Chart of accounts
The chart of accounts is the list of every account your transactions post to, grouped under Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income and Expenses. Zhmara X comes with a complete standard chart; you add your own accounts under it where you need more detail.
Go to Accounting › Chart Of Accounts.
Built-in and own accounts
- Built-in accounts (Cash, Bank Accounts, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Sales, Cost of Goods Sold, Tax Payable, Opening Balance Equity, Retained Earnings and many more) are shared by all companies. They can't be edited or deleted, and have no opening balance of their own.
- Your own accounts are the ones you add. They sit under a built-in group (or under another of your accounts) and can be edited, given an opening balance, and deleted while unused.
The list is a tree: each group shows its accounts underneath. It has at most 4 levels: a built-in group, a built-in account, and two levels of your own (for example Current Assets › Cash › Cash - Branches › Cash - Erbil). Use Sort by select to filter by type, and Download Excel to export the accounts the filter shows (code, type, name, group, currency, opening balance and Cr or Dr).
Adding an account
Click Add and fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Group | The parent account it belongs under, for example Cash for a new cash box. Required; an account under a group that is already on the 4th level is refused ("The chart of accounts has at most 4 levels; choose a higher group.") |
| Type | Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income or Expenses. It always comes from the group and can't be changed |
| Ledger Code and Ledger Name | Both must be unique among the built-in accounts and your own ("Account name already exists.", "Account code already exists.") |
| Currency | For a cash or bank account kept in a foreign currency |
| Opening Balance and Cr Or Dr | The amount is never negative: choose Cr for a credit balance. It posts the account and Opening Balance Equity on opposite sides, dated the day you add the account; the financial year and month of that date must exist and be open. See Opening balances |
| Opening Balance Project | The project the opening balance belongs to |
Examples of accounts companies often add:
- Cash - Shop, Cash - USD, Petty Cash under Cash: they all count as cash in the Cash Book.
- Owner's Capital under Types of Owner's Equity.
- Generator Fuel or Internet under Occupancy Expenses or Administrative Expenses, to choose on expenses and outcome vouchers. Common ones such as Rent Expense, Utilities Expense and Office Supplies already exist.
- Sales - Services under income, to set on service items.
Bank accounts are better created in Bank › Bank Accounts, which creates the account here and keeps the bank details. A bank account is edited there too, not here ("This is a bank account; edit it in Bank > Bank Accounts."). See Bank accounts.
Editing and deleting
- Renaming an account, changing its code or moving it to another group leaves its opening balance as it was posted.
- Changing the opening balance itself (amount, Cr or Dr, currency, rate or project) posts it again on its original date. The period of that date must be open; otherwise "The financial period is closed, you cannot proceed with this action." Setting it to 0 removes it, under the same rule.
- An account can't be moved under itself or under one of its own sub-accounts, and moving it must keep it and its sub-accounts within 4 levels.
- An opening balance on an account under Cash follows the Negative Cash setting: a Cr opening balance (or lowering a Dr one) that would make it negative is refused while Negative Cash is off, and asks you to confirm while it is on ("This change creates a negative cash balance. Continue?").
- An account can't be deleted while:
- it has sub-accounts ("This account has sub-accounts; delete or move them first.");
- it is chosen in Ledger configuration ("This account is used in Ledger Configuration; choose another account there first.");
- it has transactions or is used by documents, items or budgets ("This account cannot be deleted as it is associated either with some transactions or documents.").
Default accounts for posting
Which accounts documents post to (receivables, payables, sales, cost of goods sold, discounts, inventory adjustments, opening balances, retained earnings...) is set in Ledger configuration.