Accounting explained: Chart of accounts

One of the standard questions that a SAP Business One Consultant helps its customers to set up the Finance The first question is which accounting chart of accounts he wants to work with. Most of the time it comes down to SKR 03 and SKR 04 ? the abbreviations stand for 'standard chart of accounts' and thus designate the most common variants.

What gives accounting its framework

Basically, the chart of accounts a systematic list of the balance sheet and profit and loss accounts in accounting. These serve to standardise financial reports, making them transparent and comparable. Chart of accounts differ depending on the company and its size and sector. In addition to the widely used standard charts of accounts SKR 03 and SKR 04, there is also, for example, SKR 14 for agriculture or SKR 80 for dentists. All standard account frameworks were developed by the DATEV eG but also offer possibilities for individualisation. Currently, there are even efforts by DATEV to reduce the number of charts of accounts that the SKR 03 and SKR 04 and thus to be able to cover more specific requirements of some enterprises. However, the structure of the charts of accounts is always similar. Each chart of accounts comprises 10 account classes starting from zero. For SKR 03 these would be e.g.

Kl 0 Investment and capital accounts
Kl 1 Financial and private accounts
Kl 2 Accrual accounts
Kl 3 Goods receipt and stock accounts
Kl 4 Operating expenses
Kl5/6 Free
Cl 7 Stocks of products
Kl 8 Revenue accounts
Kl 9 Carry-forward accounts and statistical accounts

The account classes in the chart of accounts

This framework covers almost all the requirements of business enterprises and is also used by 60 per cent. Thereby, the SKR 03 is according to Processes structured, while SKR 04, for example, is structured by P&L- and balance sheet items. Account classes zero to three are posted for the balance sheet accounts, account classes four to seven for the profit and loss accounts and account classes eight to nine for carry-forward and statistical accounts. Incidentally, the two charts of accounts are also offered by common accounting programmes and business software such as SAP Business One. However, once a type of chart of accounts has been selected, it cannot be easily changed from within the system.