Chart of Accounts: Viewing, Branches and Required Permissions

The Chart of Accounts shows all your business’s accounts in a tree (main accounts and the sub-accounts under them) with each account’s balance. This guide explains how to view and manage the chart, the permissions users need, and how to view the accounts and balances of all branches.

Viewing the chart of accounts

1. From the main menu, click Accounting.
2. Click Chart of Accounts.
3. The accounts appear in a tree, and each account or main account shows its total debit, credit and balance. Click any main account to view the accounts under it.

Managing accounts from the chart

• Add Account or add a main account under the selected account.
• Edit, delete or hide the account (an account with transactions, or one of the system’s default accounts, can’t be deleted).
• View the account’s transactions, add a journal entry, or open the ledger report.
• View the account’s details and routing, and the cost centers linked to it (for users with the permission to manage cost centers).

Adding accounts for suppliers, clients or others directly from the chart

Yes, you can add an account directly from the Chart of Accounts under the Suppliers, Clients, Treasuries main account, or others. But this account is added to the chart only; it doesn’t create a supplier, client or treasury in the system, and doesn’t appear on that record’s screen.

For example, when you add an account with a supplier’s name from the chart:

• The supplier doesn’t appear in Suppliers, and can’t be chosen in Purchase Invoices or their payments.
• This account’s journal entries don’t appear in the supplier’s statement or balance.
• If the supplier already exists, it ends up with two accounts in the chart: its automatic account, and the account you added manually.
• The account can only be used in Journals, like any regular account.

Records the system creates an account for automatically

When you add any of these records from its own screen, the system creates its account in the chart under the right main account and links it automatically, and the account name changes when the record’s name changes. When you add the account from the chart, this link doesn’t happen.

Record	Add it from	If you add the account from the chart
Clients	Clients	No client is created, and it doesn’t appear in invoices or the client’s statement.
Suppliers	Suppliers	No supplier is created, and it doesn’t appear in purchase invoices or the supplier’s statement.
Treasuries and bank accounts	Treasuries & Bank Accounts	No treasury is created, and it doesn’t appear when recording payments and expenses.
Warehouses	Warehouses	No warehouse is created, and it isn’t used in inventory movements.
Assets	Assets	No asset is created, and no depreciation is calculated for it.
Taxes	Taxes	No tax is created, and it doesn’t appear in invoices.

Linking an existing account in the chart to a supplier or client

If you added the account from the chart and want to use it for a supplier or client, link it from Accounts Routing:

1. Open the right routing page: Purchases Accounts Routing for suppliers, Sales Accounts Routing for clients, Inventory Accounts Routing for warehouses, or Treasury Accounts Routing for treasuries.
2. In the Routing Type for the record you need, choose Specify per Each, then save. The message Account routing has been saved appears.
3. Open the supplier, client, warehouse or treasury for editing, choose the account from the Account field, then save.

After that, this record’s journal entries are recorded on the account you chose. Clients have an extra option, Specify Main Account per Each, to set the main account that each client’s account is created under. You need the Edit General Settings permission to open the routing pages.

Exporting the chart of accounts to Excel

To export the chart of accounts to an Excel or CSV file, use the Chart of Accounts Directory report, which shows all main accounts and sub-accounts with their codes.

1. Open the Chart of Accounts Directory, or from Reports › Accounting Reports › Chart of Accounts Directory.
2. Choose the filters if you want, as in the following table.
3. Click Export Options and choose Export to Excel, Export to CSV or Export to PDF.

Filter	Use
Account Level	Main Account, Sub-Account, or both.
Account Type	Debit, Credit or All.
Display All Account Except	To exclude Client Accounts and/or Suppliers Accounts, which is useful if you have a large number of them.
Branch	Appears when accounts are specified per branch.
Sort	Code Ascending or Code Descending.

The file contains: Account Code, Account Name, Account Type, Account Level, Cost Center, and the Account Branch when accounts are specified per branch.

The chart of accounts and branches

When the branches app is enabled, what appears in the chart depends on the Accounts Specified in The Chart of Accounts per Branch setting in Branches Settings (the Branch Sharing Settings section):

Setting	What happens
Off (the default)	All accounts are shared between all branches, and appear for every user who can open the chart of accounts.
On	A Permissions section appears in the account and main account form to set the branches the account belongs to: All, or Specific Branches (one or more branches). The chart shows only the selected branch’s accounts.

Two branch filters appear at the top of the chart of accounts:

Filter	What it does
Accounts Branch	Sets which accounts appear in the chart (appears only when accounts are specified per branch). If you don’t choose a branch, the current branch is used.
Journals Branch	Sets which journal entries the balances are calculated from.

Viewing accounts and balances for all branches

1. Open the Chart of Accounts.
2. In Accounts Branch, choose All Branches to view the accounts of all branches.
3. In Journals Branch, choose All Branches so the balances are combined from all branches’ journal entries.

For a user (other than the owner) to do this, they need:

Requirement	Reason	Where to set it
View All Journals or View Own Journals	To open the chart of accounts page at all.	Roles
Edit General Settings	So the branches list appears in the Accounts Branch and Journals Branch filters.	Roles
All branches are within the Accessible Branches	The user sees only the branches they’re allowed to access, and all branches’ balances are calculated from their branches’ journal entries only.	The staff profile in Staff

Required permissions

Permission	What it allows in the chart of accounts
View All Journals	Open the chart of accounts and view balances.
View Own Journals	Open the chart of accounts, and view account transactions from the journal entries the user added only.
Manage Journal Accounts	Add, edit, delete and export accounts and main accounts. Without it, only viewing is possible.
Add/Edit/Delete All Journals / Add/Edit/Delete Own Journals	Add and edit journal entries from the chart.
Delete Journals	Delete journal entries.
View Cost Centers / Manage Cost Centers	View or manage the cost centers linked to accounts.
Edit General Settings	The branches list appears in the chart’s filters.

Why doesn’t an account appear for a user?

Cause	Solution
The account is specified for a branch other than the one chosen in Accounts Branch or the current branch.	Choose All Branches or the correct branch, or add the branch to the account’s permissions.
The main account is specified for other branches.	Edit the Permissions in the main account.
The user doesn’t have permission on the branch.	Add the branch to the Accessible Branches in the staff profile.
The branches list doesn’t appear for the user in the filters.	Give them Edit General Settings.
The account is hidden.	Turn on Show Hidden.
The balance shows as zero or different.	The account is visible, but Journals Branch is set to one branch or to the user’s branches only.
They can’t open the chart at all.	Give them View All Journals or View Own Journals.

FAQs

Which permission lets a user see all branches in the chart of accounts?

There’s no single permission for that. The user needs the View All Journals permission, the Edit General Settings permission so the branches list appears for them, and all branches within the Accessible Branches in their profile; then they choose All Branches in Accounts Branch and Journals Branch. Or make their role Admin.

The user sees the chart but can’t add an account. Why?

They need the Manage Journal Accounts permission.

Why doesn’t the Accounts Branch filter appear?

Because Accounts Specified in The Chart of Accounts per Branch is turned off in the branches settings; in that case, all accounts are shared and appear for everyone.

Is it okay to add suppliers directly from the chart of accounts?

You can add an account under Suppliers in the chart, but it doesn’t create a supplier and doesn’t appear in Suppliers or purchase invoices. Add the supplier from the suppliers screen so its account is created automatically, or link the account to a supplier as in Linking an existing account in the chart to a supplier or client.

I added a client account from the chart and it doesn’t appear in invoices. Why?

Because an account added from the chart doesn’t create a client. Add the client from Clients, or link them to the account from Sales Accounts Routing.

Does the supplier’s account name in the chart change when I edit the supplier’s name?

Yes, if the account was created automatically for the supplier. An account added manually from the chart isn’t affected.

Can I pull the chart of accounts data into Excel?

Yes. From the Chart of Accounts Directory report, click Export Options › Export to Excel. For balances, use the Trial Balance Report. See Exporting the chart of accounts to Excel.