Free chart of accounts template for a small business (with numbering and a CSV)

 A small business chart of accounts groups every account by type and gives each type its own block of numbers. The classic four-digit scheme puts assets in the 1000s, liabilities in the 2000s, equity in the 3000s, income in the 4000s and expenses from the 5000s up. ZeraBooks uses the same idea with five digits: assets from 10000, liabilities 20000, equity 30000, revenue 40000, cost of revenue 50000, operating expenses 60000, other income 80000 and other expenses 90000. The free template below follows that scheme with 44 accounts.

The numbers look like bureaucracy on day one. They earn their keep later.

Why do the ranges matter later?

Reports sort themselves. A profit and loss lists revenue, then direct costs, then operating expenses, then the odd items at the bottom. If the numbers follow that order, every report reads top to bottom without anyone arranging it.

You can tell an account's type from its number. 22100 is a liability before you read the name. That helps more than you'd think when you're scanning a trial balance or someone's old export late in the day.

There's room to add. Accounts go up by 100, so a new one fits between two old ones without renumbering anything. Sub-accounts sit 10 apart under their parent: Professional Fees at 60700, with Accounting and Bookkeeping at 60710 and Legal Fees at 60720.

Moves between systems keep working. When the chart goes into another system, or a spreadsheet for your accountant, consistent numbers keep each account in the right group even when names get trimmed or changed.

What goes wrong without them?

A fictional example. Marlow Tutoring started its books with whatever numbers came to mind, numbering expenses from 5000 straight up. Two years in, it began buying workbooks to resell to students and needed a cost of goods sold section between revenue and expenses. There was nowhere to put it. Every expense account had to be renumbered, and every saved report and spreadsheet that referred to those numbers broke at once.

Leave the gaps in from the start. They cost nothing.

The template

The full template has 44 accounts across all eight types. Here is a selection to show the pattern. The complete list, with a line on what goes in each account, is on our chart of accounts template page.

Number	Account	Type
10100	Business Checking	Bank
11100	Inventory	Assets
11200	Prepaid Expenses	Assets
11210	Prepaid Insurance	Assets, under Prepaid Expenses
15900	Accumulated Depreciation	Assets
20100	Business Credit Card	Credit Card
22100	Sales Tax Payable	Liabilities
25100	Business Loan	Liabilities
30200	Owner Draws	Equity
40200	Service Revenue	Revenue
40300	Sales Returns and Refunds	Revenue
50100	Cost of Goods Sold	Cost of Revenue
60300	Merchant Processing Fees	Operating Expenses
60500	Meals	Operating Expenses
62300	Contract Labor	Operating Expenses
80100	Interest Income	Other Income
90100	Interest Expense	Other Expenses

Notice that no account ends in a round thousand. ZeraBooks creates five accounts itself (Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Undeposited Funds, Opening Balance Equity and Retained Earnings), and the template's numbers stay out of their way.

What does the CSV look like?

The download is a plain CSV with seven columns. Its first lines:

Category Name,Category Number,Parent Name,Parent Category Number,Type,Status,Description
Business Checking,10100,,,Bank,Active,Your main operating account. Rename it to match your bank. Delete this row if you already added it in Banks & Cards.
Business Savings,10200,,,Bank,Active,Cash set aside for taxes or a reserve. Rename or delete like the row above.
Inventory,11100,,,Assets,Active,Stock bought for resale at cost until it sells.
Prepaid Expenses,11200,,,Assets,Active,Bills paid ahead for months still to come.
Prepaid Insurance,11210,Prepaid Expenses,11200,Assets,Active,An annual policy paid up front and used up month by month.

Only Category Name and Type are required by the ZeraBooks import; the rest are optional. Parent Name and Parent Category Number are how a sub-account says which account it rolls up into, as Prepaid Insurance does in the last line. You can download the file directly: chart of accounts template CSV. It's free and needs no sign-up.

How do you trim it to your business?

Delete before you add. A service business with no stock can drop Inventory, Cost of Goods Sold and Freight In, and either leave cost of revenue empty or use it for subcontractors who deliver client work. A business that never borrows can drop the loan.

Rename the bank and card rows after your real accounts. "Business Checking" means nothing once you have two.

Then add an account only when a question needs it. If you'd read the total every month, or your tax preparer will ask for it, it gets a line. If you only need to find something later, the description field will do.

Bringing it into ZeraBooks

Disclosure: I'm Damin and I run ZeraBooks, so weigh this part accordingly. In the ZeraBooks general ledger, a new company can import this template, which is read directly; import an old chart exported from QuickBooks, Xero, Sage or a spreadsheet, which AI reads; describe the business and let Generate with AI draft a numbered chart; or start from scratch. Nothing is saved until you've reviewed the rows, and importing only adds. Leave a number blank and ZeraBooks assigns the next free one in that type's range. Accounts you stop using are deactivated, never deleted. It's $79 a month billed annually or $149 monthly, with the Converter in the same subscription and a 7-day trial. More on the ZeraBooks general ledger page.

Keep the gaps. The business you run in three years will need them.