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Adding an account to the Chart of Accounts
Adding an account to the Chart of Accounts

To add an account to the default chart of accounts, follow the steps below

Andrew Robinson avatar
Written by Andrew Robinson
Updated over 9 months ago

Step 1: Navigate to the “Accounting” tab in the sidebar.

Step 2: Navigate to the “Chart of accounts” section.

Step 3: Click on the “+ New account” button.

Step 4: Select an existing account to which the new sub-account will relate and click “Continue.” OR add a new parent account

Step 5: Create a 5-digit number to represent the new account. While not required, the selected number would typically relate to the parent account, would not duplicate any existing account numbers, would be lower than a subsequent grouping of numbers, and would be logically consistent with any other sub-accounts that have been created. While you do not have to adhere to these, it may help keep things orderly and give you a starting point!

For additional guidance, see Puzzle's account numbering conventions below.

Account Numbering Conventions

10000-Series: Asset accounts

  • 10000-14999 >>> Current

    • Order of liquidity**

      • 10000-10999 >>> Cash and Cash Equivalents

      • 11000-11999 >>> Marketable Securities and Investments, Reserves of Cash

      • 12000-12999 >>> Accounts receivable

      • 13000-13999 >>> Prepaid Assets & Other Current Assets

        • 13000-13499 >>> Prepaid Assets

        • 13500-13999 >>> Other Current Assets

          • 13600-13699 >>> Current tax assets

      • 14000-14999 >>> Inventory

  • 15000-19999 >>> Noncurrent

    • Order of liquidity**

      • 15000-16999 Fixed Assets

        • Buildings

        • Machines

        • Land

      • 16000-16999 Investments

      • 17000-17999 Intangible Assets

      • 18000-18999 Goodwill

      • 19000-19999 Other Noncurrent Assets

        • 19600-19699 >>> Noncurrent tax liabilities

20000-Series: Liability accounts

  • 20000-25999 >>> Current

    • 20000-20999 >>> AP to Vendors

    • 21000-21999 >>> AP Payables to Other Parties

      • 21100 >>> payables to CC companies

      • 21200 >>> payables to Benefits Provider

      • 21900 >>> Interco payables

    • 22000-22999 >>> Short-term notes payable and Debt due in <12 months

    • 23000-23999 >>> Accrued Payroll

    • 24000-24999 >>> Deferred Revenue <12 months

    • 25000-25999 >>> Accrued Taxes, Leases, Interest, Other

  • 26000-29999 >>> Noncurrent

    • 26000-26999 >>> Debt due in >12 months

    • 27000-27999 >>> Deferred Revenue >12 months

    • 29000-29999 >>> Other Noncurrent Liabilities

30000-series: Equity accounts

  • 30000-30999 >>> Common stock and related accounts

  • 31000-31999 >>> Preferred stock and related accounts

  • 32000-32999 >>> SAFEs, hybrid equity instruments, and related accounts

  • 33000-33999 >>> APIC.

  • 34000-34999 >>> Retained earnings and related accounts

  • 35000-35999 >>> Other equity

  • 39000-39999 >>> Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income and related accounts

40000-series: Revenue accounts (operating revenue only)

  • 40000-40999 >>> Subscription Revenue

  • 41000-41999 >>> Services Revenue

  • 42000-42999 >>> Transaction Revenue

  • 43000-43999 >>> Usage Revenue

  • 48000-48999 >>> Partnership Revenue

  • 49000-49999 >>> Miscellaneous Revenue

50000-series: Cost of revenue accounts

  • 50000-50999 >>> Cost of Materials

  • 51000-51999 >>> Hosting Fees

  • 52000-52999 >>> CoR Software used directly in delivery of product or services

  • 53000-53999 >>> Payment Processor Fees

  • 54000-54999 >>> Shipping Costs

  • 55000-55999 >>> Allocated salaries and labor

  • 56000-58999 >>> [UNDEFINED - possibly: overhead allocations, packaging, etc. - depends on industry]

  • 59000-59999 >>> Other

60000-series: Standard operating expense accounts (standard purchases and disbursement categories)

  • 60000-60999 >>> Payroll

  • 61000-61999 >>> Other Employee Costs

  • 62000-62999 >>> Travel

  • 63000-63999 >>> Meals & Entertainment

  • 64000-64999 >>> Professional Services

  • 65000-65999 >>> Sales & Marketing

  • 66000-66999 >>> Technology & Software

  • 67000-67999 >>> Facilities

  • 68000-68999 >>> General Operations

  • 69000-69990 >>> [UNDEFINED - can be used by users for additional exp categories]

70000-series: Other operating expense accounts (non-cash expenses and miscellaneous operating expenses not directly related to expected ongoing operations)

  • 70000-70999 >>> Depreciation

  • 71000-71999 >>> Amortization of intangibles

  • 72000-72999 >>> Amortization of goodwill

  • 73000-75999 >>> [UNDEFINED]

  • 76000-76999 >>> Bad debt expense (write offs and reserve)

  • 77000-78999 >>> [UNDEFINED]

  • 79000-79000 >>> Other & misc operating expense

8 = Non-Operating income accounts

  • 80000-80999 >>> Non-Operating Income & Expenses

  • 81000-82999 >>> [UNDEFINED - users can use for their specific income and expense types if desired]

  • 83000-83999 >>> Credit Card Rewards

  • 84000-85999 >>> [UNDEFINED]

  • 86000-86999 >>> Taxes

  • 87000-87999 >>> Interest Expense

  • 88000-88999 >>> Interest and Dividend Income

  • 89000-89999 >>> Other (misc)

9 = Uncategorized and P&L clearing (requires attention to resolve)

  • 91000-91999 >>> Uncategorized Revenue

  • 92000-92999 >>> Uncategorized Expense

  • 93000-93999 >>> [UNDEFINED]

Ending conventions

  • 005, 050, and 500 >>> Contra-account

    • For an account with multiple contra-accounts (e.g. refunds and discounts for revenue), add intervals of 10

  • 9, 99, and 999 >>> Adjustment account

    • 98 and 998, then 97, 997 should be used if there are multiple types of adjustment accounts

  • Note 1: The “5” ending conventions are appended starting with the first zero of the related account but not before the 2nd digit, and the “9” ending can start after the 1st digit (e.g. 42000 becomes 42500 or 42999, while 40000 becomes 40500 or 49999)

    • However, the number should not be greater than then next-highest account number to which the manual adjustment does not apply (e.g. if 40000 is subscription revenue and 41000 is services revenue, 40999 should be the manual adjustment account rather than 49999, even though the 2nd digit slot is available.)

  • Note 2: If the contra-account is not related to a specific account but is more of a general “catchall” contra-account (e.g. manual JEs to adjust revenue that includes multiple revenue streams), these can go at the end of a grouping of accounts rather than after a specific account.

Step 6: Select an account type. You will have two options: 1) the account type of the account selected in Step 4 and 2) a “contra” account of the account selected in Step 4. In most cases, you would use Option #1. Option #2 would be used if the new account is for transactions that are opposite of the parent account, such as discounts (for a revenue account) or reserves (for a receivable account).

Step 7: Add an account name. While the name can be anything you want, it may be useful be descriptive enough to distinguish it but not too specific to be hard to read.

Step 8: Add a brief description of what is included in the account. The description may help when referencing later to clarify what should be included and excluded when using this account.

Step 9 (optional): Add any keywords if they will help you later to search for the right account when you are categorizing transactions. For example, you may add common vendors or specific varieties of transactions that would relate to this account.

Step 10: Review the account details and click “Create.”

Step 11: Confirm that the account was correctly added to the chart of accounts within Puzzle. It may take a minute to sync. Also, confirm that the account appears to have the correct information and is listed in the expected order.

Step 12: Now you can post to this account by selecting the applicable category within the Transactions tab!

If you have any issues or questions along the way, reach out to [email protected] — we will be able to help troubleshoot!

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