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The Partner current accounts template summarises, for each partner, the movements on their current account for the year: the year's profit appropriation, drawings and other personal items met through the business, and transfers to or from their other capital accounts. Those movements are reconciled back to the trial balance and to the profit or loss figure for the year.

Table of contents 

When should I use this template?

Use it for any unincorporated trading partnership working-paper file, alongside the Partners template. It only appears once the client's legal form is set to partnership; it is hidden automatically for sole traders and LLPs, in the same way as the Partners template itself.

Before you start

  • Set up the Partners template first: add every partner, their appointed and resigned dates, and choose how the year's profit or loss is allocated between them. This template reads that list and split directly.
  • Complete the [Unincorporated] Profit and loss account reconciliation. The current year's profit or loss figure from there is what this template reconciles the partners' closing balances against.
  • If the trial balance's share-of-profit accounts already carry postings, the Partners template will default to "Mapped", and this template follows that choice automatically (see Step 1).

Background: current accounts vs capital accounts

Partnership accounting conventionally splits each partner's interest into a capital account, which normally stays fixed (money the partner has put into or taken out of the business as capital), and a current account, which absorbs the year-to-year trading activity: the partner's share of profit or loss, any salary or interest on capital, drawings, and personal expenses paid by the business on the partner's behalf. This template is that current account.

The related capital-type templates, Partner capital accounts, Partner additional capital accounts and Partner land and property capital accounts, hold the capital side instead, and this template shows the transfers between the current account and each of those.

Step 1: Choose the workflow option

At the top of the table is a dropdown to select how the figures are built: Accounts analysis or Mapped.

  • Accounts analysis reads the amounts directly from the account template used on each trial balance account, which already identifies which partner each posting belongs to.
  • Mapped is for files where postings sit in fixed account-number ranges instead of being tagged to a partner. You then assign each column to the correct partner yourself (see Step 3).

This choice is shared with the three capital-type templates: selecting it here (or in any of them) applies it everywhere. If "Mapped" has already been selected in the Partners template's profit-allocation dropdown, this template is locked to Mapped and a warning explains why.

Some existing files carry a legacy third option that reproduces an older version of this working paper. It is not supported alongside the Annual Accounts workflow and is only shown where a client file was already configured to use it.

Step 2: Review the Accounts analysis table

Each active partner gets a column, with rows for:

  • opening balance
  • salary
  • interest on capital
  • other prior shares
  • share of profit or loss
  • funds introduced
  • drawings
  • private use items
  • life assurance
  • health insurance
  • pension (or, for medical clients, superannuation) contributions
  • retirement annuity contributions
  • National Insurance contributions
  • tax
  • transfers between partners
  • transfers to and from the capital, land and property, and additional capital accounts

A row only appears if at least one partner has a non-zero value in it. Salary, interest on capital, other prior shares and share of profit are pulled straight from the Partners template and are not editable here; the remaining rows total whatever has been posted to the relevant trial balance accounts for that partner. Each closing balance is the running total for that partner, and the whole table foots to a total column.

For clients flagged as medical, salary, interest on capital, other prior shares and share of profit are combined into a single "Share of net medical income" line instead of being shown separately.

The transfer-between-partners row should always net to nil across all partners; if it does not, an unreconciled indicator appears. The template also checks the total closing balance plus the current accounts' trial balance value against the profit or loss figure from the Profit and loss account reconciliation, and flags any difference the same way.

Step 3: Review the Mapped table (if selected)

In Mapped mode, each column represents a fixed set of account ranges rather than a specific partner, so you pick which partner each column belongs to from a dropdown. The same categories are shown, each read from its own account range, and a warning appears if the number of mapped accounts does not match the number of active partners. That is a sign the account mapping or the partner dates need checking.

What flows through to the rest of the accounts / workflow?

  • Feeds the current account balances shown in the accounts notes.
  • The reconciled closing balances, and the underlying salary, interest, other prior shares and share of profit figures, feed the Profit allocation note.
  • Transfers recorded here are cross-checked against the matching transfer lines on the capital, additional capital, and land and property capital account templates.

What rolls forward next year?

  • Each partner's closing balance becomes next year's opening balance.
  • In Mapped mode, the account-to-partner column mapping carries forward.
  • The workflow option (Accounts analysis vs Mapped) is not fixed permanently. It is re-evaluated each year based on whether the Partners template's profit split is mapped.

Where the data comes from

  • Partners template: partner list, appointed and resigned dates, salary, interest on capital, other prior shares, and the resulting share of profit or loss.
  • Trial balance: the account ranges for funds introduced, drawings, private use items, insurances, pension and tax-related items, and transfers to and from the other partner capital accounts.
  • [Unincorporated] Profit and loss account reconciliation: the profit or loss figure used to check the table reconciles.
  • [Unincorporated] General settings - Partnership: legal form, medical industry flag, and rounding configuration.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the transfer-between-partners row showing an unreconciled indicator?

That row should sum to nil across all partners: one partner's transfer out should match another's transfer in. Check the postings on the relevant trial balance accounts.

Why can't I choose the workflow option myself?

The Partners template has "Mapped" selected for the profit split, so this template (and the other partner capital-type templates) follow that automatically to avoid a mismatch.

Why does my file show a legacy third workflow option?

That option only appears for files that were already configured to use it before the current Accounts analysis / Mapped structure. It is not available to switch into otherwise, and is not supported alongside the Annual Accounts workflow.

Why are salary, interest on capital and share of profit shown as one line?

The client's industry is set to medical, where these are combined into a single "Share of net medical income" line rather than shown separately.