Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts (CoA) is your company’s master list of financial accounts used to categorise every transaction in the journal. Acqui automatically creates a standard set of system accounts when your company is set up, and adds more as you connect bank accounts or process new transaction types.

Accessing the Chart of Accounts

Navigate to Finance > Chart of Accounts from the main menu. The page displays all accounts in a searchable, filterable table.

Filtering and search

• Category — filter by Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, or Expense.
• Status — show Active accounts, Archived accounts, or both.
• Search — find accounts by name or account code.

Account structure

Every account has the following properties:

Field	Description
Account Code	A short numeric code (e.g. 1000, 4000) used for sorting and reference.
Name	The display name of the account.
Category	One of: Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, or Expense.
Subcategory	A finer classification within the category (e.g. Bank, Receivable, Tax).
Description	An optional note explaining the account’s purpose.
Status	Active or Archived. Archived accounts are hidden from selection but retain their history.
System	Whether the account is a system-managed account (indicated by a lock icon).

Categories and subcategories

Accounts are organised into five standard categories. Each category supports multiple subcategories:

Category	Subcategories	Purpose
Asset	Bank, Cash, Receivable, Clearing, WIP, Fixed, Contra	Resources your business owns or is owed (plus fixed/capital assets and contra-asset reducers such as accumulated depreciation)
Liability	Payable, Tax, Deferred, Credit, Clearing	Obligations your business owes
Equity	General	Owner’s stake in the business
Revenue	General, Interest, Surcharge, Contra	Income earned, including surcharge recoveries and contra-revenue (discounts given)
Expense	General, Interest, Depreciation	Costs incurred, including non-cash depreciation charges

You can use the built-in subcategories or type a custom subcategory when creating an account.

System accounts

System accounts are created and managed automatically by Acqui. They are marked with a lock icon and cannot be deleted or have their category changed. You can still update the name, description, and account code of a system account if needed.

When system accounts are created

System accounts are populated at two points:

1. Company setup — When your company is first created (via the setup wizard), the full set of default system accounts listed below is bootstrapped automatically.
2. On demand — When a transaction is processed (e.g. an invoice is paid, a POS sale is recorded, or a bank statement is imported), Acqui ensures the required account exists before writing the journal entry. If the account was not created during setup, it is created at that point.

This means your Chart of Accounts is always complete for the transaction types your business actually uses.

Bank accounts

When you connect a bank account (e.g. via Mercury), Acqui automatically creates a corresponding asset account in the Chart of Accounts with the bank account’s display name. These accounts use the subcategory Bank and are linked to the bank account for transaction matching.

Full list of system accounts

The table below lists every system account that Acqui creates automatically.

Assets (1000–1590)

Code	Name	Subcategory	Description	Populated when
1000	Cash on Hand	Cash	Physical cash held by the business	Company setup; POS cash sales; cash book entries
1010	(Bank account name)	Bank	One account per connected bank account	Bank account is connected or a statement is uploaded
1100	Accounts Receivable	Receivable	Amounts owed by clients	Client invoice is voided, cancelled, or refunded
1110	POS Accounts Receivable	Receivable	Outstanding POS tab balances recognised at register close	Open POS tabs exist when the register is closed at end of day
1200	Card Clearing	Clearing	Card payment clearing account	Client invoice or POS sale is paid by card
1210	Online Payment Clearing	Clearing	Online payment gateway clearing	Client invoice is paid via Stripe; Stripe refund is processed
1300	Work in Progress	WIP	Cost of work not yet invoiced	Company setup
1500	Equipment	Fixed	Capitalised equipment purchases	Company setup
1510	Vehicles	Fixed	Capitalised vehicle purchases	Company setup
1520	Furniture & Fit-out	Fixed	Capitalised furniture and fit-out costs	Company setup
1530	Other Fixed Assets	Fixed	Other capitalised expenditure	Company setup
1590	Accumulated Depreciation	Contra	Contra-asset reducing gross fixed asset value	Company setup

Liabilities (2000–2410)

Code	Name	Subcategory	Description	Populated when
2000	Accounts Payable	Payable	Amounts owed to suppliers	Supplier invoice is recorded
2100	Tax Liability	Tax	Tax amounts collected and owed	Company setup
2200	Deferred Revenue	Deferred	Revenue received but not yet earned	Company setup
2300	Customer Credit	Credit	Credits owed to customers	Company setup
2400	Tip Liability	Payable	Tips collected and owed to staff	POS sale includes a tip; tip cash-off is processed
2410	Tip Withholding Payable	Payable	Card tip amounts withheld from staff payouts at cash-off, pending remittance or retention per company policy	A cash-off runs while Card Tip Withholding is configured above zero on the Company Profile

Equity (3000–3100)

Code	Name	Subcategory	Description	Populated when
3000	Owner’s Equity	General	Owner’s equity in the business	Company setup
3100	Retained Earnings	General	Accumulated retained earnings	Company setup

Revenue (4000–4900)

Code	Name	Subcategory	Description	Populated when
4000	Sales Revenue	General	Sales revenue from client invoices	Stripe invoice line is processed
4100	Interest Earned	Interest	Interest earned on bank accounts	Bank transaction is classified as interest income
4200	Surcharge Revenue	Surcharge	Surcharge revenue from catalog surcharge line items (card, fuel, convenience, etc.)	A surcharge line item is added to an estimate, quote, job, purchase order, invoice, supplier invoice, expense, or POS sale
4300	Customer Credit Forfeiture	Other	Customer credit balances forfeited (e.g. event minimum-spend shortfalls retired without refund)	The Forfeit action is used on a client’s available credit
4900	Discounts Given	Contra	Contra-revenue that reduces gross revenue on the P&L	A discount line item is added to an estimate, quote, job, purchase order, invoice, supplier invoice, expense, or POS sale

Expenses (5000–5050)

Code	Name	Subcategory	Description	Populated when
5000	General Expenses	General	General business expenses	Expense is recorded; fallback for unclassified bank debits
5010	Payment Processing Fees	General	Payment gateway processing fees	Mercury fee transaction
5020	Cash Rounding	General	Cash rounding adjustments	POS sale includes a cash rounding entry
5030	Interest Paid	Interest	Interest paid on loans or credit	Bank transaction is classified as interest charged
5040	Bank Fees	General	Fees charged by banks (service fees, maintenance fees, wire fees)	Bank fee transaction detected in a statement or synced from Mercury
5050	Depreciation	Depreciation	Periodic depreciation charges on fixed assets	Company setup; posted from the asset register when depreciation schedules run

Special

Code	Name	Description	Populated when
0000	Unassigned Transactions	Fallback for entries that cannot be automatically mapped	Historical journal entries are backfilled and no mapping rule matches

How transactions are assigned to accounts

When a financial event occurs (a sale, invoice payment, expense, or bank transaction), Acqui automatically determines the correct account using the following logic:

Journal entries (invoices, expenses, POS sales, cash book)

Each journal entry is assigned to an account based on its source type, entry type, and payment method:

Source	Condition	Account
Client Invoice	Paid via Stripe	Online Payment Clearing
Client Invoice	Paid by cash	Cash on Hand
Client Invoice	Paid by card	Card Clearing
Client Invoice	Void / Cancelled / Refunded	Accounts Receivable
Supplier Invoice	Any	Accounts Payable
Expense	Any	General Expenses
Cash Book	Tip cash-off	Tip Liability
Cash Book	Other	Cash on Hand
POS Sale	Tip	Tip Liability
POS Sale	Cash rounding	Cash Rounding
POS Sale	Card payment	Card Clearing
POS Sale	Cash payment	Cash on Hand
Stripe Refund	Any	Online Payment Clearing
Stripe Invoice Line	Any	Sales Revenue

Adjustment lines (discounts and surcharges)

Catalog Discount and Surcharge line items post to their own revenue accounts so gross sales, surcharges, and discounts stay visible on the P&L:

• Surcharge Revenue (4200) — credited for the ex-tax portion of a surcharge line. The tax portion of the surcharge still posts to Tax Liability (2100) through the standard tax-split path.
• Discounts Given (4900) — contra-revenue, debited for the ex-tax portion of a tax-inclusive discount. A matching debit to Tax Liability (2100) reduces output VAT so the journal balances against the customer’s adjusted total.
• No separate settlement leg. Adjustment postings only touch the revenue side of the sale; the cash, card, or A/R settlement leg is still driven by the document header’s lifecycle.
• Ordering. When both are present, discounts apply before surcharges — the surcharge is computed against the post-discount subtotal.

See Finance → Line Items for how adjustment items are configured in the catalog.

CapEx vs OpEx

Capital expenditure is separated at the account level, not on the expense or supplier-invoice document. Pick one of the fixed-asset accounts (1500–1530) when the cost should sit on the Balance Sheet, or a 5xxx expense account when the cost should go straight to the P&L. The Balance Sheet reports 1500–1530 under Fixed Assets with 1590 Accumulated Depreciation shown as a deduction.

Tip liability and withholding

POS tips collected from customers credit Tip Liability (2400). At cash-off the liability is cleared by the amount paid to staff. If Card Tip Withholding is configured on the Company Profile, the withheld slice of each card-tip payout is moved into Tip Withholding Payable (2410) instead of being paid out, so it can be remitted (e.g. PAYE) or retained by manual journal adjustment when policy is applied. Cash tips are never withheld. See POS → Cash Management for the operator-facing cash-off flow.

Bank transactions

Bank transactions are classified using a layered approach:

1. Provider-specific rules — Mercury fee transactions and internal transfers are matched first.
2. Description pattern matching — Transaction descriptions are checked against known patterns (e.g. “bank fee”, “interest earned”, “interest charged”).
3. Bank account defaults — If no rule matches, the bank account’s configured default accounts are used (default asset account for credits, default expense account for debits).
4. Hard fallback — Credits fall back to the bank’s own CoA account; debits fall back to General Expenses.

Transactions classified automatically are flagged as auto-assigned so you can review and reclassify them if needed.

Fiscal year periods

Every journal entry and bank transaction is stamped with a fiscal year period in the format YYYY-PP (e.g. 2026-03 for Period 3 of fiscal year 2026). The period is calculated from your company’s fiscal year start date, which you can configure in Settings > Company Profile.

If no fiscal year start is configured, the default is 1 January.

Adding a custom account

1. Open Finance > Chart of Accounts.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Fill in the account code, name, category, and subcategory.
4. Optionally add a description.
5. Click Save.

Custom accounts appear alongside system accounts and can be used for manual journal entries or reclassification.

Editing an account

1. Click on an account row to open the detail drawer.
2. Click Edit.
3. Update the fields as needed. For system accounts, the category cannot be changed.
4. Click Save.

Archiving an account

Archiving hides an account from selection lists without deleting its transaction history. To archive:

1. Open the account detail drawer.
2. Click Archive.

Archived accounts can be viewed by changing the status filter to Archived and can be restored by editing the account and setting its status back to Active.

Viewing account transactions

To see all journal entries posted to a specific account:

1. Click on the account row in the Chart of Accounts table.
2. The detail drawer shows a chronological list of all journal entries for that account, including the date, source document, amount, and tax.

Related

• Journal
• Banking
• Cash Book