# Institutions

Institutions in &kmymoney; serve as a way to group accounts. They are most commonly financial institutions like banks and brokerage firms, but they can be anything you want, such as Self, to hold accounts for the cash in your pocket and any other assets not actually help by a financial institution, or Stores, to group all your credit card and other accounts with retail stores.

## Institutions View

The Institutions View provides a summary of all the accounts grouped under their respective institutions. The list of accounts under any institution can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the arrow to the left of the institution name. The last listed institution is "Accounts with no institution assigned."

The Institutions View displays several columns, showing information about the account. It also shows the total value of all accounts in each institution. You can select which columns are shown by right-clicking on any column heading and selecting or unselecting the checkbox next to the name of the column.

institution view institution view

Name

- The name of the institution or account. This column is always displayed.

Balance

- The current balance of the account. No value is displayed for institutions.

Total Value

- For accounts, this is the same value as the balance. For Institutions, this is the total of the balances for all accounts in that institution.

IBAN

- The IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is shown if there is a value entered in the appropriate field on the account information dialog.

Bank Code

- The Bank Code. This identifier is formatted and used differently in different countries. It is known as the routing or routing transit number in the US and as the sort code in the UK. It is not currently used by &kmymoney;.

SWIFT/BIC

- The SWIFT/BIC (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication/Business Identifier Code)

## Institution Options

Right-clicking an institution name brings up an Institution Options menu, providing you with several choices. Selecting New Institution... opens the New Institution Dialog, where you can enter all the necessary information to create a new institution. Selecting Edit Institution... brings up an editable window where you can change the institution details. Selecting Delete Institution completely removes the institution from the data file. Any accounts associated with that institution will remain, but without being associated with any institution. Selecting New account... steps you through the new account process, which is described in more detail in the next section.

institution options sub-menu institution options sub-menu

### New Institution

new institution new institution

You must have a file open before you can create a new institution. If you do not have an existing file, you will need to create one.

Only the name is required in the New Institution Dialog, all other fields are optional. As with the personal information dialog, this data is not currently used by &kmymoney;, but some items may be required by future releases for certain features. In particular, the Bank Code and the BIC (Bank Identifier Code) will be required for online banking, although this may depend on the country your bank is in.

### Account Options

The options discussed above refer to the institutions listed in the Institutions View. Most of the rows in this view are accounts. Right-clicking an account name brings up an Account Options menu. The entries and details for this menu are discussed at the end of the Accounts Chapter.