Chart of Accounts Generator
A chart of accounts built for your industry and entity type, with the reason behind every account, and the dimensions to keep out of it. Edit it, then export the import file for QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Build the chart
The chart of accounts decides what your financial statements can ever tell you. Most charts are built once, in a hurry, and lived with for a decade. Start from one designed for how your business makes and spends money.
Your business
Describe the business
Each industry starts from its own template.
Decides the revenue, cost of revenue and expense accounts.
Changes the equity section, where most generic templates are quietly wrong.
Decides the account types each account is mapped to, and the import file.
Five digits for a larger company that will need room. Order and gaps are kept.
Switch on what applies
Each adds exactly its own accounts. Changing a choice starts the chart again from the template.
Edit
Rename, renumber, retype or add. An account you add needs a note.
Edit the 62 accounts
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us or stored.
Your chart of accounts
Updates as you type
Software and SaaS, C corporation, for QuickBooks Online
62 accounts
Every account carries a note, which becomes its description in the import file.
- Assets
- 16
- Liabilities
- 10
- Equity
- 3
- Revenue
- 3
- Cost of revenue
- 6
- Operating expenses
- 19
- Other income and expense
- 5
Assets
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 1010 | Operating account | The main checking account. One account per real bank account, so each can be reconciled to its statement. |
| 1020 | Payroll account | Funded from operating for each payroll run. Remove if payroll runs from the operating account. |
| 1030 | Savings and money market | Cash held for yield or reserves. |
| 1200 | Accounts receivable | Invoices issued and not yet paid. Should equal the AR aging total on the same date. |
| 1210 | Allowance for doubtful accounts | Receivables not expected to be collected. A contra account, kept separate so the gross receivable stays visible. |
| 1250 | Unbilled receivables | Revenue earned ahead of billing: a contract asset. |
| 1300 | Prepaid expenses | Paid upfront for a service used over time, such as annual software or insurance. Amortized monthly from a schedule. |
| 1310 | Deferred commissions | Sales commissions capitalized and amortized over the customer contract. |
| 1400 | Other current assets | Short-term assets that fit nowhere above. If it grows, it is hiding something that deserves its own account. |
| 1500 | Computer equipment | Hardware above your capitalization threshold. |
| 1510 | Capitalized internal-use software | Development costs that meet the capitalization criteria. |
| 1519 | Accumulated amortization, software | Amortization of 1510, kept separate so the cost stays visible. |
| 1520 | Furniture and fixtures | Office furniture above your capitalization threshold. |
| 1530 | Leasehold improvements | Improvements to leased space, depreciated over the shorter of their life and the lease. |
| 1590 | Accumulated depreciation | Depreciation to date on the fixed assets above. Kept separate so their cost stays visible. |
| 1700 | Security deposits | Deposits held by landlords and vendors, returned at the end of the arrangement. |
Liabilities
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Accounts payable | Bills received and not yet paid. Should equal the AP aging total on the same date. |
| 2100 | Credit cards | One account per card program, so each reconciles to its statement. |
| 2150 | Accrued liabilities | Costs incurred and not yet invoiced, such as legal work done this month. Reversed on the first of the next month. |
| 2200 | Accrued payroll and bonuses | Wages and bonuses earned and not yet paid. |
| 2210 | Payroll taxes payable | Withheld and employer taxes owed to tax authorities. |
| 2300 | Sales tax payable | Collected from customers and owed to the states. Not revenue. |
| 2400 | Deferred revenue | Subscriptions billed but not yet delivered. Recognized as the service is provided. |
| 2500 | Income taxes payable | Current income tax owed. |
| 2700 | Line of credit | Amounts drawn on a revolving facility. |
| 2800 | Long-term debt | Loans due after a year. Move the part due within a year to current at each year end. |
Equity
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 3100 | Common stock | Par value of shares issued. |
| 3200 | Additional paid-in capital | Paid for shares above their par value. |
| 3900 | Retained earnings | Accumulated profit and loss. Closed into automatically at each year end. |
Revenue
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 4010 | Subscription revenue | Recognized as the service is delivered. |
| 4020 | Professional services revenue | Implementation and training. |
| 4090 | Discounts and credits | Kept separate so list price and discounting are both visible. |
Cost of revenue
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 5010 | Hosting and infrastructure | Production only. Development and test environments are operating expenses. |
| 5020 | Customer support | Support that is part of delivering the product. |
| 5030 | Payment processing fees | They scale with revenue and nothing else. |
| 5040 | Third-party software and data, resold | Inside the product, not used internally. |
| 5050 | Professional services delivery | The cost of delivering implementation and training. |
| 5090 | Amortization of capitalized software | Amortization of software that delivers the product. |
Operating expenses
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 6010 | Salaries and wages | One account. Department is a class. |
| 6020 | Payroll taxes | Employer taxes on wages. |
| 6030 | Employee benefits | Health, retirement and other benefits. |
| 6040 | Contractors | Individuals working like staff without being on payroll. |
| 6050 | Commissions | Sales commissions, or their amortization where capitalized. |
| 6060 | Recruiting and training | Hiring costs and staff development. |
| 6210 | Software and subscriptions, internal | Tools the team uses, not the product. |
| 6310 | Rent and utilities | Office space and its running costs. |
| 6410 | Insurance | Directors and officers, liability and cyber, amortized from prepaid. |
| 6510 | Legal fees | Outside counsel. |
| 6520 | Accounting and audit fees | Audit, tax preparation and outside accounting. |
| 6610 | Marketing and events | Programs, content, sponsorships and conferences. |
| 6620 | Advertising | Paid media. |
| 6710 | Travel | Airfare, lodging and ground transport. |
| 6720 | Meals | Kept apart from travel because its tax treatment differs. |
| 6810 | Bank fees | Account and wire fees. Card processing fees are cost of revenue. |
| 6830 | Office and general | Supplies, postage, small equipment and dues. |
| 6840 | Bad debt expense | Changes in the allowance for doubtful accounts. |
| 6900 | Depreciation and amortization | On fixed assets and intangibles not in cost of revenue. |
Other income and expense
| Number | Name | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| 7010 | Interest income | Interest earned on cash balances. |
| 7020 | Interest expense | Interest on debt and the line of credit. Below operating income, so EBITDA can add it back. |
| 7030 | Foreign exchange gain or loss | Gains and losses on balances held in other currencies. |
| 7090 | Other income and expense | Non-operating items, such as a gain on selling an asset. |
| 7500 | Income tax expense | Current and deferred income tax. Kept last, so the line above it is pretax income. |
Dimensions, not accounts
Track these as Classes and Locations in QuickBooks Online, not as separate accounts.
- Department
- Research and development, Sales and marketing, Customer success, General and administrative
- Product line
- One value per product, when the board wants gross margin by product
- Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us or stored.
- The QuickBooks Online file follows the column layout QuickBooks Online publishes for chart imports. Check a few rows after importing.
Related reading
How the chart of accounts shapes every report, and what it takes to keep transactions coded to it.
- Glossary
General Ledger
The general ledger is the master record of an entity's accounts, holding every posted debit and credit by account and period. Subledgers feed it, the chart of accounts defines its structure, and the trial balance is its summary.
- Glossary
Record to Report (R2R)
Record to report (R2R) is the finance process tower that runs from posting a transaction to publishing the financial statements built from it: recording, closing, consolidating, and reporting. It is the enterprise term for the whole cycle the month-end close sits inside.
- Integration
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a cloud-based accounting platform that enables businesses to manage finances, track income and expenses, and gain real-time insights into their financial performance.
- Integration
Xero
A cloud-based accounting platform that helps small businesses manage invoicing, expenses, payroll, and financial reporting.
- Use case
Month-End Close
- Free tool
Gross Margin Calculator
- Free tool
CSV to QBO Converter
- Free tool
Prepaid Expense and Accrual Schedule
How a chart of accounts should be built
What it is for
The chart of accounts is the list of every account the general ledger can post to. Every report you will ever produce is a grouping of those accounts. So the chart decides, in advance, which questions your books can answer: if hosting costs and office software share one account, no report will ever tell you your gross margin properly.
The structure
Accounts are numbered in ranges by type, conventionally:
1000s Assets
2000s Liabilities
3000s Equity
4000s Revenue
5000s Cost of revenue
6000s Operating expenses
7000s Other income and expense
Within each range, leave gaps. Numbering 6010, 6020, 6030 rather than 6001, 6002, 6003 leaves room to add an account in the right place later without renumbering. A five-digit scheme gives more room again, for a company that expects to grow into it.
Accounts are what; dimensions are who and where
The commonest mistake in a growing company's chart is putting a department, a location or a product into the account name: "Salaries, Engineering", "Salaries, Sales", "Salaries, Support". It multiplies every expense account by the number of departments, makes every new team a chart change, and makes the question "what do we spend on salaries" a sum someone has to remember to do.
The account should say what was spent: salaries. The dimension should say who spent it: engineering. Every system has a place for that dimension: classes and locations in QuickBooks Online, tracking categories in Xero, departments, classes and locations in NetSuite. The chart stays short, and every report can be cut both ways.
Cost of revenue is where gross margin is decided
What sits in cost of revenue determines your gross margin, and a chart that does not separate those costs cannot produce a gross margin anyone trusts. For a software company that means separate accounts for hosting that serves customers, customer support that is part of delivering the product, payment processing, and third-party software resold inside the product. Development environments and internal tools belong in operating expenses. The gross margin calculator goes into the reasoning line by line.
Equity depends on the entity
The equity section is the one part of a chart that is decided by the legal form rather than the business:
| Entity | Equity accounts |
|---|---|
| C corporation | Common stock, preferred stock where issued, additional paid-in capital, retained earnings |
| S corporation | Common stock, additional paid-in capital, retained earnings, shareholder distributions |
| LLC or partnership | Members' or partners' capital, contributions, distributions, per member where needed |
Contra accounts
Some accounts exist to reduce another: accumulated depreciation against fixed assets, an allowance for doubtful accounts against receivables, discounts and credits against revenue. Keeping them separate, rather than netting them into the account they reduce, keeps the gross figure visible, which is what a lender or an auditor will ask for.
Fewer accounts is usually better
A chart with a few hundred accounts for a company with a few hundred employees is usually a chart where dimensions became accounts. Each account should be one someone can explain in a sentence, which is why every account this tool generates comes with one.
Worked example
The chart the tool loads. Invented.
Kepler Labs is a 120-person business-to-business software company, a C corporation, about to move off a chart built by its first bookkeeper and onto a fresh QuickBooks Online company. Its old chart had 41 expense accounts, most of them a department name and an expense type joined together.
What the generator produced, choosing software and SaaS, C corporation, QuickBooks Online, four digits, with deferred revenue and capitalized software switched on. An excerpt, the sections that matter most for this business:
| Number | Account | Type | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1200 | Accounts receivable | Asset | Invoices issued and not yet paid |
| 1300 | Prepaid expenses | Asset | Annual software and insurance paid upfront, amortized monthly |
| 1510 | Capitalized internal-use software | Asset | Development costs that meet the capitalization criteria |
| 1519 | Accumulated amortization, software | Asset, contra | Amortization of 1510, kept separate so the cost stays visible |
| 2400 | Deferred revenue | Liability | Subscriptions billed but not yet delivered |
| 3100 | Common stock | Equity | |
| 3200 | Additional paid-in capital | Equity | |
| 3900 | Retained earnings | Equity | |
| 4010 | Subscription revenue | Revenue | Recognized as the service is delivered |
| 4020 | Professional services revenue | Revenue | Implementation and training |
| 4090 | Discounts and credits | Revenue, contra | Kept separate so list price and discounting are both visible |
| 5010 | Hosting and infrastructure | Cost of revenue | Production only. Development and test environments are operating expenses |
| 5020 | Customer support | Cost of revenue | Support that is part of delivering the product |
| 5030 | Payment processing fees | Cost of revenue | They scale with revenue and nothing else |
| 5040 | Third-party software and data, resold | Cost of revenue | Inside the product, not used internally |
| 6010 | Salaries and wages | Operating expense | One account. Department is a class |
| 6020 | Payroll taxes | Operating expense | |
| 6030 | Employee benefits | Operating expense | |
| 6210 | Software and subscriptions, internal | Operating expense | Tools the team uses, not the product |
The dimensions panel: department as a QuickBooks Online class, with research and development, sales and marketing, customer success and general and administrative; and product line as a location, because Kepler sells two products and the board wants gross margin for each.
What changed against the old chart. The 41 expense accounts became nineteen, because "Engineering salaries", "Sales salaries" and the rest became one salaries account and a class. Cost of revenue went from one account called "COGS" to four, which is the difference between a gross margin of 88% and the 71% the board should actually see, the same example the gross margin calculator walks through. And the equity section has a retained earnings account, which the old chart, built for an LLC that was later converted, did not.
What this does not do
This generates a starting chart of accounts from a template for your industry and entity type, and the import file for your system. It does not migrate balances or history, map an existing chart to a new one, or set up your accounting system beyond the accounts themselves. The templates reflect common practice, not a requirement: your auditor, your lender or your industry's reporting rules may need accounts this does not include. Account types are mapped to each system as of the date the import formats were last verified.
Questions
The list of every account your general ledger can post to, grouped into assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses. Every financial statement is a grouping of those accounts, so the chart decides what your books can report.
As few as will answer the questions you need answered. A small or mid-sized company usually needs well under two hundred. A chart much larger than that has usually turned departments, locations or products into accounts, which belong in classes or departments instead.
No. Make the account the type of spending, such as salaries, and track the department as a class, department or tracking category. Your system has a feature for it, and it keeps the chart short and every report cut-able both ways.
In ranges by type, conventionally assets in the 1000s through other income and expense in the 7000s, with gaps between accounts so new ones fit in the right place. Use five digits if the company will need the room.
Yes. Choose the system and the export is in that system's import format, with each account mapped to one of its account types. In QuickBooks Online, account numbers only import when account numbering is switched on in the company settings. In a spreadsheet, keep the code column as text before importing, or a leading zero will be lost.
It is a management and financial reporting chart. It maps cleanly to a tax return, but the tax treatment of any account is a question for your tax adviser, and some industries have reporting requirements of their own.
Yes, in the equity section above all: shareholder distributions for an S corporation, members' capital and distributions for an LLC. Choose the entity type and the chart follows.
No. The chart is built in your browser, and the exports are files on your machine.
Start the books right,
then keep them right.
Your chart, synced or uploaded with your codes kept as written. Every transaction proposed against it with the reason shown, and nothing applied until your team accepts it. QuickBooks stays your ledger.