Help Center / Organization Setup

Chart of Accounts Setup

What is this page about: How to set up and manage your Chart of Accounts in Light: creating accounts, bulk uploading via CSV, organizing accounts by group and category, and understanding account locking, activation, and export. Covers account fields, FX revaluation settings, aggregation rules for Sum accounts, and Account defaults.

On this page

  • Where to find it
  • Account fields
  • Account categories
  • Create an account
  • Bulk upload
  • Edit an account
  • Activate or deactivate
  • Account defaults
  • Export
  • Setup checklist
  • Related articles

This article explains how to prepare and upload your Chart of Accounts in Light, including how to create accounts, organize them by group, and manage your accounting structure.

Chart of Accounts Setup

Your Chart of Accounts is the full list of accounts you can post transactions to. It determines how transactions roll up on your financial statements.

Where to find it

Settings (gear icon; bottom left corner) → Chart of accounts, under Records.

Three tabs:

  • Chart of accounts: view, search, manage all GL accounts
  • Account defaults: assign accounts for system-level postings (rounding, FX gain/loss, bank fees)
  • Intercompany rules: configure intercompany transaction handling

Top-right actions on the Chart of accounts tab:

  • + Create account
  • + Add intercompany rule
  • Upload
  • ⋯ (overflow menu): Export, Build

Account fields

Fields appear in this order on the account form:

  • Account number: unique, exactly 6 digits. Enforced by Light.
  • Account name: descriptive label (e.g. "Cash," "Accounts Receivable").
  • Account status: Active or Disabled.
  • Entities: which entities can post to this account.
  • Account category: Standard, Header, or Sum. Standard accounts take postings. Header and Sum accounts give the chart of accounts its structure and roll-up. See Account categories below.
  • Aggregation rule: required for Sum accounts only, format is comma-separated numeric ranges, each startcode:endcode (6-digit account numbers, start ≤ end), e.g. 100000:200000 or 100000:200000,300000:400000. Disabled (must be empty) for all other account types.
  • Account group: financial grouping (e.g. Other current asset, Accounts receivable, Cost of Sales, Operating Expense). Required for Standard accounts.
  • Currency: appears only when Account group is set to Cash and cash equivalents, and is required there. Bank accounts don't use this field on this form.
  • FX settings: two dropdowns. Entity revaluation settings (Revalue / Do not revalue) and Group revaluation settings. Revaluation applies to Standard accounts.
  • Context: optional note on the account's purpose.

Account categories

Every account is one of three categories, and the category sets what the account does.

  • Standard: your working accounts. Documents and journal entries post to these, and these are the accounts that appear when you pick an account anywhere in Light.
  • Header: a heading that labels a section of the chart of accounts. It carries a zero balance and sits in account-number order.
  • Sum: totals the balances of the Standard accounts whose account numbers fall inside its Aggregation rule ranges. Light calculates the total when a report runs, so it always reflects current balances.

Category also drives two other fields. Account group is required for Standard accounts, and FX revaluation applies to Standard accounts.

Create an account

  1. Go to Settings → Chart of accounts.
  2. Click + Create account.
  3. Enter, in order: account number, name, status, entities, category, aggregation rule (if applicable), account group, currency (if applicable), FX settings (if applicable), context (optional).
  4. Click Create account.

Bulk upload

  1. Go to Settings → Chart of accounts.
  2. Click Upload.
  3. Use the provided template. File format: CSV.
  4. Review the preview. This shows exactly what will be created before anything is written to your Chart of Accounts.
  5. Confirm to complete the import. All valid rows are created in one batch.

Edit an account

  1. Upload the file. Light validates the structure and flags rows with errors, so you can fix and re-upload without redoing the whole file.
  2. Go to Settings → Chart of accounts.
  3. Search for the account and open it.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. Update fields and save.

Once an account has posted activity, account number, account group, category, and currency lock. To change a used account's number, deactivate it and create a new one with the correct number.

Activate or deactivate

Account status: Active (available for new transactions) or Disabled (archived, history preserved).

To deactivate: open the account, click Edit, set status to Disabled, save. Use this when an account is no longer needed going forward, for example after a restructure or a category cleanup, without losing its transaction history.

Disabled accounts keep all past transactions and drop out of posting dropdowns. Exception: accounts deactivated by a connected external ERP can't be reactivated manually in Light. Reactivate from the ERP.

Account defaults

Assign accounts for:

  • Rounding
  • FX loss / FX gain
  • FX unrealized
  • Sales discount
  • Bank fees
  • Bank clearing
  • Currency translation adjustment
  • Elimination

Export

⋯ menu → Export.

Exports your full Chart of Accounts, including account number, name, status, entities, category, group, and currency for every account. Use this to:

  • back up your account structure before a bulk edit
  • share your Chart of Accounts with an auditor or external accountant
  • compare against your ERP's chart of accounts when reconciling systems

Setup checklist

  • Use consistent numbering across the organization (e.g. all assets start with 1).
  • Assign accounts only to the entities that need them.
  • Account group determines financial statement classification. Set it deliberately.
  • Configure Account defaults before posting any transactions.
  • Account numbers are unique company-wide.

Was this article helpful?

Book a demo