In General Ledger there are two special types of options to allow you to summarize and/or separate account balance information. These options are called Summary Accounts and Allocation Accounts.
Summary Accounts allow you to define any number of detail account balance records which are to be summarized into another account. This summarization occurs when the Summarize Accounts option is selected from the Monthly Processing menu. Summary accounts cannot be posted to directly; their value comes from summing the detail accounts defined to be a part of the summary account. Summary accounts can be printed on statements and other reports.
Allocation Accounts are the complement to Summary Accounts. Allocation Accounts allow you to specify how to allocate (split up) an account's balance into any number of Receiving Allocation Accounts. Account balance amounts can be allocated as a fixed percent, a fixed amount, or as a ratio of the sum of other accounts. An Over/Under account can be specified so that the sum of the allocations exactly equals the amount to be allocated. Allocation account journal entries are created when Generate Allocation Accounts is selected from the Transaction Processing menu.