Chart of accounts

The Chart of Accounts page lists the ledger accounts of one company, with the balance of each. It is where you set up the chart of accounts of a company that keeps its books in TrakIT, add accounts to it, and choose the default accounts that automatic postings use.

To open it, select System > Chart of Accounts.

For how the books work, see Accounting. To set up a company’s books from the start, follow Setting up accounting: it gives the steps on this page in the order that works best.

How the chart is organized

The chart has three levels:

• Categories: Assets, Equity, Liabilities, Revenue and Expense, one tab each. They are the same for every company.
• Account groups, such as Cash And Financial Assets or Operating Revenue, within each category. They come from the template that TrakIT loads when you initialize the chart. You cannot add, rename or remove them.
• Ledger accounts, within each group. A parent account has a folder icon: it groups the accounts under it and shows their total, and nothing can be posted to it. A child account takes postings, and always sits under a parent account. A parent account can sit at the top of its group or under another parent account.

Each ledger account opens on its own page: see Ledger account. For the terms, see the Accounting glossary.

Choose the company

If you have access to more than one company, choose the company at the top of the page. The list shows your own company and the companies you have access to; system administrators see every company. TrakIT remembers your choice for next time.

Initialize the chart of accounts

A company starts with no chart of accounts. Its account list then says No Accounts Found. Please initialize the Chart of Accounts.

1. Choose the company.
2. Select Initialize.

TrakIT says Chart of Accounts initialized successfully. It loads a standard chart for the company’s country if your installation has one, or else a general chart. It creates the account groups of each category and, in each group, a first level of accounts, coded 1xxx for assets, 2xxx for liabilities, 3xxx for equity, 4xxx for revenue and 5xxx for expenses.

All the accounts the template creates are parent accounts. Before anything can be posted, add the child accounts you post to under them: see Add an account.

Initialize appears only while the company has no chart of accounts, and only once the company has a Default Currency. If it has none, TrakIT says Please define company default currency before initialising the Chart of Accounts when the page opens: ask a system administrator to set it (see Setting up accounting). A chart is initialized once: its groups stay as the template created them.

Auto-Posting Default Accounts

The Auto-Posting Default Accounts panel, at the top of the page, tells TrakIT which ledger accounts the automatic postings of invoices, bills, receipts, payments and internal postings use. It appears once the company has a chart of accounts, if your role can update the chart.

To choose the default accounts:

1. Choose an account in each box you need, or [Not Set] for none.
2. Select Save Defaults.

TrakIT says Default accounts updated. Save Defaults saves all the boxes at once, including those you leave on [Not Set].

Each box lists only the company’s active child accounts held in the company’s base currency, from one category. A box shows [Not Set] when no account is chosen, and also when the account chosen earlier is no longer active: saving then clears it.

Box	Lists accounts from	Hint under the box	Code in messages
Default AR Account	Assets	Debited when invoice is posted	DAR
Default Income Account	Revenue	Credited for unspecified income types	DINC
Default AP Account	Liabilities	Credited when bill is posted	DAP
Default Expense Account	Expense	Debited for unspecified expense types	DEXP
Sales Tax Account	Liabilities	Credited for tax charged on invoices	DTAXOUT
Purchase Tax Account	Assets	Debited for tax paid on bills	DTAXIN
Withheld Tax Account	Assets	Debited for tax withheld by customers	DTAXDED
Withholding Tax Payable	Liabilities	Credited for tax withheld from suppliers on bills	DTAXWHP
Discounts & Allowances	Revenue	Debited for invoice adjustments	DADJ
FX Gain/Loss Account	Expense	Realized & unrealized exchange differences	DFXGL

What each default is used for, and which ones a company needs, is explained in Setting up accounting (step 5). Which entry each document posts is in Automatic posting. When a document needs a default that is not set, it cannot be finalized or approved, and the message names the default by its code, for example Default AR (DAR) COA account not configured for this company: see When posting fails.

The account master and payment method settings that also decide where postings go are set elsewhere: see Setting up accounting.

Opening Balances

Opening Balances, at the top right of the panel, opens the Opening balances page, where you enter the balances your accounts had when the company started keeping its books in TrakIT.

Category tabs

The tabs Assets, Equity, Liabilities, Revenue and Expense each show the accounts of one category. Select a tab to see its accounts. TrakIT remembers the tab for next time.

Add New creates an account in the category of the selected tab.

Account list

The list shows the accounts of the selected category as a tree: the accounts at the top of each group in bold, in order of code, each followed by the accounts under it, indented one step per level. Parent accounts have a folder icon. Inactive accounts are grey.

Select a row to open the ledger account.

Column	Shows
Name	The code and name of the account, for example 1210 - Accounts Receivable.
Group	The account group.
Currency Balance, for example XOF Balance	The balance on today’s date, in the company’s base currency. A parent account shows the total of all the accounts under it. A dash means the balance is zero.
Currency Balance	For an account held in a foreign currency, its balance in that currency, for example USD 5,000.00. A dash for other accounts, or when the balance is zero.
Updated By	Who created or last changed the account, and how long ago.

Balances are shown on each account’s usual side: debit balances for assets and expenses, credit balances for liabilities, equity and revenue. A negative amount is a balance on the other side, for example an overdrawn bank account. For balances on another date, use the Trial balance. For accounts held in a foreign currency, see Multi-currency accounting.

Add an account

The quickest way to add an account is from the parent account it goes under:

1. In the list, select the parent account.
2. On its Sub-Accounts tab, select Add….

See Add a sub-account.

You can also start from this page, and choose the group and parent account yourself:

1. Select the tab of the account’s category, for example Assets.
2. Select Add New.
3. Fill in the form, then select Create. See Create an account.

Add New appears once the company has a chart of accounts and a default currency, if your role can create accounts.

Messages

Message	What to do
Please define company default currency before initialising the Chart of Accounts	Ask a system administrator to set the company’s Default Currency.
No Accounts Found. Please initialize the Chart of Accounts.	Select Initialize, or ask someone whose role can create accounts.
Chart of Accounts has already been initialized	Someone initialized it in the meantime. Open the page again.
No chart-of-accounts file found or Unable to read Chart-of-Accounts file	The chart template is missing on your installation. Contact TrakIT Support.
The account selected for code must belong to this company, allow direct posting, be enabled and be in the company base currency	The account changed after you opened the page, for example it was made inactive. Nothing was saved: open the page again and choose another account.

Who can use this page

Your role needs these permissions in the Chart of Accounts section:

Permission	Allows you to
Read	Open the page and the ledger accounts, and see their balances.
Create	Initialize the chart of accounts, and add accounts with Add New and Add….
Update	See the Auto-Posting Default Accounts panel, save the default accounts and open Opening Balances. Also change accounts.
Delete	Delete accounts, on the ledger account page.

The Opening balances page itself needs Read in the Journal Entries section, and posting the balances needs Create there.