Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts is the foundation of your bookkeeping system. Every financial transaction references an account.

Account Types

Type	Description	Example
Asset	What you own	Cash, Accounts Receivable, Equipment
Liability	What you owe	Accounts Payable, Loans, Tax Payable
Equity	Owner's stake	Owner's Equity, Retained Earnings
Revenue	Income earned	Sales Revenue, Service Revenue
Expense	Costs incurred	Rent, Salaries, Office Supplies

Account Codes

Accounts use numeric codes for organization:

1xxx — Assets
2xxx — Liabilities
3xxx — Equity
4xxx — Revenue
5xxx — Expenses

Creating an Account

Navigate to Accounts in the sidebar and click New Account. Provide:

Code — Unique numeric code (e.g., 1200)
Name — Descriptive name (e.g., "Accounts Receivable")
Type — One of the five account types
Sub-type — Optional classification (e.g., "current", "fixed", "operating")
Default tax — Optional VAT/tax rate applied when coding lines to this account (see below)

Default tax rate (account-driven VAT)

Each chart account can store a default tax rate. When you pick that account while categorising a bank line, coding an invoice/bill line, recording an expense, or setting up a bank rule (without its own tax), the tax control fills from the account. You can always change tax on the line.

Typical South African examples:

Account	Default tax
Bank Fees & Charges	Standard Rate 15%
Meals & Entertainment	No VAT (or exempt — your practice)
Zero-rated purchases	Zero-rated

Set or clear the default under Accounting → Chart of Accounts → [account] → Settings → Default tax. Built-in (system) categories can still have a default tax even though name and code are locked.

Default Accounts

New organizations receive a country template of standard accounts. Key control roles used by automations (default codes for the generic template):

Default code	Role / name	Used by
`1100`	Default bank / Checking	Payments (when no bank chosen)
`1200`	Accounts receivable	Invoice journals, payments, credit notes
`1500`	Input VAT / GST	Bill tax, VAT reports (F14)
`2100`	Accounts payable	Bill journals, payments
`2200`	Output VAT / GST	Invoice tax, VAT reports (F4)
`4010`	Service Revenue	Invoice line items (line-level, not a control role)
`5000`	Cost of Goods Sold	Inventory / COGS
`5100`	Wages & Salaries	Payroll journal entries

Control account mappings

If your chart uses different codes (for example AR 0800 instead of 1200), do not try to rename locked built-in accounts. Map roles to your accounts under Settings → Control Accounts.

See Control Accounts for the full list of roles and how mapping works.

Built-in template accounts are marked system: name and code are fixed; hide unused ones by marking them inactive.

Deactivate all built-ins (custom chart migration)

After you import a custom chart of accounts and map AR, AP, VAT, bank, and related roles under Settings → Control Accounts:

Open Accounting → Chart of Accounts.
Click Deactivate built-ins.
Confirm. Active built-in (isSystem) accounts are set inactive so they leave pickers and the default Active only list.

Accounts that are still the resolved control-account target are left active (with a toast). Remap those roles to your custom codes, then run Deactivate built-ins again.

API: POST /api/v1/bulk/accounts/set-active with body:

{
  "isActive": false,
  "scope": "system",
  "allowControlMapped": false
}

scope: system (all built-ins) or ids (listed account UUIDs, max 500)
allowControlMapped: set true only if you intentionally want to deactivate accounts still used as control targets
MCP: bulk_set_accounts_active (same parameters)

Use Reactivate built-ins (or the same API with "isActive": true) to reverse.