Accounts database design

Question

Hello everyone i am developing an accounts package for my company using Sql Server 2008 and VB.Net.

I need some help regarding the database design.

I have the following tables

AccountsGroupMaster

GroupId int
GroupName nvarchar(50)
ParentGroupId int
CatId int
PrimaryGroup bit
CreatedByUser nvarchar(50)
CreatedOn datetime

The above table will store the Groups for the accounts eg: Current Assets etc.

Accounts Table

AccCode nvarchar(6)
AccountName nvarchar(30)
ParentAcc nvarchar(6)
GroupId int

The above table stores the Accounts/Ledgers .

VoucherMain

VoucherNo bigint
VoucherDate datetime
DebitCredit int (0 for Credit 1 for Debit)
AccCode nvarchar(6) (Account Code to be debited/Credited)
UserID nvarchar(30)

VoucherDetails

VoucherNo bigint
SlNo int
AccCode nvarchar(6) (Debit this account if account in VoucherMain credited/ Credit this account if account in VoucherMain Debited)
Amount decimal(18, 2)
Narration nvarchar(MAX)

The above two tables store the transactions.The above two tables linked by the VoucherNo columns

Now my question is whether i should maintain all the bank accounts in the accounts table or should i have a separate table for the bank accounts. As each bank account should have its respective ledgers.

Please help me in the design of this database. thanks

Answer 1

Is a BankAccount different than an Account ? If it's a different entity entirely then it would probably call for its own table. If it's just a certain kind of Account then it might not. In that case, there could be other options:

For example, you could add an AccountType to the Account table to determine which ones are BankAccount types and which ones are not.

Or, if the difference is more than just a type flag and includes additional Account-level columns of data which are applicable only to that specific type of Account instances, then you might make a sub-table. It would be a BankAccounts table, but its primary key would also be a foreign key to the Accounts table, creating an enforced 0-1 relationship between the two.

Then, whenever creating a BankAccount record you'd first add a record to the Accounts table, get the generated key, and use that key to add a record to the BankAccounts table.