Setting up your chart of accounts

The chart of accounts is the list of every account your transactions post to: bank accounts, what customers owe you, what you owe, income, and expenses. Set it up before you enter much, and the reports read the way you expect.

Open it with Chart of Accounts in the top group of the sidebar (always open, next to Home and Reports), or Lists → Chart of Accounts. A new company created with Start a new business already has a starter chart; change it to fit your business. If you moved from QuickBooks® Desktop, your QuickBooks accounts came across with the migration.

Account types

Every account has a type. The type decides which report the account appears on and which side increases it. Solid Accounting offers fourteen types:

Category	Account types	Report
Asset	Bank and Cash · Accounts Receivable · Other Current Asset · Fixed Asset	Balance Sheet
Liability	Credit Card · Accounts Payable · Other Current Liability · Long Term Liability	Balance Sheet
Equity	Equity	Balance Sheet
Revenue	Income · Other Income	Income Statement
Expense	Cost of Goods Sold · Expense · Other Expense	Income Statement

Some choices that come up often:

Bank and Cash for checking, savings, and petty cash. Credit Card for each card you pay off.
Other Income and Other Expense for items outside normal operations, such as interest earned, interest paid, and gains or losses on selling equipment.
Cost of Goods Sold for the direct cost of what you sell; Expense for overhead such as rent and software.

See General Ledger for normal balances and the type codes used by imports and the API.

Add an account

In Chart of Accounts, click New Account.
Pick the Account type.
Type the Account name. Add a Description if it helps.
Enter an Account number, or leave it blank (see below).
Optionally choose a Parent account to make this a subaccount.
For a balance sheet account, you can enter an Opening balance and its As of date. It posts as an opening-balance entry against Opening Balance Equity. Income and expense accounts don't take an opening balance.
Click Create.

Two accounts can't share a number. Two active accounts under the same parent can't share a name; the message names the account that already has it.

Account numbers

Numbers are optional. They sort the chart and make accounts quick to find in pickers. Each type has a numbering range:

Account type	Range starts at
Bank and Cash	1000
Accounts Receivable	1200
Other Current Asset	1300
Fixed Asset	1500
Accounts Payable, Credit Card	2000
Other Current Liability	2100
Long Term Liability	2700
Equity	3000
Income, Other Income	4000
Cost of Goods Sold	5000
Expense, Other Expense	6000

Leave the number blank and Solid Accounting assigns one (from version 26.9.5). It takes the highest number already used by accounts of that type in its range and adds 10. If the type has no numbered accounts yet, it starts at the beginning of the range. If that number is taken by any account, it uses the next free number above it. For example, if your highest Expense account is 6450, a new Expense account with no number gets 6460.

You can type any number you like instead; the ranges only guide the automatic numbers. To renumber, rename, or change an account's type later, click the edit button on its row. Transactions follow the account, so its history moves with it.

Subaccounts and parent accounts

A subaccount sits under a parent account, for example Utilities with Electric, Water, and Internet under it. In the chart, subaccounts are listed under their parent.

To make one, choose the parent in Parent account (sub-account of) when you add or edit the account. The list shows accounts in the same category as the type you picked (asset, liability, equity, revenue, or expense), so pick the type first. Choose None (top-level account) to keep an account at the top level.

The same name can appear under two different parents, such as Insurance under two different property accounts.

Inactive and merged accounts

Make inactive hides an account from lists and pickers and keeps its history. Make active brings it back.
Merge into another account combines an account you don't need into another one. The merged account keeps its name and history, and reports roll it into the account you merged it into.

Built-in system accounts can't be edited or made inactive.

Map accounts to tax lines

From version 26.9.6, each account can be mapped to its line on Form 1120-S, 1065, 1120, or Schedule C. Set how the business files in Settings → Tax profile, then open Reports → Tax Line Mapping and click Apply suggested lines. Solid Accounting suggests a line from each account's type and name; check them and change any that are wrong. Picking the right account type here makes the suggestions better.

See Tax-ready books for the full steps and the Tax Trial Balance.