Defining Chart of Account in SAP

A chart of accounts (COA) is a financial organizational tool that provides a complete listing of every account in an accounting system. An account is a unique record for each type of asset, liability, equity, revenue and expense.

A COA, which lists the names of the accounts that a company has identified and made available for recording transactions in its general ledger, establishes the level of detail tracked in a record-keeping system. Typically, a COA contains the accounts’ names, brief descriptions and identification codes.

In practice, the COA serves as the foundation for a company’s financial record keeping system. It provides a logical structure that facilitates the addition of new accounts and deletion of old accounts.

Within the COA, accounts will be typically listed in order of their appearance in the financial statements. Typically, Balance sheet accounts are listed first followed by the income statement accounts.

Definition

This is a list of all G/L accounts used by one or several company codes.

For each G/L account, the chart of accounts contains the account number, account name, and the information that controls how an account functions and how a G/L account is created in a company code.

Use

You have to assign a chart of accounts to each company code. This chart of accounts is the operating chart of accounts and is used for the daily postings in this company code.

You have the following options when using multiple company codes:

You can use the same chart of accounts for all company codes

If the company codes all have the same requirements for the chart of accounts set up, assign all of the individual company codes to the same chart of accounts. This could be the case if all company codes are in the same country.

In addition to the operating chart of accounts, you can use two additional charts of accounts

If the individual company codes need different charts of accounts, you can assign up to two charts of accounts in addition to the operating chart of accounts. This could be the case if company codes lie in multiple countries.

Note

The use of different charts of accounts has no effect on the balance sheet and

profit and loss statement. When creating the balance sheet or the profit and loss statement, you can choose whether to balance the company codes which use different charts of accounts together or separately.

Structure

Charts of accounts can have three different functions in the system:

Operating chart of accounts

The operating chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts that you use for posting in your company code during daily activities. Financial Accounting and Controlling both use this chart of accounts.

You have to assign an operating chart of accounts to a company code.

Group chart of accounts

The group chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts that are used by the entire corporate group. This allows the company to provide reports for the entire corporate group.

The assigning of an corporate group chart of accounts to a company code is optional.

Country-specific chart of accounts

The country-specific chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts needed to meet the country's legal requirements. This allows you to provide statements for the country's legal requirements.

The assigning of an country-specific chart of accounts to a company code is optional.

Integration

The operating chart of accounts is shared by Financial Accounting as well as Controlling. The accounts in a chart of accounts can be both expense or revenue accounts in Financial Accounting and cost or revenue elements in cost/revenue accounting. You can find additional information on this subject under