Earlier, we have learned about how we extract the balances of all the accounts in the general ledger to get the trial balance. Normally, the trial balance would have follow the company’s chart of accounts format to enable the bookkeeper to immediately prepare the financial statements namely the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet.
The chart of accounts looks very simple to set up. But in reality, it involves a lot of good planning and understanding of the particular company’s business for example the types of incomes/revenues and its various costs whether in terms of department and or cost centre. A good chart of accounts should be able to cater for the future growth of the business . (more…)