Chart of Accounts

Chart of Accounts

Chart of Accounts

All accounts including bank accounts come across in the conversion regardless of their status. This is because there may be transactions associated with these accounts. If you have accounts that you do not want to use you can archive them in Xero following conversion. We recommend you to archive accounts only where there is a $0 statement balance displaying and no transaction recorded. The Xero Help article is available here: Deleting or Archiving Accounts

NOTE: From time to time when extracting transactional data from the source file we find that when a chart of account type bank no longer exists in the chart of accounts whether active or inactive,  we create an account titled Reconciliation account to bring the data into Xero. During the quality assurance process the team will handle these items individually to ensure that the missing chart of account is created and maintained if necessary.

Header accounts will come into Xero as another GL account and you may need to customise reports in Xero post-conversion to reflect the appearance of the source file report.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
  1. If your Chart of Accounts contains over 700 accounts the Credit Cards and Paypal accounts will convert as bank accounts. This also applies to use of the “bulk upload” service currently available in the USA. If you need to change the account type in Xero please refer to these instructions.
  2. Please ensure that there are no duplicate names in the Chart of Accounts.
  3. If the Accounts associated with inventory items has been changed in the past it may restrict the amount of history that can be delivered.

Account Numbers

Account numbers are as per the source data file with the hyphen removed (if there was one). Account numbers are restricted to 10 characters in Xero, so will be truncated. If you have Account numbers longer than 10 digits you will need to edit them to 10 or less unique numbers.

The Xero account description is limited to a field length of 150 characters. Where the description exceeds Xero limits, it will be truncated with a number suffix.  Where there are no Account numbers in the source file we will fill in the Chart of Accounts with system generated numbers. You can then update in Xero post-conversion. 

Header Accounts

The Accounts in the Xero Chart of Accounts in Xero need to have a unique name. Often header and sub accounts can be the same e.g. 'Truck 1' is the header account with sub account 'Repairs and maintenance' then 'Truck 2' header account also has a sub account 'Repairs and maintenance'. To avoid issues in Xero we bring across the sub-account with the header account as a prefix. 

If you would like to address this:

Option 1 - Prior to Conversion - Delete the header accounts from the source software and make sure that the Chart of Account names are unique.

Option 2 - Post ConversionThe most efficient way to update this information is in bulk. This includes exporting the Chart of Accounts from Xero, updating the details and re-importing this information back into Xero.
Header accounts will come into Xero as another GL account and you may need to customise reports in Xero post-conversion to reflect the appearance of the source file report.

Bank accounts

Note that bank account numbers, including BSBs, do not convert and will need to be added in Xero following conversion.

Default Tax Codes

Default tax codes are reproduced per your original accounts as closely as possible. If the default tax codes were not set up then they will display as “BAS Excluded” in Xero. You can easily update the “default tax codes” in Xero in order to speed up the creation of invoices, bills, manual journals and the reconciliation process.
For more information, click on this link to Xero Help for changing default tax codes.

Report Codes

Report Codes are not matched into Xero. The report codes in MYOB & Reckon or other accounting systems do not match those available in Xero. A great method to standardize accounts and report codes is to use the premium option with the Custom COA. It supports report codes available to Advisors to provide customized financial reports as well as those who use Xero Tax and Xero HQ.

Once you have customised the chart of accounts please see the options for adding the report codes post-conversion:
Option 1: Review & Map accounts – Please see here for assistance
Option 2: Import Report codes – if you have used report codes in another organisation you export and import the report codes. Please see here for assistance.

Custom Change Your Chart of Accounts

Using a standard Chart of Accounts across all your Xero organisations works nicely to streamline your report packs and provide ready comparisons. However, getting there can be a pile of work if you import the Chart of Accounts as it is in the source file and tailor later in Xero.  The Custom Chart of Accounts premium service enables you to choose how the Chart of Accounts will appear in Xero. The full source file history will then present in Xero as though it had been run through this new Chart of Accounts.


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