Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts is the backbone of your accounting system: a hierarchical structure that classifies everything you own, owe, earn, and spend into logical, branching groups. At the top of the tree are large groups (assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, expenses); beneath them finer groups; down to the leaf accounts where balances are actually recorded.

This page explains how the tree is built in Accounts Chart (Accounting > Master Files > Accounts Chart), and how it's complemented by the classification files that feed the financial statements: Account Category and Account Tax Category.

Required license

The chart of accounts and the classifications are part of the core accounting license.

The hierarchical tree structure

Every node in the tree has a parent that links it to its ancestor, and that's how the tree forms. The essential distinction is between two kinds of node:

• Grouping node — carries the Accepts Elements (يقبل عناصر) flag, meaning it has branches beneath it. These nodes aren't posted to directly; they aggregate the balances of everything under them.
• Leaf node — does not accept elements beneath it, and is the level the actual accounts attach to and where balances are recorded.

In the screen header you enter the Code, Name1 (Arabic), and Name2 (English), and optionally the English Code. The next section sets the node's position and nature:

• Parent — the parent node this node branches from (left empty for root nodes).
• Chart Type — links the node to the chart type you defined during initial setup (see Concepts & setup).
• Class — the financial-statement classification the node belongs to: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, or Other. This decides where the account appears in the financial statements.
• Natural Side — the node's natural side: Debit or Credit. Assets and expenses are debit by nature; liabilities, equity, and revenue are credit by nature. This value determines how the balance is read (positive or negative) in reports.

Why "Natural Side" matters

A debit balance in a debit-natured account (like cash) is a naturally positive balance. A debit balance in a credit-natured account (like suppliers) signals an unusual situation. The system uses the natural side to present balances with their correct signs in account statements and trial balances.

Automatic account coding

Instead of numbering accounts by hand, the Code Formula Settings section on a grouping node lets the system compute a new account's code automatically from a formula: a sequence prefix, a numeric-suffix length, and a starting number. You can also generate the Arabic/English name from a computed formula and set a code-validity query. The benefit is that every new account under that group gets a code consistent with its siblings, effortlessly.

Account Category

The chart of accounts organizes accounts in accounting terms, but the financial statements — especially the cash-flow statement and the income statement — need an extra classification angle. That's the role of Account Category (Accounting > Master Files > Account Category): a parallel classification tree that links each account to its role in those statements.

Its key fields:

• Cash Flow Type — places the account in the cash-flow statement; its values are Operating Activities, Investment Activities, Financing Activities, Cash Account, Profit - Loss, Adjustment, or Not Involved for accounts that don't enter the statement.
• Equation Type — places the account in the income statement: Revenue, Cost Of Revenue, Expenses, Other Revenue, Taxes, or Not Involved.
• Class and Natural Side — as in the chart of accounts.
• The report display options (Show Total Income, Show Taxes, Show Category Detail) control the level of detail the category shows when statements are printed.

Account Tax Category

Account Tax Category (Accounting > Master Files > Account Tax Category) is similar to the account category but dedicated to tax dimensions — used to group accounts by their tax treatment in tax returns and reports. It too is a hierarchical tree carrying a Cash Flow Type, Class, and Natural Side.

Reports

The Accounts Chart report (SYSR-ACC001) prints the full tree with its levels; you'll find it alongside the other core account reports on the Account statements & trial balance page.

For Support

• "I can't post to a certain account" — make sure the node is a leaf (doesn't carry the "Accepts Elements" flag); grouping nodes can't be posted to.
• "The balance shows with a reversed sign in the statement" — review the account's Natural Side; setting it wrong flips the balance's sign in reports.
• "An account doesn't appear in the income/cash-flow statement" — check the Equation Type and Cash Flow Type in the account category; the Not Involved value excludes the account from the statement.
• Building the leaf accounts themselves (currency, subsidiary types, posting and dimension properties) is covered in the Accounts page.