Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts is the master list of every account your business keeps its money in: cash, bank, receivables, payables, revenue, expenses, and so on. Every transaction you post in ZyncLedger lands in one or more of these accounts, so the chart is the backbone of your ledger and of every financial report. The owner or accountant usually owns it; a cashier rarely touches it.

You do not start from an empty screen. When your business is created, ZyncLedger seeds a working chart of accounts for you, including the special system accounts the app posts to automatically. For many businesses the seeded chart is enough to start trading. You come to this screen to add accounts of your own, rename or group the seeded ones, or retire accounts you do not use.

Find it under Finance → Chart of Accounts.

Before you start

You need the right permissions, all set per user under Permissions:

• List accounts to open this screen at all.
• Create accounts to add one, and edit accounts to change one.
• Approve accounts to mark an account approved.
• Delete accounts to remove one.

See Users, seats & permissions for how these are granted.

The account types

Every account belongs to one account type. ZyncLedger ships with 15 fixed types, seeded for every business. You choose from this list. You cannot add, rename, or remove account types.

The type is the most important choice you make about an account, because it decides two things:

• Where the account appears in reports. Balance-sheet types show on the Balance Sheet; profit-and-loss types show on the Profit & Loss.
• The account's normal balance, which is the side (debit or credit) that increases it.

Account type	Class	Appears on	Normal balance
Cash	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Bank	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Accounts Receivable	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Other Current Assets	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Other Assets	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Fixed Assets	Asset	Balance Sheet	Debit
Equity	Equity	Balance Sheet	Credit
Accounts Payable	Liability	Balance Sheet	Credit
Other Current Liabilities	Liability	Balance Sheet	Credit
Other Liabilities	Liability	Balance Sheet	Credit
Revenue	Income	Profit & Loss	Credit
Other Revenue	Income	Profit & Loss	Credit
Cost of Goods Sold	Expense	Profit & Loss	Debit
Expense	Expense	Profit & Loss	Debit
Other Expense	Expense	Profit & Loss	Debit

Account hierarchy

Accounts can be nested. Any account can have a parent account, and the list shows children indented under their parent. Use this to group related accounts, for example several expense accounts under one heading, so reports can subtotal them together.

Two rules govern the hierarchy:

• A parent must be the same account type as its child. The parent picker only offers accounts of the type you selected. If you change the type, a parent that no longer matches is cleared.
• Nesting can go up to five levels deep. ZyncLedger rejects a parent that would make the chain longer than five.

Reserved system accounts

Among the seeded accounts are system accounts: accounts the app posts to on its own during normal work. For example, when you save an invoice ZyncLedger posts to Accounts Receivable, Sales Revenue, and Tax Payable without you choosing them. These accounts carry a reserved role behind the scenes.

The system accounts seeded for every business are:

Account	Used automatically for
Accounts Receivable	Money owed by customers (AR)
Accounts Payable	Money owed to suppliers (AP)
Inventory	The value of stock on hand
Cost of Goods Sold	The cost of stock sold
Sales Revenue	Revenue from product sales
Tax Payable	Tax collected and owed to the government
Retained Earnings	Accumulated profit carried forward
Opening Balance	The other side of starting balances you enter
Cash (POS)	Cash held in a POS register
Cheque in Hand	Cheques received but not yet deposited
Returned Cheques	Bounced cheques that cannot be redeposited

The rest of the seeded chart (for example Cash, Bank, Rent Expense, and Utilities) are ordinary starter accounts. You are free to rename, edit, or delete these to match your business.

Create an account

1. Open the Chart of Accounts

   Go to Finance → Chart of Accounts. The list shows every account with its Code, Type, Balance, and Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending), with child accounts indented under their parents.

2. Start a new account

   Select Add Account. The Create New Account panel opens from the right.

3. Choose the account type

   Select the Account Type (required). This sets where the account appears in reports and its normal balance, and it cannot be changed after you save. See the account types above.

4. Enter the account name

   Type the Account Name (required). Each name must be unique within its account type, so you can have a Cash account and a Cash type without a clash, but not two Cash accounts of the same type. The name cannot contain a colon (:), which ZyncLedger reserves for hierarchy paths.

5. Set the account code

   The Account Code is a short reference for the account. How you fill it depends on the code mode set under Settings → Code / Number Preference → Code Generation:

   • Automatic (the default): the field reads Auto-generated and is filled for you from a single running series when you save. Leave it alone.
   • Manual: you type the code yourself. It is required, must be unique, and can be up to 50 characters.

   See Document numbering to change this mode.

6. Choose a parent account (optional)

   To nest this account under another, select a Parent Account. The picker only lists accounts of the same type. Leave it blank for a top-level account.

7. Add a description (optional)

   Use Description for a note about what the account is for. It appears under the account name in the list.

8. Set the status flags

   Two checkboxes control whether the account can be used:

   Field	What it does
   Active	On by default. An inactive account stays for history but is not offered on new transactions.
   Approved	Off by default. A new account is auto-selected on a transaction only once it is both Active and Approved. Ticking this needs the approve permission.

9. Save

   Select Create and Close to save and close the panel, or Create and New to save and immediately start another account. The new account appears in the list.

Edit, deactivate, or delete

Select the edit icon on any row to rename an account, change its parent, or update its flags. Remember the account type stays locked.

To stop an account being used without losing the transactions posted to it, clear its Active flag rather than deleting it.

Related

• Opening balances set the starting balance of your accounts before you begin trading.
• Customers and Suppliers each point at a receivable or payable account from this chart.
• Tax settings name the tax payable account used on invoices, bills, and POS.
• A journal entry posts directly to the accounts you define here.
• Document numbering controls how account codes are generated.