Chart of accounts

The chart of accounts is the list of buckets your money is sorted into: bank and card accounts, what customers owe you, what you owe, equity, income and expenses. New companies start with a simple set of accounts that suits most small businesses, and you can add, rename or hide any of them.

The top of the page

1. 1Batch edit turns the list into a form, so you can rename or renumber many accounts at once. Save changes saves them all.
2. 2The account type filter: All, or one type such as Bank, Credit Card, Income or Expenses. The number shows how many accounts are listed.
3. 3The second filter narrows it further: Accounts w/ Unposted or Accounts w/ Excluded transactions, Only Locked Accounts, Only Unlocked Accounts, Only Parent Accounts, Only Subaccounts or Only Inactive Accounts.
4. 4Search finds an account by name or number.
5. 5New account adds one (see Adding an account).
6. 6Collapse all folds or opens every section at once.
7. 7More options: Print, Export to Excel, Export to CSV, Import accounts, Download accounts (CSV), Show inactive, and which columns to show and how tall rows are.

The list

1. 1A section heading: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Cost of Goods Sold and Expenses. Click it to fold the section.
2. 2Unposted – click to view: this account has bank transactions waiting to be posted. The badge opens its register showing just those.
3. 3BAL marks a balance sheet account.
4. 4P&L marks a profit and loss account.
5. 5The lock shows a locked account (see the row menu below).
6. 6Posted Balance: the account's balance in your books. For Retained Earnings it's every earlier fiscal year's profit plus anything posted to it (see Retained Earnings and Net Income).
7. 7Bank Balance: what the bank last reported, for a connected account.
8. 8View register opens the account's register, every transaction that touched it, in a new tab. On Retained Earnings this reads Run report and opens the Balance Sheet.
9. 9The row's ⋮ menu (below).

Number, Name, Account Type and Detail Type fill in the rest.

1. 1Edit opens the account's details.
2. 2Create subaccount adds an account filed under this one, of the same type.
3. 3Run report opens the General Ledger report for just this account, in a new tab.
4. 4Lock account stops the account being edited, made inactive or picked by hand in the register, Reclassify or a reconciliation until it's unlocked. Invoices, bills and payments that WizeBooks posts still reach it. On a locked account this reads Unlock account.
5. 5Make inactive hides the account from lists and pickers. Its history stays.

Adding an account

1. 1Category: Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, COGS or Expense.
2. 2Detail type: the kind of account within that category, such as Checking, Credit Card or Rent or Lease. It decides where the account appears on reports.
3. 3Account name: the name you'll see everywhere.
4. 4Account number: given the next free number in its range when you save.
5. 5Assign manually lets you type your own number instead.
6. 6Make this a subaccount files it under a parent account of the same type.
7. 7Description: a note on what belongs in the account.
8. 8Create saves it.

Bank and credit card accounts also take the last four digits of the real account, to match statements against.

Expense, COGS and other expense accounts have a 1099 box. Pick the box that payments to 1099 vendors on this account belong in, such as 1099-NEC Box 1 for Contract Labor. See 1099s.