Account Pools and Rates

A pool is a named list of accounts whose total you want for a period. A rate divides one pool's total by another's, as a percentage:

Store overhead $41,570.84 ÷ Direct labor $192,113.60 = 21.64%

For every dollar of shop wages so far this year, Summit spent about 22 cents keeping the store open. Government contractors use the same idea for fringe, overhead and G&A rates: the pools feed the incurred-cost pack and each contract's costs on its project page (Volume 7).

Settings → Accounting → Account pools, then + Pool. A panel opens on the right. The + Pool and + Rate buttons show only to people whose "Account Pools" permission lets them make pools; anyone else reads the page without them.¹

1. 1

   Name and describe it 1

2. 2

   Add accounts 2

   Choose an account and click Add, or Add with its sub-accounts for a whole branch. Accounts of another pool copies another pool's list.

3. 3

   Decide on new accounts 3 and sign

   Tick Add new accounts made under these accounts so the pool keeps up as the chart grows. Choose Inverted only for a revenue pool, so it reads positive.

4. 4

   Optionally, a group label 4

   Pools that share a label cannot hold the same account, so pools of one label can be added up without counting anything twice.

5. 5

   Choose the year it takes effect from 5, say why 6, and save

   Every change to a pool or rate is a change of cost accounting practice, so BizBooks360 asks two questions before it saves. Takes effect from is the first fiscal year the change applies to; later years follow, and earlier years keep the pools they were measured with. Reason for the change needs at least 10 characters; a shorter one is refused with "Say why the pools change (at least 10 characters)." Summit picks FY 2026 and writes "Measure what each dollar of shop-floor wages costs in store overhead." The page answers: Pool "Direct labor" added from FY 2026.²

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1. 1

   Click + Rate, name it, and choose the top 1 and bottom 2 pools

   The panel shows the measured rate 4 as soon as both pools are chosen, for the period chosen on the page: Summit's "Store overhead per labor dollar" measures 21.64%.

2. 2

   Optionally, an override rate and a step-down order 3

   The override is used while the measured rate moves around (a billing or provisional rate). Step-down order is Not in the step-down or a place from 1 to 9. Rates in a step-down are worked out in order, fringe first, then overhead, then G&A, and each later pool takes in the earlier rates on its own labor. Tick The bottom pool is a total cost input when the bottom pool should also take in the earlier rates on its costs.

3. 3

   The year it takes effect from 5 and the reason 6, then save

   As for a pool (Procedure A, step 5). Deleting a pool or a rate asks the same two questions.

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Choose the period 1, and optionally a project 2 or department 3, at the top. The Pools tab shows each pool's total and how many lines make it up; click the number of accounts 4 to list them. The Rates tab shows each rate's measured value, its place in the step-down and any override.

Cost accounting practice changes

Below the tables, every change to the pools and rates is kept: the fiscal year it takes effect from, what changed, the reason given, who made it and when. The first change ever saved also records the pools and rates as they were before it. Download CSV gives the list to an auditor.

Forward pricing rates

The last section sets out each rate by fiscal year: the actual rate (the final rate of a settled year, otherwise measured from the books), the provisional rate it bills at, the target rate budgets use, and the rate proposed for forward pricing with what the proposal is based on. Edit proposed rates fills in the proposals. Proposed rates are never billed.