# Chart of Accounts Template

**Businessman Talk · businessmantalk.com/finance/accounting/chart-of-accounts/ · v1.0 (September 2026)**

Paste into a spreadsheet, or save the table as a CSV and import it into your accounting software before the first transaction is recorded. Forty accounts, numbered in the five conventional blocks: 1000s assets, 2000s liabilities, 3000s equity, 4000s revenue, 5000s expenses. Delete the rows you do not need before importing; adding later is harder than cutting now. The description column says what goes in each account and, where it matters, what does not.

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| Number | Account name | Group | Statement line | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Bank: operating account | Asset | Cash | The main current account. One account per bank account. |
| 1010 | Bank: reserve account | Asset | Cash | Savings or reserve account. Cash held back for tax or a cushion. |
| 1050 | Petty cash | Asset | Cash | Physical cash held on the premises. Not the till float if that is banked daily. |
| 1100 | Accounts receivable | Asset | Receivables | Invoices issued and not yet paid by customers. |
| 1200 | Inventory | Asset | Inventory | Stock held for sale, at cost. Delete for a service business. |
| 1300 | Prepaid expenses | Asset | Other current assets | Insurance, rent or subscriptions paid in advance for a future period. |
| 1500 | Equipment, at cost | Asset | Fixed assets | Machinery, tools and computers above your capitalization threshold, at purchase price. |
| 1510 | Vehicles, at cost | Asset | Fixed assets | Vans, cars and trucks owned by the business, at purchase price. |
| 1520 | Furniture and fittings, at cost | Asset | Fixed assets | Fit-out, furniture and fixtures above the threshold, at purchase price. |
| 1590 | Accumulated depreciation | Asset (contra) | Fixed assets | Total depreciation charged to date on 1500 to 1520. Credit balance. |
| 2000 | Accounts payable | Liability | Payables | Supplier bills received and not yet paid. |
| 2100 | Credit card payable | Liability | Payables | Balance owed on business credit cards. One account per card if reconciled separately. |
| 2200 | Sales tax payable | Liability | Tax liabilities | Sales tax, VAT or GST collected from customers, net of amounts reclaimable, not yet paid over. |
| 2300 | Payroll liabilities | Liability | Tax liabilities | Payroll taxes and deductions withheld and not yet paid over. |
| 2400 | Customer deposits | Liability | Other current liabilities | Money received before the work is done or goods delivered. Moves to revenue when earned. |
| 2500 | Bank loan: due within one year | Liability | Current loans | The repayments falling due in the next twelve months. |
| 2600 | Bank loan: due after one year | Liability | Long-term loans | The remainder of the loan principal. |
| 3000 | Owner's capital | Equity | Capital | Money and assets the owner has put into the business. |
| 3100 | Owner's drawings | Equity (contra) | Drawings | Money the owner has taken out. Debit balance. Not an expense. |
| 3900 | Retained earnings | Equity | Retained earnings | Accumulated profit left in the business. Net profit closes here at each year end. |
| 4000 | Sales: products | Revenue | Revenue | Sales of goods. Excluding sales tax collected. |
| 4100 | Sales: services | Revenue | Revenue | Sales of labor, time or services. Excluding sales tax collected. |
| 4500 | Other income | Revenue | Other income | Interest received, grants, gains on selling an asset. Not trading revenue. |
| 4900 | Discounts and refunds | Revenue (contra) | Revenue | Discounts given and refunds paid. Debit balance. |
| 5000 | Cost of goods sold: materials | Expense | Cost of goods sold | Materials and stock consumed in what was sold. Delete for a service business. |
| 5100 | Cost of goods sold: direct labor | Expense | Cost of goods sold | Wages of the people who make or deliver what is sold. |
| 5200 | Subcontractors | Expense | Cost of goods sold | Outside labor bought in to deliver the work. |
| 5300 | Wages and salaries | Expense | Operating expenses | Pay for staff not in 5100: office, admin, sales, management. |
| 5310 | Payroll taxes and benefits | Expense | Operating expenses | Employer payroll taxes, pension contributions, benefits. |
| 5400 | Rent | Expense | Operating expenses | Premises rent and service charges. |
| 5410 | Utilities | Expense | Operating expenses | Electricity, gas, water, internet, phone. |
| 5500 | Insurance | Expense | Operating expenses | All business insurance, expensed as the cover period runs. |
| 5600 | Marketing and advertising | Expense | Operating expenses | Advertising, website, print, events, agency fees. |
| 5700 | Software and subscriptions | Expense | Operating expenses | Recurring software and service subscriptions. |
| 5800 | Vehicle and travel | Expense | Operating expenses | Fuel, vehicle running costs, travel, accommodation. |
| 5810 | Office supplies | Expense | Operating expenses | Consumables and small items below the capitalization threshold. |
| 5850 | Professional fees | Expense | Operating expenses | Accountant, bookkeeper, lawyer, consultants. |
| 5900 | Depreciation | Expense | Depreciation | The year's depreciation charge. The other side posts to 1590. |
| 5950 | Interest expense | Expense | Interest | Interest on loans, overdrafts and credit cards. Not the repayment of principal. |
| 5990 | Bank fees | Expense | Operating expenses | Bank charges, card processing fees, foreign exchange fees. |

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### Rules for keeping the chart tidy

- **Add** an account only when a reader of the income statement or balance sheet would act differently if the line were shown separately. A new supplier is not a new account.
- **Number** new accounts inside the gaps: a second bank account is 1020, a second product line is 4010, a new overhead sits between its neighbors.
- **Rename** in place, never by creating a new account and moving the balance. Put the date and the old name in the description.
- **Retire** by marking inactive, never by deleting, once an account has had a transaction. Clear the balance with a dated journal at a year end first.
- **Merge** at a year end with a journal, then retire the emptied account and note the merge in both descriptions.
- **Check** the normal balance monthly: an asset or expense with a credit balance, or a liability, equity or revenue account with a debit balance, is usually a posting to the wrong group. The three contra accounts (1590, 3100, 4900) are the exceptions.

### Filling notes (delete after use)

- Set a capitalization threshold before you post the first purchase. Anything below it is an expense (5810 or the relevant overhead); anything above it goes to a 1500-series account and is depreciated.
- If your software uses its own account types, map each group here to the nearest type before importing. Bank accounts, sales tax payable and payroll liabilities usually need dedicated types so that reconciliation and automatic postings work.
- Import into an empty company file. A default chart plus an imported chart means two sets of overlapping accounts.
- Common variants you may inherit: cost of goods sold in the 5000s with operating expenses in the 6000s; interest in the 7000s; tax in the 8000s. Either layout works. Pick one and keep it.

*How the five groups, the numbering and the statement mapping work, with the reasoning behind each account: businessmantalk.com/finance/accounting/chart-of-accounts/ · Free to copy and adapt for your own business; please keep the source line if you share it.*