The Chart of Accounts is the list of every account your books post into: bank and cash accounts, Accounts Receivable, inventory, fixed assets, credit cards, sales tax payable, loans, equity, income and expenses. Each row shows the account's code, name, type, sub-type, whether it is active, and its balance today.
You use it to see what accounts you have and what is in them, to open any account's ledger, and to add, edit, merge or retire accounts. Invoices, bills, cheques, deposits and journal entries post into these accounts; the chart itself never changes a figure.
Open the Chart of Accounts
- Lists ▸ Chart of Accounts, or Company ▸ Chart of Accounts.
- On the Home Page, click Chart of Accounts in the Company panel on the right.
- Press Ctrl+A when you are not typing in a box. The chart opens in a window over whatever you were doing, so a half-finished invoice underneath stays as it was.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+A to open it from anywhere, even while the cursor is in a text box (where Ctrl+A keeps its usual job of selecting all the text).
- Press Ctrl+K and type "chart" or "coa".
What the screen shows
Across the top:
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| Chart of Accounts and the count | The title, and how many accounts the company has (for example "86 accounts"). |
| Refresh | Reads the chart again from the books. Use it after you post something in another window. |
| New account | Opens the New account form. See Add, edit, merge or make an account inactive. |
| The note under the title | "Figures are read straight from the ledger — nothing on this screen changes them. What posts into it is set in Accounting ▸ Setup." The posting accounts are chosen in Accounting Setup (Company ▸ Accounting Setup). |
The columns
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Code | The account's number (its GL code), if it has one. A dash means no code. |
| Account | The account's name. Top-level accounts are in bold. A sub-account appears directly under its parent account, indented. |
| Type | Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense. The type decides which statement the account belongs to: assets, liabilities and equity go on the Balance Sheet; income and expenses go on the Profit & Loss. |
| Sub-type | The narrower group inside the type, such as Cash and cash equivalents, Current liabilities or Cost of sales. The statements group accounts by sub-type and subtotal each group. |
| Status | Active or Inactive. Inactive rows are also shown dimmed. |
| Balance | The account's balance from every entry dated up to today. It is shown the way the account normally grows: a positive figure on an asset or expense account is a debit balance, and a positive figure on a liability, equity or income account is a credit balance. A negative figure means the account is on the unusual side. |
| Action icons | Three icons at the end of each row: Edit account (pencil), Deactivate or Reactivate, and Merge into another account (irreversible). Hover over an icon to see its name. |
Inactive accounts are hidden, as in QuickBooks. Tick Include inactive at the bottom of the list to show them: they appear dimmed, with the status Inactive, their history and their balance. Untick it to hide them again. The footer also reads Double-click an account for its ledger.
Sorting, searching and filtering
- Click a column heading to sort by it, click again to reverse the order, and click a third time to go back to the chart's own order. While a sort is on, sub-accounts no longer sit under their parents; the third click puts them back.
- Type in Search this list… to narrow the rows as you type. Press Enter to pin what you typed as a filter chip, then type again to narrow further. Remove one chip with its cross, or all of them with Clear all.
- Filters adds conditions on a column (for example, Type is Expense) and is where you save a view you use often.
- Columns hides or shows columns. Drag a column divider to widen a column; Reset widths puts them back.
- The row count beside the buttons says how many rows are showing, and "of" the total when a search or filter is hiding some.
Export and email
The Export button saves what is on screen as CSV, Excel or PDF. The email button (tooltip Email this) sends it. Only the rows and columns you are looking at are exported, so search or filter first if you want part of the chart. The action icons are not exported.
For a printable list with descriptions, you can also run Reports ▸ List ▸ Account Listing. See List reports.
Open an account's ledger
- Double-click a row, or click it once and press Enter. You can move between rows with the ↑ and ↓ keys.
- The account's ledger opens on top of the chart, titled with the account name and covering All dates to today — the same entries the Balance column counts, so its Closing figure matches the balance you double-clicked.
- Press Esc or use the back arrow to return to the chart.
The ledger page shows:
| Item | What it means |
|---|---|
| Opening | For an asset, liability or equity account, the balance carried in from everything dated before the start of the period (zero when the ledger covers all dates). For an income or expense account it is always zero: the ledger shows only the period's activity. |
| Movements | How many entries fall in the period. |
| Closing | The balance after the last entry in the period. |
| Date | The entry's date. |
| Document | The invoice, bill or reference number behind the entry, or a dash. |
| Details | The customer or vendor, the kind of posting, and any note, separated by dots. |
| Debit / Credit | The amount, in the column for the side it was posted to. |
| Balance | The running balance after this entry. |
Double-click a line that came from a sales invoice or a sales return to open that invoice. Other lines do not open from here; to open the bill, cheque or journal entry behind a line, find it in its own list or with Advanced Find. Refresh reads the ledger again, and the ledger has its own Export and email buttons.
Banners you may see
- Amber or red banner above the title. SeroBooks checks whether every finished document is in the books, for the right amount, and whether Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable agree with the documents. When something is wrong, a banner gives the headline, such as "3 document(s) not posted" or "Nothing is reaching the ledger". Click What to do to read the details and the next step. The banner stays away when the books tie out.
- "The refresh failed — these figures are from an earlier read." SeroBooks could not reach the server, so you are looking at the chart as it was last read. Check the connection and press Refresh before relying on the balances.
- "Could not load Chart of Accounts." Nothing could be read. Press Try again.
Permissions
Viewing the chart and drilling into ledgers needs access to the Chart of Accounts screen in the user's role. The buttons that change accounts each check the user's role:
| Action | Permission in the role |
|---|---|
| New account | Add Account |
| Edit account | Edit Account |
| Deactivate / Reactivate | Activate / Deactivate Account |
| Merge | Merge Accounts |
If the role does not have the permission, an Approval Required window asks for someone who does to sign in and approve. See Roles and permissions explained.
Tips
- Give every account a code. Codes keep the chart in a sensible order in exports, and a code can only be used once, so two accounts can never be confused on a report.
- Resist making an account per customer or vendor. Customers and vendors have their own balances in the Customer Centre and Vendor Centre; accounts are for kinds of money.
- Use sub-accounts to break a large account down (for example, Utilities with Hydro, Gas and Water under it). The parent and its sub-accounts sit together in the list.
- An account with a balance that should be zero, such as an Undeposited Funds or clearing account that only ever grows, is worth a look: it usually means deposits or payouts are not being recorded.
Common problems
I want one year of an income or expense account, not all of it. The Balance column, and the ledger it opens, count every entry up to today from the start of the books. For one period, run the General Ledger or Profit & Loss with the dates you want.
A post-dated bill or cheque is not in the balance. The Balance column stops at today. Entries dated in the future are counted from their date onward.
I cannot find an account on a form such as Write Cheques or Enter Bills. Account lists on forms show active accounts only. Tick Include inactive on the chart to find it; if its Status is Inactive, click Reactivate.
There is no Delete. SeroBooks never deletes an account that is part of your history. Make it inactive instead, or merge it into the account it duplicates. See Add, edit, merge or make an account inactive.
The figures look out of date. Press Refresh. If the amber "refresh failed" banner appears, the connection dropped and the balances are from the last successful read.