Chart of Accounts
The Chart of Accounts is the list of the actual accounts your entries post to. Open it from Accounting → Chart Of Accounts in the left-hand menu.
Each account is filed under one Account Detail Type, and that is what gives the account its classification — which statement it appears on, and whether it counts as an asset, a liability, income or an expense. You never set that on the account itself; you set it once on the Detail Type (see Account Types and Account Detail Types).
The accounts you start with
Dealersip ships a ready-made set so a new dealership can post from day one. Some are system accounts: they cannot be deleted, but you can rename and reconfigure them, including moving them to a different Account Detail Type. The rest are ordinary defaults you can rename, reconfigure or delete.
| Account | Account Type | Account Detail Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Balance Equity | Equity | Opening Balance Equity | System — cannot be deleted |
| Account Payables | Accounts Payable | Sundry Creditors | System — cannot be deleted |
| Account Receivables | Accounts Receivable | Sundry Debtors | System — cannot be deleted |
| Commission Payable | Accounts Payable | Sundry Creditors | System — cannot be deleted |
| Cash on Hand | Cash | Cash on Hand | System — cannot be deleted |
| Vehicle Purchases | Cost of Goods Sold | Used Vehicle Cost of Sales | Tax paid on purchase |
| Reconditioning Expenses | Other Current Liabilities | Accrued Expenses | |
| Discount on Sale | Income | Contra Sales | |
| Trade in Payables | Accounts Payable | Trade In Payables | |
| Finance Companies Receivables | Accounts Receivable | Finance Company Receivable | |
| Bank Account | Bank | Bank Accounts | |
| Sales Tax | Other Current Liabilities | Sales Tax Payable | |
| Vehicle Sales | Income | Used Vehicle Sales | Tax collected on sale |
| Owner Payables | Accounts Payable | Sundry Creditors | |
| Commission Income | Other Income | Miscellaneous Other Income |
Many of these are the accounts Dealersip reaches for when it posts an entry on its own. Which account it uses for what is set in Accounting Settings.
Finding an account
Accounts are grouped on screen under their Account Type — Bank, then Accounts Receivable, then Cash, and so on — so related accounts sit together. Counts of Total Accounts and System Accounts sit above the list.
Along the green bar at the top are the statement filter (All Statements, Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Trading Account), a Search accounts… box, and the Add New button. The search matches the account name and, if you have given the account a code, the code as well.
Each row shows the account name, its Account Detail Type, and a small Report badge naming the statement the account lands on. On the left are a pencil to edit and a bin to delete — except on system accounts, which show a lock instead and carry a note that they are auto-generated and to consult your accountant before changing them.
Adding or editing an account
Press Add New, the dark green button at the top right, or the pencil on a row. The panel asks for:
- Account Name — what the account is called throughout the software.
- Account Code — optional, but if you use one it must be unique. Codes are worth having: you can search on them, and they let you order and group accounts the way your accountant expects.
- Account Detail Type — the Detail Type this account belongs under. This single choice decides the account's classification and where it appears on your statements.
- Opening Balance, with a Dr / Cr box beside it — what the account already held on the day you started, and which side that balance sits on. Leave it empty for an account starting from nothing.
- Default Opposite Account — a convenience for journal entry, not an accounting rule. Name the account you would normally post against this one, and whenever you pick this account on one side of a Journal, Dealersip pre-fills that account on the next row. You can always change it. For example, set an Undeposited Cash account's default opposite to Bank Account: choosing Undeposited Cash on the credit side then fills Bank Account in for you.
- Tax Nature — appears only when the Detail Type you chose involves tax. The choices are Not Taxable, Tax Payable (tax you pay on purchases) and Tax Receivable (tax you collect on sales).
- Tax Code — appears once the nature is taxable, and lists only the codes set up for that direction. An Add Tax Code link beside it creates a new code without losing what you have typed.
- Description — free text, for anything worth recording about the account.
Addresses and contacts. For accounts whose nature suits it — receivable, payable and person-type accounts — the panel also offers address and contact sections, and you may add as many of each as you need. These are for information: they print on the account's ledger, and beyond that you are free to use them however suits your dealership.
Finish with Save and Close, or Save and Add New to enter another straight away.
How an opening balance is recorded
Dealersip never stores an opening balance as a loose number. When you save an account that has one, it writes a proper opening-balance entry, so the amount is part of your double-entry books like everything else. The entry balances the account against the Opening Balance Equity account, on the side you chose.
A receivable opening balance therefore posts as:
Dr Accounts Receivable
Cr Opening Balance Equity
A payable opening balance runs the other way, with Opening Balance Equity debited and the payable account credited.
If you change the opening balance later, Dealersip updates that same entry rather than adding a second one, and keeps the date the account was created — even if the account started at zero and you add a balance to it months afterwards. That keeps the opening balance where it belongs in your books instead of landing in a later period.
Parties work the same way, except the account their balance lands in comes from the party's type — see Party Types.
Changing an account's Detail Type later
You can move an account to a different Account Detail Type at any time, and it is allowed even after the account has been used. Be aware of what that does: the account's whole history moves with it. Past entries are not left behind under the old classification — they take on the new one, so figures on your statements change for periods you may consider closed.
If the new Detail Type sits on the opposite side to the old one, the Business Health dashboard will flag the account as sitting on the wrong side. That flag is doing its job — treat it as a prompt to check the move was intended.
Deleting an account
The bin icon deletes an account, but only while it is genuinely unused:
- System accounts can never be deleted. They show a lock instead of a bin. You can still rename and reconfigure them.
- An account that has been used on a transaction cannot be deleted. Removing it would tear a hole in entries you have already posted.
There is no active or inactive setting on an account, so an account you have finished with cannot be hidden from the pickers. If you want to steer people away from one, the practical answer is to rename it — putting something like "do not use" in the name is crude, but it is the tool available, and it is better than leaving a misleading account looking current.