Chart of accounts¶

The chart of accounts (COA) is the list of all the accounts used to record financial transactions in the general ledger of an organization. The chart of accounts can be found under Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Chart of Accounts.

When browsing your chart of accounts, you can sort the accounts by clicking the column headers (e.g., Code, Account Name, or Type), filter them (e.g., Receivable, Payable, Account with Entries), or group them by Account Type. Additional columns (e.g., Default Taxes, Tags, Allowed Journals) can be displayed with the (optional columns) icon.

screenshot: accounting-chart-of-accounts-list

menu: Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Chart of Accounts
shows: Chart of accounts list grouped by "Account Type", with the Code, Account Name, Type, Allow Reconciliation and Account Currency columns; the optional columns dropdown opened.
highlight: The group headers and the optional columns icon (red frames).
data: Demo company "YourCompany HU" with the Hungarian chart of accounts.
module: account
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Configuration of an account¶

The country you select during the creation of your database (or additional company in your database) determines which fiscal localization package is installed by default. This package includes a standard chart of accounts already configured according to the country’s regulations. You can use it directly or set it according to your company’s needs.

To create a new account, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Chart of Accounts, click New, and fill in (at the minimum) the required fields (Code, Account Name, Type). Open an account line to access all its settings in the account form.

Warning

It is not possible to modify the fiscal localization of a company once a journal entry has been posted.

Code and name¶

Each account is identified by its Code and Name, which also indicate the account’s purpose.

Type¶

Correctly configuring the account type is critical as it serves multiple purposes:

Information on the account’s purpose and behavior
Generate country-specific legal and financial reports
Set the rules to close a fiscal year
Generate opening entries

To configure an account type, open the Type field’s drop-down selector and select the corresponding type from the following list:

Report	Category	Account Types	Description
Balance Sheet	Assets	Receivable	Money owed to the company by customers for goods or services delivered
		Bank and Cash	Funds held in company bank accounts or on hand as cash
		Current Assets	Short-term assets expected to be converted into cash within a year
		Non-current Assets	Long-term assets not expected to be converted to cash within a year
		Prepayments	Payments made in advance for goods or services to be received in the future
		Fixed Assets	Tangible long-term assets like buildings, machinery, and vehicles used in operation and subject to depreciation
	Liabilities	Payable	Money the company owes to suppliers or vendors
		Credit Card	Balances and transactions associated with company credit card usage
		Current Liabilities	Obligations due within one year, such as short-term loans or accrued expenses
		Non-current Liabilities	Long-term debts and financial obligations due beyond one year
	Equity	Equity	The owner’s residual interest in the company after liabilities are deducted from assets
	Equity	Current Year Earnings	The company’s net profit or loss accumulated in the current fiscal year
Profit & Loss	Income	Income	Revenue generated from the company’s primary business activities
	Income	Other Income	Revenue from secondary or non-operational sources, like interest or asset sales
	Expense	Expense	Costs incurred during operations to generate revenue
		Depreciation	The allocation of the cost of tangible assets over their useful life
		Cost of Revenue	Direct costs attributable to the production or delivery of goods and services
Other	Other	Off-Balance Sheet	Transactions not displayed on the balance sheet or profit and loss report

Non-trade receivables and payables¶

For Receivable and Payable accounts, the Non Trade option (optional column of the chart of accounts) indicates that the account belongs to the non-trade receivables or payables in reports and filters.

Default taxes¶

In the account form, select the Default Taxes to be applied when this account is chosen on an invoice or bill line.

Allowed journals¶

In the account form, the Allowed Journals field restricts the journals in which the account can be used. Leave it empty to allow all journals.

Account currency¶

In multi-currency environments, the Account Currency field forces all the moves on the account to be expressed in this currency.

Tags¶

Some accounting reports require tags to be set on the relevant accounts. To add a tag, open the account, click the Tags field, and select an existing tag or create a new one.

Account tags can be managed from Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Account Tags (provided by the Odoo 18 Accounting Community module).

Account groups¶

Account groups are useful to list multiple accounts as sub-accounts of a bigger account and thus consolidate reports such as the Trial Balance. By default, groups are handled automatically based on the code of the group. For example, a new account 131200 is going to be part of the group 131000. You can attribute a specific group to an account in the Group field of the account form.

Create account groups manually¶

Note

Regular users should not need to create account groups manually. The following section is only intended for rare and advanced use cases.

To create a new account group, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Account Groups. Here, create a new group and enter the name, the code prefix, and the company to which that group account should be available. Note that you must enter the same code prefix in both From and to fields.

screenshot: accounting-chart-of-accounts-account-groups

menu: Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Account Groups
shows: Editable list of account groups with the name, code prefix (From / to) and company columns; a new group line being created with the same prefix in both code fields.
highlight: The code prefix columns (red frame).
data: Demo company "YourCompany HU"; group "Tárgyi eszközök" with prefix "12".
module: account, om_account_accountant
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

To display your chart of accounts by account group, use the Group optional column or group the list by Group with a custom group.

Allow reconciliation¶

To keep the reconciliation process simple, when reconciling a bank, cash, or credit card transaction with an existing journal item, only journal items that debit or credit accounts with the Allow reconciliation option enabled are displayed as possible matches.

To enable this option on an account, enable the Allow Reconciliation toggle on the account’s line in the chart of accounts.

Shared Accounts¶

The Shared Accounts feature allows the creation of a single account for a specific purpose and sharing it between multiple companies. It is especially useful for multi-company environments where a similar account might be used across different companies. To share an account, add the companies in the Companies field of the account form. A different code can be defined per company in the Mapping tab.

Deprecated¶

It is not possible to delete an account once a transaction has been recorded on it. You can make them unusable by using the Deprecated feature: check the Deprecated box in the account’s settings, and Save.