Chart of Accounts
Manage the shared account tree used by Accounting, budgets, registers, payments, and payouts
Chart of Accounts is the Accounting section where SettleWise manages the account tree behind financial reporting. It gives payments, payouts, registers, budgets, and the Income Statement a shared language for where money belongs.
Use Chart of Accounts to understand account structure. Use Budgets to plan by account, and Income Statement to review budget, actual, and variance.
What It Controls
| Concept | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Parent accounts | Group posting accounts into reporting categories |
| Posting accounts | Hold budget lines and operational activity |
| Register backing accounts | Connect cash, bank, liability, or advance registers to Accounting |
| Revenue accounts | Receive actuals from validated customer payments |
| Expense accounts | Receive actuals from completed payouts |
| QuickBooks mappings | Keep SettleWise account structure aligned with connected QuickBooks accounts when available |
How It Connects
The account tree is the common backbone for the other Accounting sections:
- Income Statement groups actual activity by account and period
- Budgets store planned amounts on posting accounts
- Registers use backing accounts so cash movement has a balance-sheet side
- Payout lines and payment revenue splits can point to posting accounts
Good account mapping makes the same operational event useful in multiple places: customer workflow, register balance, budget tracking, and financial reporting.
Setup Guardrails
- Use parent accounts to organize reporting and posting accounts for day-to-day activity.
- Give posting accounts distinct, stable names that operators can choose confidently.
- Link each register to the account representing where the money is held or owed.
- Map revenue and expense categories before processing a large volume of transactions.
- Prefer deactivation or remapping over deleting an account that already has history.
- After a QuickBooks connection, verify imported mappings before creating parallel local accounts.
Test an Account Mapping
Process one representative payment or payout, then open the posting account detail. Confirm date, source, amount, debit/credit direction, register side, and reporting parent before repeating the mapping across the organization.