The chart of accounts is the list of every ledger your books post to. Invoices, bills, payments and journal entries all land in these accounts, and your financial reports are built from them. Open it from Accounting → Chart of Accounts.
The five groups
Every account belongs to one of five groups. The cards at the top of the page count the accounts in each group, and the chips above the table (All, Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expenses, Equity) show one group at a time.
- Assets — types such as Cash, Bank, Accounts Receivable, Stock, Fixed Asset and Other Current Asset.
- Liabilities — types such as Accounts Payable, Credit Card, Other Current Liability and Long Term Liability.
- Equity — Equity, Owner Capital, Retained Earnings and Other Equity.
- Income — Income and Other Income.
- Expenses — Expense, Cost of Goods Sold, Operating Expenses and Other Expense.
The Account Type decides where an account can be used. For example, only Bank, Cash, Credit Card, Payment Clearing, Other Current Asset and Other Current Liability accounts can be chosen as the account a payment is made from or received in.
The Balance Type column shows whether an account normally carries a debit or a credit balance. SmartLedger sets it from the group when the account is created: debit for assets and expenses, credit for liabilities, equity and income.
Parent accounts and sub-accounts
An account can sit under a parent account of the same type, for example several bank accounts under one parent. A row with sub-accounts has an arrow beside its name. Click it to expand the row. The Parent Account column shows where each sub-account sits.
System accounts and accounts you add
The Source column shows where each account came from:
- System — part of the standard chart SmartLedger sets up for every company. These rows show a lock icon.
- Manual — added by someone in your team.
- Tally or Zoho — brought in by an import from that software.
SmartLedger posts to system accounts itself, so they are protected. You can change only their Account Code and Description. Their name and type are read-only, and they can't be made inactive or deleted. Accounts you add can be edited in full, made inactive or deleted from the actions menu at the end of the row.
Finding an account
- Type in Search through all your Accounts to find an account by name. Matching rows are highlighted, and their parent rows open around them.
- Use the filter on the Account Type, Balance Type, Active and Source column headings to narrow the list.
- Transactions shows how many entries an account has. Hover over the Last Transaction date to see that entry's amount and the closing balance on that date.
- Use the column manager beside the search box to show or hide columns, such as Created At and Updated At.
Tips
- Making a parent account inactive also makes its sub-accounts inactive. You can't reactivate a sub-account while its parent is inactive.
- Click any account to open its ledger with every transaction posted to it.
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