Chart of Accounts
Your Chart of Accounts is the list of accounts your business uses to sort money: cash, receivables, sales, rent, wages and so on. Every statement, invoice, bill and journal entry in Bokapsys is posted to accounts from this list, and every report is built from it.
You find it under Accounting → Chart of Accounts.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You need a role that includes access to the Chart of Accounts. Workspace owners and admins have it by default. See Team and roles.
- You do not need to build a chart from scratch. Bokapsys gives every new workspace a standard chart of accounts the first time it is needed, and you can adjust it from there.
How the chart is organised
Section titled “How the chart is organised”The page has a tab for each financial statement:
- Balance Sheet holds what the business owns and owes: assets (such as cash and money customers owe you), liabilities (such as loans and credit cards) and equity (the owner’s stake).
- Income Statement holds what the business earns and spends: revenue, cost of goods sold and expenses.
Inside each tab, accounts are grouped into main categories (for example Cash or Facilities). Each main category contains subcategories, and each subcategory is one account with its own account code (for example 1001). The account code is what identifies the account everywhere else in the app.
Click a main category to expand it and see its accounts. Use the search box to find an account by category, name or code. The count next to the tab shows the total number of categories.
Account codes are 3 to 6 digits. The usual ranges are:
| Range | Used for |
|---|---|
| 1xxx | Assets |
| 2xxx | Liabilities |
| 3xxx | Equity |
| 4xxx | Revenue |
| 5xxx | Cost of goods sold |
| 6xxx–7xxx | Expenses |
Add an account
Section titled “Add an account”- Open the Balance Sheet or Income Statement tab, depending on where the account belongs.
- To add an account to an existing category, expand the category and click Add subcategory. To start a new category, click Add category, enter a Category name, and continue.
- Enter the Subcategory name (for example Cash in Bank) and an Account code.
- Click Save. The account is available straight away in every picker in the app.
A new main category only exists once it has at least one account, so Bokapsys asks for the first subcategory as soon as you create the category. Names and codes must be unique within a category.
Rename or delete
Section titled “Rename or delete”- To rename a main category, use the pencil icon next to it. Renaming a category does not change any account codes.
- To edit an account, use the edit icon on its row. You can change its name and, where allowed, its code.
- To delete an account or a whole category, use the delete icon. Deleting a category deletes every account inside it, and the confirmation tells you how many.
You cannot delete the last remaining main category on a tab. Add a new one first if you are restructuring.
When renaming or deleting is blocked
Section titled “When renaming or deleting is blocked”Bokapsys protects accounts that your books depend on. You will see a message explaining why if you try to change the code of, or delete, an account that:
- Has posted entries. Changing its code would separate your history from the account. You can still rename the description; the code stays locked so past reports stay correct.
- Is a control account. These are the accounts Bokapsys posts to automatically, such as Accounts Receivable or Retained Earnings (see below). Point the control account at a different account first.
- Is used by an active schedule, such as a depreciation, prepaid or loan schedule. Change the schedule’s accounts, or void it, first.
- Is the posting account for a bank account. See the next section.
- Is a protected system account, such as the main Cash, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable or Retained Earnings accounts. These cannot be deleted at all.
Bank accounts get their own account automatically
Section titled “Bank accounts get their own account automatically”Every bank account you add to Bokapsys, whether you connect it with a live bank feed, add it when uploading a file, or create it in Company Settings, gets its own account in your chart, named after the bank account:
- A bank (checking or savings) account gets a cash account on the Balance Sheet.
- A credit card gets a liability account on the Balance Sheet, because a card balance is money you owe.
This is what lets each bank account have its own balance in your reports and its own reconciliation. If you rename a bank account, its account in the chart follows, as long as it still has the name Bokapsys gave it.
Because your statements post to that account, you cannot change its code or delete it while the bank account is active. To use a different account, go to Company Settings → Bank accounts, choose Set posting account on the bank account, pick the new account, and then make your change in the chart.
Control accounts
Section titled “Control accounts”The Control Accounts tab tells Bokapsys which accounts to use when it posts on your behalf. Each one has a short explanation of when it is used:
- Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) for invoices and bills.
- Cash / Operating bank for customer and vendor payments.
- Tax Receivable (VAT / GST) and Sales Tax Payable for tax on bills and invoices.
- Retained Earnings, used by Year-End Close.
- Credit Card Payable, used for credit-card statements when the card has no account of its own.
- Sales Returns / Contra-revenue for credit notes, and Bad Debt Expense for write-offs.
Pick an account for each and click Save. The change applies to the next posting. Entries that are already posted keep the account they were posted to, so past reports never change behind your back.
Imported accounts
Section titled “Imported accounts”If you have moved your books from QuickBooks Online, an Imported tab lists the accounts the import added to your chart. See Migrate from QuickBooks.
Download your chart
Section titled “Download your chart”Use CSV or PDF at the top of the page to download the full chart, grouped by statement and category. The PDF uses your workspace branding.