Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts is every ledger your books post to — assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. A clean chart keeps P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow reports aligned.

Key capabilities

Five GAAP account types — asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense — each with a fixed debit/credit normal balance
Templated account types (bank account, credit card, payments, payroll, loan, prepaid card, accounts receivable, accounts payable) that auto-configure accounting properties
Custom accounts with explicit type, normal balance, sort code, account number, currency, and sub-classification
Sub-accounts for clean grouping under a parent, with a Tree View that shows the hierarchy
Edit any cell in place once you switch from Locked to Unlocked
Deactivate (archive) accounts to drop them from pickers without losing history, and reactivate them later
Permanently delete an account together with its records, after typing DELETE
System, Base and Bank accounts carry a badge and are protected from delete and deactivate
Merge ledgers: pick the sources and a target, and all line entries, transactions, budgets, reconciliations, and bank rules consolidate in a single pass
Apply an AI-generated or uploaded chart-of-accounts template in one bulk pass
AI account-cleanup suggestions (merge / reclassify) you can act on directly, plus cash-flow classification suggestions
Bulk-update multiple accounts in a single action, Export the chart, and Validate it for problems
Optional per-customer receivables: post each customer's invoices and payments to its own "AR - Customer" account under Accounts Receivable
View activity on any account to see its entries
Search, filter by type, and switch between All Accounts, Custom and Base / System

How it works

Every ledger has a type (which fixes its debit/credit normal balance) and a status. Activity flows in from journal entries, transactions, invoices, and bills; reports read account balances by type.

flowchart TD
  coa["Chart of Accounts (ledgers)"] --> assets["Asset - debit normal"]
  coa --> liab["Liability - credit normal"]
  coa --> equity["Equity - credit normal"]
  coa --> rev["Revenue - credit normal"]
  coa --> exp["Expense - debit normal"]
  assets --> bank["Bank / source accounts"]
  exp --> cats["Categorization targets"]
  cats --> reports["P&L / Balance Sheet / Cash Flow"]
  bank --> reports

How to use it

Open Chart of Accounts (under Ledger) to browse accounts with their type, status and balances. The page opens Locked; click Unlocked to edit cells in place, select rows, and use the per-row Deactivate action.
Click Create Ledger (the form is titled Add Ledger). Use the Financial Account Type template for standard accounts, or switch to custom mode and set Type, Debit or Credit, Sub Type and a sort code.
Set a Parent Account to nest an account as a sub-account, and a sort code to control ordering within its type. Switch to Tree View to see the hierarchy.
Click Import Accounts. On Upload CSV, drop a file with the columns sort code, name, type, sub type, and debit/credit (a template is available via Download CSV template). On AI Generate, describe your business, pick an Accounting Basis, choose whether to include Inventory and COGS accounts, and click Generate Chart of Accounts. Review the accounts, remove or edit rows, then click Apply N Accounts. Every row needs a sort code.
Use Suggest Cleanup for AI merge and reclassify recommendations (Review merge loads the accounts into the merge form), and Auto-Suggest Cash Flow to classify accounts for the cash-flow statement, then Save All Suggestions.
To consolidate duplicates, switch to Unlocked, tick two or more accounts and click Merge N Ledgers. Pick the target, optionally give it a new name, and confirm. A duplicate account also shows a Combine shortcut.
To retire an account, switch to Unlocked and use Deactivate on the row, or tick several and click Deactivate N. It leaves dropdowns but keeps its history.
To bring an archived account back, click Show Inactive, then use Reactivate on the row or tick several and click Reactivate N.
Click Export to download the chart, or Validate to check it for problems before relying on it.

Pro tips

DayZero seeds a standard chart on setup — customize it rather than starting from scratch.
Prefer Inactive over delete: deleting removes the account and every journal entry, transaction, and related record on it. Inactivating preserves all history.
Bank/source accounts are not categorization targets — their balances are driven by feeds and reconciliation, not manual categorization, so they won't appear in category pickers.
Apply COA never touches system, required, or bank-linked accounts, and it deactivates custom accounts whose sort code is absent from the template — review the created/updated/skipped/deactivated counts before relying on it.
Keep the chart lean; use Tags for cross-cutting dimensions instead of proliferating accounts.

In-depth guide

Account types & normal balance

Every ledger has a type that determines its normal balance. This is what makes debits and credits behave correctly across the system.

Type	Normal balance	Increased by	Examples
Asset	Debit	Debit	Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory
Liability	Credit	Credit	Accounts Payable, Credit Cards, Loans
Equity	Credit	Credit	Owner's Equity, Retained Earnings
Revenue	Credit	Credit	Sales, Services
Expense	Debit	Debit	Rent, Utilities, Payroll, COGS

Status & protection

Active accounts appear in pickers; Inactive accounts are archived but keep history and can be reactivated at any time. Protected accounts show a badge: System (needed for automated bookkeeping), Base (required by the system), or Bank (linked to a connected bank account; disconnect the bank first). None of them can be deleted or deactivated, and Apply COA skips them. Inactive system accounts can still be reactivated. Bank/source accounts are not categorization targets. The page opens Locked; switch to Unlocked to edit cells in place. A ledger can be edited only when it is editable and active.

Cash-flow classification

Accounts carry classification for the cash-flow statement:

Cash-flow section — operating, investing, financing, or excluded.
Cash-flow class — finer class used by the indirect-method cash-flow statement.
Auto-Suggest Cash Flow — returns suggestions from each account's type and sub-classification; accept them to populate the classifications.

Merging accounts

Merge Ledgers reassigns every line entry, transaction, budget, reconciliation, and bank rule from the source accounts to the target, then archives the sources. Large merges may complete in the background. Merging system accounts requires typing MERGE to confirm, and the target must also be a system account.

Applying a chart template

Apply COA upserts a template against your existing accounts, matched by sort code:

Outcome	When
Create	The template sort code doesn't exist yet
Update	An existing unlocked account shares the sort code
Skip	The account is system, required, or bank-linked
Deactivate	An existing custom account's sort code is absent from the template

AI cleanup suggestions

Suggest Cleanup returns merge/reclassify suggestions with the affected ledgers you can feed straight into a merge. Suggestions count against your plan's monthly AI quota.

Deleting vs. archiving

Delete first shows how many journal entries, transactions, bill payments, reconciliations, and other records will go with the account, then asks you to type DELETE. It runs in the background and cannot be undone; reports for the affected periods will change. Selecting several accounts shows the combined impact, and protected accounts are skipped. Prefer Inactive to remove an account from everyday use while keeping every historical entry intact.