Chart of Accounts & opening balances guide

Why a clean Chart of Accounts matters

Your Chart of Accounts (COA) is the backbone of every report BotsBooks generates - your Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and GST report are all built from it. A well-organized COA keeps your books accurate, makes tax season painless, and gives you real visibility into where money is actually going.

What is a Chart of Accounts?

A Chart of Accounts is simply the full list of every account your business uses to categorize financial transactions. Each account falls into one of five core types:

• Assets - what your business owns (cash, bank accounts, receivables, equipment)
• Liabilities - what your business owes (loans, credit cards, payables, GST payable)
• Equity - the owner's stake in the business
• Income - money coming in from sales or services
• Expenses - money going out to run the business

Setting up your Chart of Accounts in BotsBooks

BotsBooks comes with a ready-made Chart of Accounts. Adding your own accounts takes just a few minutes:

1. Go to Accounting › Chart Of Accounts.
2. Click to add a new account.
3. Choose the account type (Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense).
4. Give it a specific, recognizable name (e.g. "DBS Current Account" rather than just "Bank").
5. Assign an account code to keep things organized, e.g. Assets 1000-1999, Liabilities 2000-2999, Equity 3000-3999, Income 4000-4999, Expenses 5000-5999.
6. Save the account.

What are opening balances?

Your opening balances are the starting point for your books in BotsBooks - a snapshot of every account's balance as of the exact date you go live on the system. Get these right and everything you record from that day forward will be accurate. Get them wrong and your reports will be off until they're corrected.

Entering opening balances

Here's how to get your opening balances into BotsBooks correctly:

1. Pick your go-live date - the exact day you'll start entering new transactions in BotsBooks.
2. Gather your real figures as of that date - bank and credit card statement balances, outstanding customer invoices (accounts receivable), unpaid bills (accounts payable), loan balances, and the value of any equipment or inventory you own.
3. Go to Accounting › Opening Balances and enter each account's opening balance against the matching account in your Chart of Accounts.
4. Make sure the books balance: total Assets should equal total Liabilities plus Equity. If they don't match, double-check your figures before moving on.
5. Lock in your opening balance date once everything ties out: use Accounting › Period Freeze to freeze the period up to that date, so it can't be accidentally changed later.

Tips for getting it right

Always reconcile your opening balances against real bank and credit card statements rather than estimates. If you're migrating from another accounting system, use its trial balance report as your source of truth - it should already show each account balanced against the others. And fix any discrepancies before you start entering new transactions on top of them; it's far easier to correct an opening balance than to untangle months of transactions built on a wrong starting point.

Creating an invoice

Once your accounts and opening balances are set up, here's how to bill a customer:

1. Go to Sales Invoice and create a new invoice.
2. Select the customer, or add a new one if it's their first invoice.
3. Add line items for each product or service, with quantity, price and the GST code (e.g. SR for standard-rated 9%).
4. Set the invoice date and due date.
5. Review the totals, then save it. Use Print preview or PDF to send it to your customer.

Recording a bill

Recording what your business owes a vendor takes just as few steps:

1. Go to Purchase › Purchase Invoice and create a new bill.
2. Select the vendor, or add a new one if needed.
3. Enter the bill details - amount, bill date, due date and the GST code for each line.
4. Assign each line to the right expense account so your reports stay accurate.
5. Save the bill. When you pay it, record the payment against this same bill so it's marked as paid and your vendor balance stays correct.

Generating reports

Once you've entered some transactions, pulling a report takes seconds:

1. Go to Reports from the main menu.
2. Choose the report you need - Profit & Loss to see income vs. expenses, Balance Sheet for your financial position, Trial Balance or General Ledger to check every account. For GST, open GST Report to see your F5 boxes.
3. Set the date range you want to report on.
4. View it on screen.
5. Print, save as PDF or export to Excel if you need to share it or keep a copy for your records.