What it is
In the chart of accounts, the Papel en la póliza (role in the journal entry) column says what part an account plays when Containn writes an entry nobody keys in: the daily póliza (journal entry), a supplier invoice or the year-end close. Concept mapping says where each concept's money goes; the role covers the other side of the entry that no concept names, such as the guest ledger.
A role is a label on the account, not a new account. The table shows it with spaces, for example “clientes huespedes”.
The roles Containn uses
| Role (as shown) | Base account | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| clientes huespedes | 105-01 Clientes · huéspedes en casa (in-house guests) | Daily entry: debits the day's charges and credits payments and applied deposits. Without it there is no entry. |
| impuestos trasladados | 208-01 IVA trasladado (output VAT) | Daily entry: any tax without its own account, and the tax on lines with no per-tax breakdown. |
| cargo por servicio | 401-05 Cargo por servicio (service charge) | Daily entry: the service charge the sheet carries apart from the price. |
| anticipos clientes | 206-01 Anticipos de reservas (reservation deposits) | Daily entry: credits deposits for future stays and debits their transfer to the folio on arrival day. |
| proveedores | 201-01 Proveedores nacionales (domestic suppliers) | Accounts payable: credit for each invoice, debit for each payment. |
| iva acreditable | 118-01 IVA acreditable pagado (input VAT paid) | Accounts payable: the VAT on the supplier invoice. |
| caja | 101-01 Caja del hotel (hotel cash) | Cash payment to a supplier when you leave “Sale de” (paid from) unspecified. |
| banco transferencia | 102-02 Bancos · transferencias (bank transfers) | Supplier payment by any other means when you leave “Sale de” unspecified. |
| resultado ejercicios anteriores | Not in the base chart | Year-end close: receives the year's profit. Without it the close cannot run. |
There are two more families. A tax role starts with “impuesto:” and is set for you by the Impuestos y sus cuentas (taxes and their accounts) table. A folio-charge category role starts with “cargo:” and is covered in Folio charge categories.
Roles that are reference only today
The other 13 roles in the base chart are not used by any automatic process today: banco tarjeta, otros cobros, clientes empresas, inventario insumos, impuesto hospedaje, propinas por pagar, ingreso hospedaje, ingreso alimentos, ingreso bebidas, ingreso otros, descuentos, gasto operacion and comisiones bancarias. They guide your mapping: money reaches those accounts because a concept points to them. For example, cash collected lands in 101-01 because the cash payment concept is mapped there, not because of the “caja” role.
How to assign a role
- Edit the account with the pencil icon, or create one with Nueva cuenta (New account).
- In Papel en la póliza, type it as the field's hint shows: lowercase, no accents, underscores between words (for example, resultado_ejercicios_anteriores).
- Click Guardar (Save).
What can go wrong
- A required role is missing. Without accounts holding the clientes huespedes, impuestos trasladados and cargo por servicio roles, Containn's yellow banner reads “Falta para que el día firmado se convierta en póliza: asignar el papel de… a una cuenta” (to turn the signed day into a journal entry, assign the role … to an account).
- Two accounts with the same role. Containn does not block it in the chart, but each process uses only one of them and doesn't say which. One role, one account.
- A misspelled role does nothing. The field is free text: if it doesn't match letter for letter, the account doesn't play that role.
- Deposits with no deposit account. If a signed day includes a deposit and no account has the anticipos clientes role, that day's entry is not generated. The yellow banner does not check this role. See The deposit ledger.
- Suppliers without their accounts. Without the proveedores and iva acreditable roles, Cuentas por pagar (accounts payable) won't record the invoice and tells you which account is missing.