third Type column. The first row is headers.
Recognized Type values are Asset (cost), Accumulated Depreciation, Depreciation Expense, Gain/Loss, and Clearing. Anything else imports as Unclassified with a warning rather than a guess.
The preview shows how each row's type will land before you commit. An unrecognized value shows as Freight → Unclassified in amber, and a blank one as (blank) → Unclassified, so a column of unfamiliar labels is something you see rather than discover.
After the import, the confirmation repeats each one by row number:
Created 7 account(s). Row 4: blank Type — '1600' imported as Unclassified | Row 8: unrecognized Type 'Freight' — '8000' imported as Unclassified. |
Importing a chart does not classify it for you beyond the Type column, and it never pairs accounts. Pairing is step 2.