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Chart of Accounts: A Copy-Paste Template and Setup Checklist

A complete copy-paste chart of accounts template for a small business, how the numbering convention works, four steps to build your own, the five mistakes that make a chart useless, and a setup checklist.

Aziz Chaabane11 min read24 August 2026
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    A chart of accounts is the list of every category your business records money against: your bank accounts, your revenue lines, your expenses, what you own and what you owe. It is the filing system your bookkeeping drops each transaction into. Every account gets a number, and the number ranges follow a convention almost everyone uses: 1000s for assets, 2000s for liabilities, 3000s for equity, 4000s for revenue, 5000s and up for expenses. Building one takes four steps: start from a standard template, cut anything you will not use, add the handful of categories specific to how you actually make money, then leave gaps in the numbering so you can add more later without renumbering everything. The copy-paste template below is a complete working chart for a small business. Most owners get this wrong in the same direction, which is building something far too detailed, and the section on mistakes explains why that quietly makes your reports useless.

    Nobody has ever been excited about a chart of accounts. It is a list of categories. It sounds like the most skippable possible thing to spend an afternoon on.

    Then six months later you want to know what you actually spend on software, and the answer is spread across four categories called Software, Subscriptions, Tools, and Office Expenses, because you invented each one on a different Tuesday. That is what a chart of accounts prevents. Half an hour now, or an afternoon of untangling later.

    So the template comes first, before the explanation. Copy it, then read the rest if you want to know why it is shaped that way.

    The Copy-Paste Template

    This is a complete working chart of accounts for a small business or freelancer. Paste it into a spreadsheet, or use it as the reference while you set up your accounting software. Delete freely: a chart you do not use every line of is fine, a chart with categories you do not understand is not. There is no official list you are obliged to copy, since the IRS confirms you may choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business, provided it clearly shows your income and expenses. That last clause is the whole standard, and it is what a well-built chart delivers.

    Chart of accounts
    How to use this

    Setting it up

    • Create these as accounts in your bookkeeping software, in this order.
    • Keep the number ranges. Any bookkeeper who opens your books then understands them immediately.
    • Delete what you do not need. An unused account is worse than a missing one.

    Adding your own

    • Leave gaps: 4010, 4020, 4030, not 4011. You will want room later.
    • Put a new account in the band that matches what it is, not what it feels like.
    • Split revenue by how you earn it, not by client.

    What goes wrong

    • A "General" or "Miscellaneous" account. It becomes the biggest line on your report and tells you nothing.
    • Splitting one kind of spending across several accounts, so no report shows the true total.
    • Mixing cost of sales with operating expenses. That is what destroys your gross margin figure.
    1000Assets7 accounts
    1010Business checking accountAsset
    1020Business savings accountAsset
    1030Petty cashAsset
    1100Accounts receivableAsset
    1200Prepaid expensesAsset
    1400EquipmentAsset
    1410Accumulated depreciationAsset (contra)
    2000Liabilities5 accounts
    2010Accounts payableLiability
    2020Credit card payableLiability
    2100Sales tax payableLiability
    2200Payroll liabilitiesLiability
    2400Loans payableLiability
    3000Equity3 accounts
    3010Owner's investmentEquity
    3020Owner's drawEquity
    3900Retained earningsEquity
    4000Revenue4 accounts
    4010Product salesRevenue
    4020Service revenueRevenue
    4030Recurring revenueRevenue
    4900Discounts and refundsRevenue (contra)
    5000Cost Of Sales3 accounts
    5010Materials and inventoryCost of sales
    5020SubcontractorsCost of sales
    5030Payment processing feesCost of sales
    6000Operating Expenses12 accounts
    6010Advertising and marketingExpense
    6020Software and subscriptionsExpense
    6030Professional feesExpense
    6040Rent and utilitiesExpense
    6050InsuranceExpense
    6060Salaries and wagesExpense
    6070TravelExpense
    6080Meals and entertainmentExpense
    6090Office suppliesExpense
    6100Bank feesExpense
    6110Training and educationExpense
    6900Other expensesExpense

    Select the block above and copy it, or scroll it sideways on a phone. Gaps in the numbering are deliberate, and the next section explains what they are for.

    What a Chart of Accounts Actually Is

    Think of it as the set of labelled drawers your money gets filed into. Every transaction your business makes has to land in one of them. When you categorise a bank payment as "Software and subscriptions," you are choosing a drawer from this list.

    That is the whole idea. What makes it matter is what happens downstream: your profit and loss statement is nothing more than your revenue and expense accounts added up, and your balance sheet is your asset, liability, and equity accounts added up. The reports are not separate documents someone prepares. They are this list, totalled.

    Which explains why a messy chart produces useless reports. If software spending is split across four categories, no report will ever tell you what you spend on software. The information is technically in there, and practically it is gone.

    Aziz's take: The moment this stops being abstract is the first time you try to cut costs. You sit down to find something to trim, open your expense report, and the largest line is a category called "General" holding nine hundred pounds of things you cannot identify. You cannot cut what you cannot see. A chart of accounts is not bookkeeping neatness, it is the difference between having an opinion about your costs and having a fact.

    How the Numbering Works, and Why It Is Worth Following

    The number ranges are a convention rather than a rule, but they are near-universal, and following them means any bookkeeper or accountant who ever looks at your books understands them immediately.

    1000s

    Assets. What the business owns or is owed.

    2000s

    Liabilities. What the business owes.

    3000s

    Equity. What the owner has put in or taken out.

    4000s

    Revenue. Money earned.

    5000s+

    Costs and expenses. Money spent.

    The first digit tells you the type. Everything else is organisation within that type.

    The gaps matter more than the numbers. Notice the template jumps from 1030 to 1100, and from 6110 to 6900. That space is deliberate. When you add a new expense category next year, you want a free number sitting next to its relatives rather than having to bolt it on at the end or renumber everything below it. Number in tens, leave the hundreds free, and your chart can grow for years without a reorganisation.

    One more convention worth knowing: contra accounts, like accumulated depreciation or refunds, sit next to the account they reduce and work in the opposite direction. A refund is filed under revenue at 4900 because it is negative revenue, not an expense. Filing refunds as an expense is a common error and it overstates both your income and your costs at the same time.

    How to Build Yours: Four Steps

    Step 1: Start from the template, do not start from blank

    Building from scratch invents categories that will not match anything standard, and it is the slowest possible route. Copy the block above and edit down. Your accounting software also ships a default chart, which is a reasonable starting point for the same reason.

    Step 2: Delete everything you will not use

    No inventory? Delete materials and inventory. No employees? Delete payroll liabilities and wages. A shorter chart is a better chart, because every category you keep is a decision someone has to make on every future transaction. Deleting is the step people skip, and it is the one that does the most good.

    Step 3: Add the few categories specific to how you make money

    This is the part no template can do for you, and it is where the chart earns its keep. Split revenue by the lines you actually want to compare: if you do retainers and one-off projects, those are two revenue accounts, because someday you will want to know which is growing. Same for any expense large enough that you would want to see it move. The test is simple: would you ever want a report on this by itself? If yes, it is its own account.

    Step 4: Leave gaps and write down what each account means

    Number in tens as described above. Then, for anything ambiguous, write a one-line note about what belongs in it. Does a domain renewal go in software or office supplies? Whichever you choose is fine, as long as you choose once and it is written down. This note is what keeps the chart consistent when someone else does the categorising, or when you return to it in eight months having forgotten your own logic.

    Chart of Accounts Versus General Ledger

    These get confused constantly, and the distinction is simple once you see it.

    The chart of accounts is the list of categories. The general ledger is the actual transactions filed inside them. Chart is the empty filing cabinet with labelled drawers; ledger is the paperwork in the drawers.

    So the chart of accounts is a structure you design once and adjust rarely, while the general ledger grows every day the business trades. Both are built on double-entry bookkeeping, which is the method that decides how each transaction gets recorded into those accounts. If the ideas of debits and credits are not solid yet, that guide covers them with worked examples.

    The Five Mistakes That Make a Chart Useless

    • Too much detail. The most common error by a distance. Eleven separate software categories does not give you better information, it gives you eleven near-empty reports and a decision to make every time you categorise anything. If two categories would never lead to different actions, merge them.
    • A "General" or "Miscellaneous" account that grows. Fine as a temporary parking space, dangerous as a habit. Once it is one of your largest expense lines, your reports have stopped describing your business. Review it monthly and re-file what is in there.
    • Mixing personal and business. Personal spending run through the business chart contaminates every report and creates a real problem at tax time. It belongs in owner's draw, not in expenses.
    • Renaming or deleting accounts that have history. Change an account after a year of transactions and your prior-period comparisons quietly break. Make accounts inactive rather than deleting them, and add new ones instead of repurposing old ones.
    • Filing refunds and discounts as expenses. They are negative revenue and belong in the 4000s. Putting them in expenses inflates your reported revenue and your reported costs simultaneously, which makes your margins look wrong in both directions.

    The Setup Checklist

    Run through this once when you build the chart, then revisit it once a year.

    • Every account has a number, and the first digit matches its type.
    • Numbering leaves gaps, so a new account can slot in beside its relatives.
    • Every account you kept is one you can define in a sentence.
    • Revenue is split by the lines you would genuinely want to compare.
    • Anything ambiguous has a one-line note saying what belongs in it.
    • There is no category you would be embarrassed to explain to an accountant.
    • "General" or "Miscellaneous" is either absent or genuinely small.
    • Personal spending has a home in equity, not in expenses.
    • The chart fits on one screen. If it does not, you probably have too much detail.

    Once the structure is right, the reports built on it become trustworthy. Our guide to reading a profit and loss statement covers what those reports tell you, and the complete guide to small business finance puts the whole system in context. If you would rather not maintain any of this by hand, bookkeeping software for freelancers covers the tools that manage it for you.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    There are five account types rather than five charts: assets (what you own), liabilities (what you owe), equity (what the owner has put in or taken out), revenue (money earned), and expenses (money spent). Every account in your chart belongs to exactly one of these, and the numbering convention reflects them directly: 1000s assets, 2000s liabilities, 3000s equity, 4000s revenue, 5000s and above costs and expenses. Assets, liabilities, and equity make up your balance sheet; revenue and expenses make up your profit and loss statement.
    Four steps. Start from a standard template rather than a blank page. Delete every category you will not genuinely use, since a shorter chart is a better one. Add the few categories specific to how you make money, splitting revenue by the lines you would actually want to compare. Then number in tens so gaps are left for future accounts, and write a one-line note for anything ambiguous so the filing stays consistent. The template earlier in this guide is a complete working starting point.
    The chart of accounts is the list of categories; the general ledger is the transactions recorded inside them. Think of the chart as an empty filing cabinet with labelled drawers and the ledger as the paperwork filed in those drawers. The chart is designed once and changes rarely. The ledger grows every day you trade. Both rest on double-entry bookkeeping, which governs how each transaction is recorded into the accounts.
    At minimum: your bank accounts, accounts receivable and payable, any loans or credit cards, owner's investment and draw, your revenue lines, and your main expense categories. Beyond that the test is whether you would ever want a report on something by itself. If yes, it deserves its own account; if not, merge it into a broader one. Most small businesses need somewhere between twenty and forty accounts, and a chart that does not fit on one screen usually has too much detail rather than too little.
    You can add to it freely, which is why leaving gaps in the numbering matters. Changing existing accounts is riskier: renaming or deleting one that already has transactions against it breaks your prior-period comparisons, so historical reports stop matching. The safer approach is to make an old account inactive and create a new one rather than repurposing what is there. Adding is cheap, rewriting history is not.
    Usually twenty to forty. The instinct is to add detail, and it is almost always the wrong instinct: eleven software categories produce eleven near-empty reports and force a decision every time you categorise a payment. The useful rule is that two categories should only stay separate if seeing them apart would ever change what you do. Otherwise merge them. You can always split an account later when a line grows large enough to be worth watching on its own.