accounting
What is Chart of Accounts?
A complete list of every financial account in your business, organized to categorize all income, expenses, assets, and liabilities.
In plain English
The chart of accounts is the organizational backbone of your accounting system. Every transaction gets assigned to an account — Sales Revenue, Office Supplies, Payroll Expense, and so on. A well-structured chart of accounts makes financial reporting meaningful and automation more accurate, since automated categorization rules use these accounts to classify transactions. Getting your chart of accounts right from the start prevents the painful accounting cleanup that many growing businesses eventually face.