Structure
Accounts are grouped into the five classic types — assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses — and can nest one level so a parent rolls up its children in reports. Codes are yours. A new organisation starts with a workable default chart that most people edit rather than replace.
Chart of accounts
Dimensions
A dimension is a second axis on a posting — department, project, location, brand. It is the answer to the pressure that makes a chart of accounts sprawl: rather than *Marketing salaries — London* and *Marketing salaries — Leeds* as separate accounts, you post to *Salaries* with a department and a location, and report across either.
- Dimensions are configured at
/accounting/dimensionsand apply to every posting. - A dimension can be required on some accounts and optional on others.
- Reports can be filtered and grouped by dimension, which is where the value actually shows up.
- Adding a dimension later works; back-filling it onto historic postings does not happen automatically.
If your accounts encode a second concept — a location, a client, a product line — in their names, that concept is a dimension. Restructuring after a year of postings costs a mapping exercise and loses comparability, so it is worth ten minutes now.
Changing it later
| Change | Safe? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rename an account | Yes | The name is display; postings reference the account itself. |
| Add an account | Yes | Nothing historic changes. |
| Archive an unused account | Yes | It stops being offered and stays in history. |
| Re-parent an account | Careful | Comparative reports change shape retrospectively. |
| Merge two accounts | Careful | Needs a journal entry, and the history reads differently afterwards. |
| Delete an account with postings | No | Refused. Archive it instead. |
What this does not do
Parent and child. There is no arbitrary account hierarchy.
Anyone with the module sees the whole chart.
Adding a dimension does not populate it on historic postings.
There are no jurisdiction-specific charts to pick from.
Questions
Can we import our existing chart?
Yes, via the API or as part of a migration. There is no self-serve CSV screen.
How many dimensions can we have?
Several. In practice, more than three becomes hard to enforce consistently.
Can a dimension be required?
Yes, per account.
Related
Manual journal entries, the general ledger, the audit trail, and the rule that keeps the ledger trustworthy: nothing is ever edited in place.
ReportsProfit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, trial balance and ageing in erp.io — how they are computed, what can be filtered, and what is not available.