Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts lists a set of default accounts that can be used in your business, grouped into categories like Income, Expenses, Equity, Liabilities, and Assets. Each account helps track financial transactions accurately. If you need accounts apart from the default list of accounts, you can create them. If you’re unsure how to customize accounts for your business, consult your accountant.

Default Account Types in Chart of Accounts

Account Category	Default Account Types
Assets	Other Asset, Other Current Assets, Cash, Bank, Fixed Asset, Stock, Payment Clearing, Accounts Receivable and Deferred Tax Asset
Liability	Other Current Liability, Credit Card, Long Term Liability, Other Liability, Overseas Tax Payable, Accounts Payable and Deferred Tax Liability
Equity	Equity
Income	Income and Other Income
Expense	Expense

Create a New Account

To track transaction amounts under a specific account, you can manually create a new account instead of using the default ones. Here’s how:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Click + New Account in the top right corner.
In the Create Account popup, fill in the following fields:
- Account Type: Select the account type.
- Account Name: Enter a name for the account.
- Account Code: Enter a unique code (up to 50 characters).
- Description: Add a description if needed.
- Add to the watchlist on my dashboard: Check this option to add the account to the Account Watchlist on the Dashboard tab of the Home page.
- Zoho Expense: This is available when you integrate your Zoho Books organization with Zoho Expense. Check Show as an active account in Zoho Expense to sync the account, and it’ll be displayed as a category in Zoho Expense.
Click Save.

You can now use this account to track transactions.

Import Chart of Accounts

If you have account details stored locally or you are migrating from another accounting system, you can easily import them into Zoho Books. Here’s how:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Click the More icon in the top right corner, and select Import Chart of Accounts from the dropdown.
In the Import page, click Choose File and select the file you want to import.

Notes:

You can only import files in CSV, TSV, and XLS formats.
File size must not exceed 10 MB.

Pro Tip: You can download and use the sample file as a reference for the format, and fill it with the data you want to import, if needed.

After you select the file, fill in the following fields:
- Duplicate Handling: Select how you want to handle duplicates. Duplicates are identified by comparing the account names in Zoho Books with those in the import file. Choose one of the following:
  - Skip Duplicates: To keep the existing accounts in Zoho Books and ignore duplicates in the import file.
  - Overwrite Accounts: To import the duplicates from the import file and overwrite the existing accounts in Zoho Books.
- Character Encoding: The default is UTF-8 (Unicode). Ensure you select the correct encoding based on your file.
Click Next >.
On the next page, map all the necessary fields, If you’d like to reuse the mapping for future imports, check Save these selections for use during future imports.
Click Next >.
In the Preview page, review the data, and click Import.

The accounts from your file are now imported into Zoho Books.

Other Actions in Chart of Accounts

Edit an Account

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Select the account you want to edit.
In the Account Details page, click Edit in the top left corner.
In the Edit Account popup, modify the necessary details, and click Save.

Attach Files to an Account

You can attach invoices, receipts, contracts, or tax records to an account to keep everything organized and accessible for reference or auditing. Here’s how:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Select the account you want to attach files to.
In the Account Details page, click Attach Files in the top right corner.
In the Attach Files dropdown, select how you want to upload the file from the following options:
- Drag and Drop: Upload files directly from your device.
- Cloud: Upload files from cloud services like Zoho Workdrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.
- Documents: Upload files from the Documents module in Zoho Books.

Once attached, you can easily access these files for internal purposes.

Mark an Account as Inactive

Warning: You can only mark accounts you created manually as inactive. The default accounts cannot be marked as inactive.

If you don’t need an account right now, you can mark it as inactive instead of deleting it. Here’s how:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Select the account you want to mark as inactive.
In the Account Details page, click the More icon in the top left corner and select Mark as Inactive from the dropdown.

The selected account is now inactive.

Note: To mark an account as active again, follow the same steps as above, and click Mark as Active from the dropdown.

Export Chart of Accounts

If you need to back up your data, migrate to another accounting system, or share records with your accountant, you can export the Chart of Accounts from Zoho Books. Here’s how:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Click the More icon in the top right corner, and select Export Chart of Accounts from the dropdown.
In the Export Chart of Accounts popup, fill in the following fields:
- Module: By default, the module will be Chart of Accounts.
- Export Template: Select a template from the dropdown to export the file with your chosen fields. To create a new template, click + New Template from the dropdown.
- Decimal Format: Choose how the currency in the transactions for this account should be displayed.
- Export File Format: Choose the format (CSV, XLS, or XLSX).
- File Protection Password: Enter a password if you want to lock the file.
Click Export.

The file is downloaded to your device, containing the accounts with your selected preferences.

Export Current View of Chart of Accounts

To export the Chart of Accounts with its visible columns as they are:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Click the More icon in the top right corner, and select Export Chart of Accounts from the dropdown.
In the Export Current View popup, fill in the following fields:
- Decimal Format: Choose how the currency should be displayed in the transactions for this account. Export File Format: Choose the format (CSV, XLS, or XLSX).
- File Protection Password: Enter a password to lock the file if needed.
Click Export.

The file is downloaded to your device, containing the accounts in the same order as they appear on the Chart of Accounts page.

Mark Accounts in Bulk as Inactive

Warning: You can only mark accounts you create manually as inactive. System default accounts cannot be marked as inactive.

To mark multiple accounts as inactive at once:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Select the accounts you want to mark as inactive.
Click the Bulk Actions dropdown in the top left corner, and select Mark as Inactive.

The selected accounts are now inactive.

Note: To mark multiple accounts as active again, follow the same steps as above, and click Mark as Active from the dropdown.

Delete an Account

Warning: You can only delete accounts you’ve created manually. System default accounts cannot be deleted.

Prerequisite: You cannot delete an account if it’s associated with any transactions in Zoho Books. Either update the transactions to use another account or delete the transactions individually before you proceed with the deletion.

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Accountant on the left sidebar, and select Chart of Accounts.
Select the account you want to delete.
In the Account Details page, click the More icon in the top left corner, and select Delete from the dropdown.
In the popup that follows, click OK to confirm the deletion.

The account is now deleted.

Link Accounts Using Lookup Custom Fields

You can configure Lookup and Multi-Select Lookup custom fields to link transactions to accounts in the Chart of Accounts. This helps you identify the account related to a transaction from the transaction’s details page.

When you select Account as the related module while creating the lookup field, you can view the linked account on the transaction’s details page. The linked transactions will also appear in the Related List tab on the account’s details page.

Patricia Boyle works at XYZ Company, and her team wants to associate certain transactions with specific accounts for easier tracking. She wants to identify the account associated with each transaction without having to search for it separately.

To do this, Patricia creates a Lookup field called Related Account in the Invoices module and selects Account as the related module. When her team creates or edits an invoice, they can select the relevant account in the Related Account field. The invoice is then linked to that account.

When Patricia opens the account’s details page, she can go to the Related List tab to view all the invoices linked to that account.

Configure a Lookup Field for Chart of Accounts

To configure a lookup field for the Chart of Accounts:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Settings in the top-right corner.
Under Module Settings, select the module for which you want to create the lookup field.
Go to the Fields tab and click + New Field in the top-right corner.
Enter the necessary details.
In the Data Type field, select Lookup to link a single account or Multi-Select Lookup to link multiple accounts.
In the Related Module field, select Account.
Enter the remaining field details and click Save.

Learn more about Lookup and Multi-Select Lookup.

Link Accounts

When you create or edit a transaction in the module, use the lookup field to select the account you want to link to the transaction.

For example, if you created a Related Account Lookup field in the Invoices module, select the relevant account in this field while creating or editing an invoice. Once you save the invoice, it will be linked to the selected account.

If you created a Multi-Select Lookup field, you can select multiple accounts and link them to the same transaction.

Go to the module where you created the Lookup or Multi-Select Lookup field.
Create a new transaction or open an existing transaction.
In the lookup field you have created, select the account you want to link to.
If you’re using a Multi-Select Lookup field, select one or more accounts.
Click Save.

The transaction will be linked to the selected account(s).

View Linked Transactions

You can view all the transactions linked to an account from the account’s details page.

Go to Chart of Accounts under Accountant in the left sidebar.
Open the account to which you linked the transactions.
In the account’s details page, go to the Related List tab.
View the transactions linked to the account through the Lookup or Multi-Select Lookup field.

For example, if you linked multiple invoices to an account, all those invoices will be listed in the Related List tab of that account. This lets you view the related transactions without searching for each invoice separately.

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