Chart of Accounts Template

The Bookkipa default chart of accounts for small businesses — pre-mapped to IRS Schedule C tax lines. Download as CSV or Excel.

Total Accounts

Asset Accounts

Expense Accounts

Schedule C Lines Mapped

Code	Account Name	Type	Schedule C (Tax Line)
Assets
1000	Cash on Hand	Asset
1010	Business Checking	Asset
1020	Business Savings	Asset
1090	Undeposited Funds	Asset
1200	Prepaid Expenses	Asset
1400	Furniture and Equipment	Asset	Depreciation
1410	Computer Equipment	Asset	Depreciation
1420	Vehicles	Asset	Depreciation
Asset (Contra)s
1500	Accumulated Depreciation	Asset (Contra)
Liabilitys
2010	Credit Card	Liability
2200	Sales Tax Payable	Liability
2300	Payroll Liabilities	Liability
2510	Loan Payable	Liability
2600	Due to Owner	Liability
Equitys
3010	Owner's Capital	Equity
3200	Owner's Draw	Equity
3800	Retained Earnings	Equity
3900	Opening Balance Equity	Equity
Incomes
4010	Sales Revenue	Income	Gross Receipts
4020	Service Revenue	Income	Gross Receipts
4900	Returns and Refunds	Income	Returns & Allowances
4990	Uncategorized Income	Income	Gross Receipts
8010	Other Income	Income	Other Income
8020	Interest Income	Income
Cost of Saless
5010	Cost of Goods Sold	Cost of Sales	COGS
5020	Materials and Supplies (COGS)	Cost of Sales	COGS
5030	Subcontractor Costs	Cost of Sales	Contract Labor
5040	Merchant and Payment Fees	Cost of Sales	Other
Expenses
6010	Advertising and Marketing	Expense	Line 8 Advertising
6020	Car and Truck Expenses	Expense	Line 9 Car & Truck
6030	Commissions and Fees	Expense	Line 10 Commissions
6040	Contract Labor	Expense	Line 11 Contract Labor
6050	Depreciation Expense	Expense	Line 13 Depreciation
6060	Employee Benefit Programs	Expense	Line 14 Employee Benefits
6070	Insurance (other than health)	Expense	Line 15 Insurance
6080	Interest - Mortgage	Expense	Line 16a Interest Mortgage
6090	Legal and Professional Services	Expense	Line 17 Legal & Professional
6100	Office Expense	Expense	Line 18 Office
6110	Pension and Profit Sharing	Expense	Line 19 Pension
6120	Rent - Vehicles/Machinery/Equipment	Expense	Line 20a Rent Equipment
6130	Rent - Other Business Property	Expense	Line 20b Rent Property
6140	Repairs and Maintenance	Expense	Line 21 Repairs
6150	Supplies	Expense	Line 22 Supplies
6160	Taxes and Licenses	Expense	Line 23 Taxes & Licenses
6170	Travel	Expense	Line 24a Travel
6180	Meals (deductible portion)	Expense	Line 24b Meals (50%)
6190	Utilities	Expense	Line 25 Utilities
6200	Wages and Salaries	Expense	Line 26 Wages
6300	Bank Service Charges	Expense	Other Expenses
6310	Dues and Subscriptions	Expense	Other Expenses
6320	Education and Training	Expense	Other Expenses
6330	Internet and Phone	Expense	Other Expenses
6340	Postage and Shipping	Expense	Other Expenses
6420	Software and Subscriptions	Expense	Other Expenses
6500	Home Office	Expense	Line 30 Home Office
6900	Uncategorized Expense	Expense	Other Expenses
6910	Owner Personal (non-deductible)	Expense	Not deductible
7010	Interest Expense - Other	Expense	Line 16b Interest Other
7900	Foreign Exchange Gain or Loss	Expense

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Chart of Accounts for Small Businesses: A Complete Guide

A chart of accounts (COA) is the master list of every account in your bookkeeping system. Think of it as the filing system for your financial records: every transaction you record gets assigned to one or more accounts, and the chart of accounts defines what those buckets are. The structure of your COA determines the quality of your financial reports, the ease of your tax preparation, and the insights you can extract from your books.

How Account Numbering Works

The numbering system in a chart of accounts is not arbitrary. By convention, account codes follow a logical structure: 1000s are assets, 2000s are liabilities, 3000s are equity, 4000s are income, 5000s are cost of sales, 6000-7000s are expenses, and 8000s are other income. This pattern is consistent across most small business accounting systems, which means your bookkeeper, CPA, or a future accounting software migration will recognize the structure immediately.

Within each category, there’s room to expand. The 1000s can grow from one cash account to dozens of asset accounts without disrupting the overall structure. Leaving gaps in the numbering (as this template does) is intentional — it allows you to insert new accounts without renumbering existing ones.

Schedule C Mapping: Why It Matters

For sole proprietors and single-member LLCs that are taxed as sole proprietors, business income and expenses are reported on Schedule C of Form 1040. Schedule C has a specific set of line items, and your expense accounts should map to these lines as closely as possible.

When your accounts are pre-mapped to Schedule C lines (as they are in this template), tax preparation becomes a mechanical exercise: you look up the balance in each account and transfer it to the corresponding Schedule C line. Without this mapping, you or your CPA has to decide at tax time which category each account falls into — a process that takes time and introduces judgment calls that could be inconsistent year over year.

Notable Schedule C lines to understand: Line 8 (Advertising), Line 9 (Car & Truck), Line 11 (Contract Labor — separate from employees), Line 13 (Depreciation — requires Form 4562), Line 17 (Legal & Professional — includes your CPA), Line 24b (Meals, which are generally only 50% deductible), and Line 30 (Home Office — requires Form 8829).

Accounts You Should Not Skip

Undeposited Funds (1090) is a clearing account that holds payments received but not yet deposited. Without it, your bank account balance and your books will be out of sync whenever you have checks sitting on your desk.

Owner’s Draw (3200) tracks money the owner takes out of the business. This is not a salary expense — it’s a reduction in equity. If you expense your draws, your P&L will understate your profit.

Opening Balance Equity (3900) is a temporary account that absorbs the initial setup of your books — historical balances that don’t have a clear origin. It should be zeroed out by distributing its balance to the appropriate equity accounts once your setup is complete.

Accumulated Depreciation (1500) is a contra-asset — it has a credit balance and reduces the book value of your fixed assets. If you own equipment or vehicles, this account is essential for accurate asset reporting.

When to Customize Your COA

The template above is appropriate for most service businesses and product-based small businesses filing Schedule C. You may want to customize it for your industry. A restaurant might split food and beverage costs separately. A construction contractor might need job cost accounts for materials, labor, and equipment per project. A professional services firm might track revenue by service line.

The guiding principle for customization: add accounts when the aggregate would obscure information you need to make decisions. Don’t add accounts just because you can — more accounts means more categorization work on every transaction. The right level of detail is the minimum needed to run your business and satisfy your tax obligations.