Chart of Accounts
The Chart of Accounts is the foundation of your financial structure. It defines the classification framework that General Ledger accounts are created under, and it determines which business entities each framework applies to.
Setting it up involves two steps, each on its own screen:
- Defining a Chart of Accounts — creating the record itself
- Assigning it to one or more business entities
Both are reached from Master Data › Chart of Accounts. Access to either screen is permission-controlled; if you cannot see them, your administrator can grant you access.
Because General Ledger accounts, financial reporting, and Bank & Cash Management all depend on this structure, it’s worth getting the definitions right before you start creating accounts against them.
Defining a Chart of Accounts
The list view
The list shows all Chart of Accounts records with counters above it that update as you make changes.
Searching and filtering
Search by CoA code or CoA name. Where nothing matches, a “No records found” message appears.
The Status filter offers All, Active, and Inactive. Selecting All returns every record regardless of status.
Refreshing and choosing columns
Refresh reloads the list. Column Settings lets you toggle which columns appear in the table.
Creating a record
Click + New to open the create form.
Fields
CoA Code (required) — exactly 4 alphanumeric characters, and unique across all existing records. This is the permanent identifier for the Chart of Accounts.
CoA Name (required) — up to 25 characters.
Description (optional) — up to 40 characters.
Status (required) — Active or Inactive.
Saving
Click Save. The system checks that all required fields are complete and that the CoA code isn’t already in use. Where a check fails, the message appears inline beside the field concerned and the record is not saved.
Once saved, a confirmation appears and you’re returned to the list with your new record visible and the counters refreshed.
Cancel closes the form without saving anything.
Viewing a record
Click the View icon on any row to see all field values in read-only form. Where no description was entered, the field shows a dash.
An Edit button on the view page takes you straight into editing.
Editing a record
Click the Edit icon on a row, or the Edit button from the view page.
You can change the CoA name, description, and status. The CoA code cannot be changed — it is locked once the record is created, and the field appears disabled with an indicator explaining this. If a code needs to change, create a new record.
Setting the status to Inactive produces a warning before you save, because of the downstream effects described below.
Active and Inactive status
Status controls whether a Chart of Accounts can be used elsewhere in the system:
- An Inactive Chart of Accounts cannot be assigned to a business entity
- An Inactive Chart of Accounts cannot be used to create General Ledger accounts
Marking a record inactive doesn’t remove it or affect existing assignments and accounts — it prevents new use going forward. This makes it the right way to retire a framework you no longer want used, without disturbing historical data.
Changing status in bulk
To update several records at once:
- Select records using the checkboxes. The number selected appears in the footer.
- Open the Actions dropdown.
- Choose Mark Active or Mark Inactive.
The bulk action stays inactive until at least one record is selected. Attempting it with nothing selected produces a “No records selected” message.
Assigning a Chart of Accounts to a Business Entity
An assignment links one Chart of Accounts to one business entity, establishing which financial structure that entity operates under. This linkage is what allows General Ledger accounts to be created for the entity.
The relationship is many-to-many: one Chart of Accounts can serve several business entities, and one business entity can be assigned several Charts of Accounts. What must be unique is the combination — the same Chart of Accounts cannot be assigned to the same entity twice.
The list view
The list shows all existing assignments, with a Total Assignments counter that updates as you add or remove records.
Search across CoA code, CoA name, BE code, and BE name. Where nothing matches, a “No records found” message appears.
Refresh reloads the list, and Column Settings controls which columns are visible.
Creating an assignment
Click + Create New.
Selecting the Chart of Accounts
Choose a CoA Code from the dropdown, which is populated from your Chart of Accounts records. The CoA name fills in automatically and cannot be edited.
Only Active records can be selected. Inactive ones appear in the dropdown marked “(Inactive)” so you can see they exist, but they cannot be chosen. Attempting to save against an inactive record produces the message “Cannot assign to an Inactive Chart of Account”.
Selecting the business entity
Choose a BE Code from the dropdown, populated from your Business Entity records. The BE name fills in automatically and cannot be edited.
Saving
Click Save Assignment. The system checks that both codes are selected, that the combination doesn’t already exist, and that the Chart of Accounts is active. Any failure appears inline beside the field concerned and the assignment is not saved.
Once saved, a confirmation appears and you’re returned to the list with the new assignment visible and the counter refreshed.
Viewing an assignment
Click the View icon to see the CoA code, CoA name, BE code, and BE name in read-only form.
Where the assignment is locked, a “Locked — GL accounts in use” indicator appears here.
Editing an assignment
Click the Edit icon to open the form with the existing values pre-populated. You can change either the Chart of Accounts or the business entity, subject to the same duplicate and active-status checks that apply when creating.
Saving a change cascades the update to every General Ledger record linked to that assignment. This is worth pausing over — a single edit here reaches through to all the accounts beneath it.
Deleting an assignment
Click the Delete icon. A confirmation asks you to confirm removing the assignment between the named Chart of Accounts and business entity. The assignment is only removed once you confirm.
When editing and deleting are locked
Edit and Delete are both disabled for an assignment once any General Ledger account beneath it has been referenced in a journal entry or a bank record.
This protects your transaction history: changing or removing the assignment at that point would break the link between posted entries and the structure they were posted under. If an assignment is locked and it genuinely needs to change, the accounts referencing it will need addressing first — your administrator or implementation team can advise on the right approach for your situation.