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 Code, Account Name, or Type, but other options are available in the drop-down menu

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 Create, and fill in (at the minimum) the required fields (Code, Account Name, Type).

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
		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
		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

Assets

Some account types can automate the creation of asset entries. To automate entries, click View on an account line and go to the Automation tab.

You have three choices for the Automation tab:

1. No: this is the default value. Nothing happens.

2. Create in draft: whenever a transaction is posted on the account, a draft entry is created but not validated. You must first fill out the corresponding form.

3. Create and validate: you must also select a Deferred Expense Model. Whenever a transaction is posted on the account, an entry is created and immediately validated.

Default taxes

In the View menu of an account, select a default tax to be applied when this account is chosen for a product sale or purchase.

Tags

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

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 under View.

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

To display your Trial Balance report with your account groups, go to Accounting ‣ Reporting ‣ Trial Balance, then open the Options menu and select Hierarchy and Subtotals.

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, tick the Allow Reconciliation checkbox in the account’s settings, and Save; or enable the button from the chart of accounts view.

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.

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.

See also

• Accounting cheat sheet

• Non-current assets and fixed assets

• Deferred expenses

• Deferred revenues

• Fiscal localizations

• Odoo Tutorials: Chart of accounts

• Odoo Tutorials: Update your chart of accounts