Glossary
Chart of accounts
The list of categories a business uses to record every transaction: assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses. The structure behind every report the business will ever produce.
A good chart of accounts is short, built for the way the business earns money, and stable from year to year. E-commerce needs cost of goods, shipping income and expense, platform fees, sales tax payable and inventory. SaaS needs deferred revenue, hosting, and revenue by plan. A professional practice needs almost none of that. The default chart QuickBooks or Xero creates fits nobody exactly.
The most common failures: an "Ask My Accountant" or "Uncategorised" account that becomes a dumping ground, owner draws booked as expenses, and sales tax collected booked as income. Each one makes the tax return wrong in a way that is expensive to find in April.
Ask a Certified Accountant instead
Two sentences about your situation and we reply within 8 hours with a fixed quote, or with the answer if it is a quick one.
Get a fixed quote
Tell us the basics. We reply within 8 hours, no obligation.