5.2. Creating a Chart of Accounts
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5.2. Creating a Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts is like a table of contents for your finances. The best way to conceptualize a chart of accounts is as a tree. The main branches represent entire categories or groups, while the leaves of the tree denote individual bank accounts or expense categories. When a summary report is requested, typically only the main branches are shown in the report, rather than the individual accounts. For example, a chart of accounts might look like the following:


        300             Expenses
         |
         +--310         Living Expenses
         |   |
         |   +--311     Beer
         |   |
         |   +--312     Cable
         |
         +--320         Business Expenses
         |   |
         |   +--321     8-inch Floppies
         |   |
         |   +--322     Blue Ray RW DVDs
         |   |
         :   :

Note that accounts not only have names; they may have codes, to order the accounts. When a report is generated, the sort order is determined by the numbering. It's customary to have the leaf accounts end in non-zero digits, while parent nodes have increasing numbers of zeros.

GnuCash does not prevent duplicate numbering, although we would encourage you to avoid this. Account codes are treated as numbers in base-36, thus, if you run out of numbers, you can use the letters, a through z.

A sample chart of accounts is shown below. Each account is of a given account type. This example is a combination of some typical business and personal accounts.

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5.1. Types of GnuCash Accounts Up 5.3. Editing a Chart of Accounts