Chart of Accounts Setup Guide

You are setting up GadgetSphere’s chart of accounts in BigLedger for the first time, migrating from a previous accounting system. By the end of this guide, your first sales invoice will post without error and your opening trial balance will balance to the cent. Set aside about 45 minutes of focused time — that is enough to get the chart live, with room left to test a posting before lunch.

Setting up the chart, at a glance

1. Confirm the company carries one chart, and expect it to hold a built-in template of 200 codes. Do not create a second chart to start clean: it seeds another 200 (Step 1).
2. Leave the 19 GL Sections’ codes alone. A category under a section code the reports do not know never closes to profit and loss (Step 2).
3. Import your GL Categories with the exact section code on every row, then check the row flags: a bad code skips the row and the import still finishes (Step 3).
4. Check that every category sits under its section in the tree. A category with no section vanishes from the statements (Step 4).
5. Import your GL Codes with category codes, not names. A code that already exists is updated, not refused. A code can be renamed on the GL Code screen, but then it no longer matches the CSV you keep (Step 5).
6. Create a PRIMARY ledger and a Set of Books that holds it, before mapping defaults: a Set of Books with no ledger fails month-end, and a secondary ledger has no Opening Balance tab (Step 6).
7. Map the Default GL Codes, Output Tax to a liability and Input Tax to an asset. A missing mapping does not stop FINAL; the journal is left out, or posts without that line (Step 7).
8. Open the fiscal year. If you go live mid-year, set the months the old system managed to LOCK_TXN, which still lets you post opening-balance journals, but only once the migration’s documents dated in those months are final; avoid LOCK_ALL during setup (Step 8).
9. Key the opening balances, then post one test invoice on a service item and read its three journal lines, before e-invoicing is switched on; then void the test invoice (Step 9).

The setup runs across three pages: Step 1 here, Steps 2 to 5 on Categories and codes, and Steps 6 to 9 on Ledger, default GL codes and opening balances.

Meet GadgetSphere

GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian consumer electronics retailer with 22 branches across the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. You are doing this setup for GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd (company code GS) — the main retail company. Two sister companies, GadgetSphere Online (GSO) and GadgetSphere Distribution (GSD), will be added later, but you are starting with the operating retailer. You have around 5,200 stock-keeping units (SKUs), 28 cashbooks across three banks, Sales and Service Tax (SST) registration at 6%, and a finance manager who wants the chart ready by Friday so the next month-end posts cleanly.

Three concepts to know first

The three-level filing system — GL Section, GL Category, GL Code. Every transaction lands in a GL Code (the account, e.g. CASH-PRI-KV01). Every code lives inside a GL Category (e.g. Cash and Bank). Every category is linked to a GL Section (e.g. CurrentAssets), which is the line on your financial statements.

The sections are BigLedger’s, not yours. BigLedger ships 19 GL Sections with fixed codes, such as CurrentAssets and SalesRevenue, and month-end closing reads those codes to decide what is profit and loss: you may change a section’s display name, but never its code, and never invent a section of your own. Financial report structure › Which sections are P&L explains the rule; Step 2 lists the codes.

The system’s shortcuts — Default GL Codes. When you finalise a sales invoice, BigLedger does not ask “which account should this sale go to?” — it looks up the Default GL Codes mapping on the company record. You map each system role (trade debtors, sales, output SST, retained earnings and so on) to one of your GL Codes once, and the system uses it from then on.

The binder that holds your ledger — Set of Books. A Set of Books links one or more ledgers together for a reporting purpose, for example a statutory Set of Books for tax filing and a management one for internal profit and loss. Most single-entity setups start with one Set of Books containing one primary ledger.

Before you start

• The company GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd (code GS, currency MYR) exists in the Organisation applet. Creating a company there requires a chart of accounts, so whoever created GS either picked an existing chart or clicked + to create one coded DEFAULT — you will check which in Step 1.
• You know your fiscal year boundaries (1 January to 31 December for this example).
• You have your existing chart of accounts exported from the previous system as a spreadsheet, ready to convert to CSV.
• You have a one-page list of which GL Codes will play which system role (which one is trade debtors, which one is retained earnings, which one is output SST, and so on).
• The Chart of Account applet is installed for your user. There is no finer permission inside it — anyone who can open it can create codes, map Default GL Codes and change period locks — so it should be installed for the few people who own the books.
• You have agreed a GL Code naming convention with your finance manager. GadgetSphere uses mnemonic codes like CASH-PRI-KV01, SALES-SMARTPHONE, EXPENSE-RENTAL rather than numeric ranges. Every GL code carries two identifiers, the GL Code and the Account No. beside it, so a mnemonic code can still keep your accountant’s six-digit number in Account No. Numeric GL Codes (4100) work too, and suit an accountant trained on numbered charts; the cost is that a journal line or an import row then needs the name beside it before anyone can read it. Both are defensible, and neither is yet the recommended one; the Chart of Account applet page sets out what each costs. This guide uses mnemonic codes throughout.

Step 1: Confirm the company and the chart it carries

Master Data > Chart of Account Applet > Companies

Open the Chart of Account applet and click Companies in the sidebar. Every active company in the tenant is listed here, with or without a chart. Click GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd to open its Main tab and check five fields: Company Code (GS — read-only, it was fixed when the company was created), Company Name, Company Registration No. (your SSM number), Currency (MYR) and Chart of Account.

The Chart of Account field decides two things: which codes this company can post to, and whether the Default GL Codes tab appears at all — it renders only once a chart is assigned. If the field already shows a chart (typically DEFAULT), keep it; that is the chart you will build GadgetSphere’s codes into. If it is empty, click Chart of Account in the sidebar, click New, enter COA Code COA-GS and COA Name GadgetSphere Chart of Accounts, save, then come back to the company’s Main tab, pick COA-GS and Save.

Either way, here is the thing nobody tells you: creating a chart is not creating an empty chart. BigLedger seeds every new chart with a built-in template — 18 GL Sections (the nineteenth, Dividend, is already there from a platform update; see Step 2), 53 categories under them, and 200 GL Codes, each a word-like code with a six-digit account number beside it in Account No. (cashDraws with 110101 Cash Drawers, accReceivable with 110401, accPayable with 210101, purchases with 410201 and so on). Open GL Code in the sidebar and you will see them; the whole template, section by section, is listed on the applet page under The built-in template.

You have two honest choices: adopt the template codes and rename them to match your old chart, or build your own codes alongside and set the template codes you do not use to INACTIVE so they leave the GL Code listing and the journal-line drop-down (the GL Code picker on sales and purchase lines does not filter on status, so brief the Sales team on which codes are yours). GadgetSphere takes the second route, because the template’s codes (cashDraws, accReceivable) follow no convention its staff will recognise and a retailer with 28 bank accounts needs its own cash codes anyway.

Watch out: do not create a second chart “to start clean”. Each new chart seeds another 200 codes, and the sections are shared across charts anyway — the template reuses any section whose code already exists. One chart per company is the shape to keep.

Steps 2 to 9, in brief

Step 2: Learn the 19 GL Sections — and leave their codes alone

Leave the 19 GL Sections’ codes alone. A category under a section code the reports do not know never closes to profit and loss. (Step 2)

Step 3: Bulk import your GL Categories, each with its section

Import your GL Categories with the exact section code on every row, then check the row flags: a bad code skips the row and the import still finishes. (Step 3)

Step 4: Check the tree — every category under its section

Check that every category sits under its section in the tree. A category with no section vanishes from the statements. (Step 4)

Step 5: Bulk import your GL Codes

Import your GL Codes with category codes, not names. A code that already exists is updated, not refused. A code can be renamed on the GL Code screen, but then it no longer matches the CSV you keep. (Step 5)

Step 6: Create the primary ledger and Set of Books

Create a PRIMARY ledger and a Set of Books that holds it, before mapping defaults: a Set of Books with no ledger fails month-end, and a secondary ledger has no Opening Balance tab. (Step 6)

Step 7: Map the Default GL Codes

Map the Default GL Codes, Output Tax to a liability and Input Tax to an asset. A missing mapping does not stop FINAL; the journal is left out, or posts without that line. (Step 7)

Step 8: Open the fiscal year and set the period status

Open the fiscal year. If you go live mid-year, set the months the old system managed to LOCK_TXN, which still lets you post opening-balance journals, but only once the migration’s documents dated in those months are final; avoid LOCK_ALL during setup. (Step 8)

Step 9: Enter opening balances and post one test invoice

Key the opening balances, then post one test invoice on a service item and read its three journal lines, before e-invoicing is switched on; then void the test invoice. (Step 9)

What success looks like

Open Companies > GS > Ledgers > LED-GS-PRI > Opening Balance and open its Financial Report view for 31 December 2025. The Total Debit and Total Credit at the bottom match to the cent, every account of your old system’s trial balance is there except the cash, stock, debtors and creditors the migration posts by its own routes, and the balance sheet shows your SST payable under Current Liabilities and your capital under Share Capital — which proves the section links in Steps 3 and 4 are right.

Then open the Ledger and Journal applet and find the journal for the test invoice from Step 9: one debit row to your trade-debtor code and two credit rows — one to a sales code, one to your output SST code — summing to RM 1,060. If both are true, the chart is wired correctly and GadgetSphere can start invoicing. (The Financial Report applet’s own Trial Balance will show the same numbers once you have run Month End Processing for December 2025 and created a snapshot — see the Financial Reporting Guide.)

Common mistakes

The mistakes that belong to Steps 2 to 5 are on Categories and codes, and those for Steps 6 to 9 on Ledger, default GL codes and opening balances.

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