Set Up Chart of Accounts

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Zuora's chart of accounts contains the accounting codes used to categorize your Zuora transactions for accounting purposes. In accounting terms, these codes identify the account affected by a transaction, such as Accounts Receivable or Cash. In fact, many of our customers simply use their GL account names for Zuora accounting codes.

Using accounting codes to group transactions within reports makes it easy to generate reports on the various categories of financial activity. One typical purpose of such reports is to produce totals to use for summary journal entries in an accounting system.

Not everyone uses accounting codes in exactly the same way. For instance, some use the same accounting code for payments and refunds, so that when you total the transactions for that accounting code you get a single net payment amount. Others prefer to use separate accounting codes so that they can keep separate totals for payments and refunds.

Once the accounting codes are in use, there are strict limitations on the changes you can make. We strongly recommend that the company CFO or Controller participate in the planning of your Finance configuration.

Supported Fields

The Zuora chart of accounts includes the following fields:

Field	Description	Finance note
Name	Required. Name of the accounting code. Once this code is used in a transaction, the name cannot be changed. Note that duplicate accounting code names are not allowed.	All tenants
Notes	Optional text field for notes about the account.	All tenants
Type	The account type, such as Assets, Accounts Receivable, Cash, and so on. The Type can be changed at a later time unless it is `Accounts Receivable`. Note: It is suggested to use the `On-Account Receivable` accounting code type as a credit memo On-Account accounting code if you enable the Advanced AR Settlement feature. The Invoice Settlement feature is generally available as of Zuora Billing Release 296 (March 2021). This feature includes Unapplied Payments, Credit and Debit Memos, and Invoice Item Settlement. If you want to have access to the feature, see Invoice Settlement Enablement and Checklist Guide for more information. After Invoice Settlement is enabled, the Invoice Item Adjustment feature will be deprecated for your tenant.	All tenants
GL Account Name	Optional. The name of the corresponding account in your general ledger accounting system.	Finance only
GL Account Number	Optional. The number of the corresponding account in your general ledger accounting system.	Finance only

Pre-populated Accounting Code Values

Your chart of accounts is pre-loaded by default with typical accounting codes that work well for many companies.

We recommend that you review your chart of accounts, add any new accounts you know you will need, and consider deactivating any accounts that you will not be using in the future.

Chart of Accounts

You can view a list of your accounting codes on the Chart of Accounts page. You can access your Chart of Accounts by navigating to Finance Settings > Manage Chart of Accounts.

Page Features

The list view displays the accounting codes in a table format, showing their Name, Type, and Active status. Page features include:

Sort the list by clicking the headings for Accounting Code Name or Active. Default sort is by Name, within Type, within Active.
Navigate through multiple pages (if they exist) by selecting a page number or clicking the left and right arrows at the bottom right.
Filter the accounting codes by selecting a Category from the View box at the top right.
Create a new accounting code by clicking the green new accounting code button. Details are shown in a separate section below.
Edit an accounting code by clicking Edit. Details are shown in a separate section below.
Change an accounting code status by clicking Activate or Deactivate. Details are shown in a separate section below.

Create an Accounting Code

From the chart of accounts list view, click the new accounting code button and it takes you to the Create Accounting Code page.

Page Features

This page allows you to create a new accounting code.

Page features include:

The Name field is required and is highlighted with a green bar if it can be edited. The name must be unique within the selected Type. Once the accounting code is used in a transaction, the name cannot be changed.
Type is a drop-down list populated with a standard set of high-level accounting codes.
Note is an optional free-form text field.

To save the new accounting code, click the create accounting code button at the bottom.

Once you create an accounting code, it cannot be deleted.

Edit an Accounting Code

From the chart of accounts list view, click the Edit button and it takes you to the Edit Accounting Code page.

Page Features

This page allows you to edit an accounting code. Page features include:

Required fields (Name and Type) are highlighted with a green bar if they can be edited.
Name must be unique within the selected Type. Once the accounting code is used in a transaction, the name cannot be changed.
Type is a drop-down list populated with a standard set of high-level accounting codes.
Note is an optional free-form text field.

To save the new accounting code, click the save changes button at the bottom.

Activate or Deactivate an Accounting Code

To activate or deactivate an accounting code, click Activate or Deactivate in the Actions column to the right of the accounting code. Active accounting codes show a check mark in the Active column.

You cannot deactivate an accounting code that is assigned to one or more transaction types. For more information about assigning accounting codes to transaction types, see Assign Accounting Codes.

Delete an Accounting Code

To delete an accounting code, click Delete in the Actions column.

You must have the Delete Unused Accounting Code Finance permission in order to delete an accounting code. You can only delete accounting codes that have never been associated with any transactions. An accounting code must be deactivated before you can delete it.

You can also delete an accounting code using the SOAP API. See AccountingCode for more information.

Next Steps

Having tailored the chart of accounts to your satisfaction, the next steps are:

Assign accounting codes from the chart of accounts to the appropriate transactions.
Use accounting codes with all your transactions for an entire accounting period (or retroactively apply them to transactions in an open period).

At that point, you'll have the data you need to close the accounting period and export your summary revenue data.