Chart of Accounts
Every transaction in neoo posts to one or more of the accounts defined here, which makes the Chart of Accounts the one piece of setup everything else leans on. A complete chart is seeded from a template when your dataset is created, so day to day you’ll mostly fine-tune it: add an account for a new kind of expense, close accounts you don’t use, or tag accounts with dashboard categories. Go to System → Chart Of Accounts → List Accounts to review and manage your accounts. (The list, Add Account, GIFI, and Categories screens each require their own chart permission — a colleague missing one simply doesn’t see that menu entry.)
The chart your dataset started from
neoo ships two Swiss charts, and every dataset is created from one of them. Which one you got follows from how you settle VAT with the tax authority — it isn’t a matter of taste:
- NEO-Corporate-Effective — for the effective method: you charge VAT on your sales, reclaim the input VAT (Vorsteuer) you were charged on your purchases, and pay the difference.
- NEO-Corporate-Saldo — for the Swiss Saldo (flat-rate) method: you still invoice your customers at the normal rates, but settle at a reduced flat rate on your turnover and don’t reclaim input VAT.
Both charts share the same Swiss structure, numbering, currencies and VAT rates, but each carries only the VAT accounts its method needs. The Saldo chart adds the flat-rate accounts — 3802 MWST Saldosteuer, 2201 Abrechnungskto. MwSt., 6730 Bezugsteuer and revenue-side VAT accounts (34970–34990), among others — and leaves out the input-VAT (Vorsteuer) accounts and the effective output-VAT accounts, which only the effective chart has. The Saldo chart also presets the dataset to the Saldo method, so the flat-rate tax is booked for you every time revenue is posted.
That preset is the VAT Method setting, and you can see or change it under Defaults → Accounting. Changing the method there doesn’t add or remove any accounts, so a dataset started on the effective chart and later switched to Saldo needs its Saldo accounts created by hand first. If your VAT arrangement changes, that’s the order: accounts first, then the setting.
Chart language
Both charts ship in German and English, and the language is picked when the dataset is created. It only changes the wording of the account names and headings — the account numbers, the VAT rates and the structure are identical in both, so reports and postings behave the same either way.
The chart language is written into the accounts themselves, which means it cannot be switched automatically after the dataset exists. Changing an existing dataset over means renaming the accounts by hand. Pick the language your bookkeeping is done in when you create the dataset.
It’s also separate from the Template Language chosen at the same time. That one controls the wording of invoices and other documents you send out, and it can be changed again at any time — it is the Default language field under Defaults — so an English chart with German invoices, or the other way round, is a perfectly normal setup.
The account list
The list shows every account and heading in your chart:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Account | The account number. Click it to open the account editor. |
| Parent | The heading or account this account is grouped under in reports. |
| GIFI | An alternative grouping code for reports — in the standard charts, the Swiss KMU account group the account belongs to. |
| Description | The account name. |
| Type | Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, or Expense — or blank for headings. |
| Drop-down | Where the account is offered in entry forms (see Include in drop-down menus below). |
| Closed | Marked when the account is closed and hidden from data entry. |
| Detail | A longer description of what belongs on the account. |
| Categories | The dashboard category tags assigned to the account, with a quick-add button per row. |
Use the Export button to download the list to Excel, or Print to open a print-friendly view in your browser’s print dialog — save as PDF from there if you need a file.
Adding an account
New accounts are created under System → Chart Of Accounts → Add Account — the list page itself has no add button.
Chart Type — Heading or Account
The Chart Type radio decides what you are creating:
- Heading — a structural row that groups the accounts beneath it in the chart, the income statement, and the balance sheet. Headings organise; they never receive transactions.
- Account — a real account that transactions post to. Only accounts get an account type, summary flags, and drop-down assignments.
Account fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Account Number | Must be unique. Use a numbering scheme consistent with the rest of your chart. |
| Description | Plain-language name (e.g. Trade Accounts Receivable). |
| Account Type | Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, or Expense. Determines where the account appears in financial reports: the first three build the balance sheet, the last two the income statement. |
| Parent Account | The heading (or account) this account is grouped under. Each account has one direct parent. |
| Contra | Marks a contra account (e.g. accumulated depreciation) whose balance runs against its group in reports. |
| Allow GL? | Untick to keep the account out of the account pickers on journal-entry screens; it stays available everywhere else. The GL counterpart to the drop-down checkboxes below. |
| GIFI | The account group the account is grouped under when a report is switched to GIFI mode — see GIFI codes. |
| Detail | A longer description of what belongs on the account — helpful for colleagues and for the AI when it picks accounts. |
| Categories | The dashboard category tags for the account — see Categories. |
| Closed | Marks the account inactive; see Closing an account. |
Summary accounts
The Summary Account checkboxes — AR, AP, and Inventory — mark an account as a control account: the single balance-sheet account that collects the total of an entire sub-ledger. The AR summary account carries the total of all open customer invoices, the AP summary the total of all open vendor bills. Postings arrive there automatically when you post invoices — you never book to a summary account by hand.
Your chart template normally already designates one summary account per role; only change this if you know your chart needs restructuring.
Include in drop-down menus
This section (shown only when Chart Type is Account) controls where the account is offered when people enter data. An account only appears in a form’s selector if the matching box is ticked here — so these checkboxes are the answer to “why can’t I pick this account on that screen?”.
| Column | Options | Makes the account selectable as… |
|---|---|---|
| AR | Lineitem, Payment, Discount, Tax | …an income line, payment account, discount account, or tax account on customer (AR) transactions and invoices. |
| AP | Lineitem, Payment, Discount, Tax | …an expense line, payment account, discount account, or tax account on vendor (AP) transactions and invoices. |
| Tracking | Income, COGS, Tax | …an income, cost, or tax account on tracked items in the service catalogue. |
| Non-tracking Items | Income, Expense, Tax | …an income, expense, or tax account on non-tracked services. |
The form enforces a few exclusivity rules when you save: an account can hold only one role within the AR column and one within the AP column, carry at most one of the AR/AP/Inventory summary flags, and a summary account cannot also have drop-down assignments.
Two assignments matter beyond ordinary data entry:
- An account with a Payment tick is treated as a payment account — that is what makes it appear on the Bank Accounts page, where you attach its IBAN and QR details.
- An account with a Tax tick becomes configurable on the Taxes page, where you set its rate.
The Non-tracking Items column is what your service catalogue reads. A tax account needs Non-tracking Items → Tax to be offered on a service and AR → Tax to be offered on a customer — two different ticks on the same account, and a rate is only charged when both sides have it. That asymmetry is the usual reason VAT goes missing from an invoice.
Editing an account
Click any account number in the list to open the editor. The dialog offers Cancel, Delete, Save As New (create a new account with these settings), and Save.
- Delete is only available while the account is unused — no transactions, no references from services or defaults, and no accounts grouped under it. Once anything points at the account, close it instead.
- Once an account has transactions (or is referenced by a service or a default), its structural fields lock: the editor tells you account type, chart type and summary are locked because this account has transactions, and the drop-down assignments lock with them. You can still rename it, edit its Detail, GIFI and categories, and close it.
Closing an account
Check Closed and save. The account stops being offered in the account selectors on entry screens — invoices, AR/AP transactions, and journal entries. All existing transactions and report history remain intact, and you can reopen the account at any time by unchecking Closed.
GIFI codes — grouping reports by account class
Every account can carry a GIFI code — despite the legacy name, in the standard Swiss charts these codes are the Swiss KMU account groups: the classes (Aktiven, Passiven, Personalaufwand, and so on) and their sub-groups (Flüssige Mittel, Verwaltungsaufwand, …). They give the Balance Sheet and Income Statement a second way to group: tick GIFI on either report and it regroups by account group instead of the account hierarchy — a compact, classification-level view of the same numbers.
The codes themselves are managed under System → Chart Of Accounts → GIFI; which code an account belongs to is set in the GIFI field of the account editor. The seeded codes already match the standard charts, so most datasets never need this screen — it matters only if you add accounts that should appear under a class, or restructure the classification itself.
A GIFI code that is still assigned to accounts cannot be deleted — neoo refuses and tells you how many accounts use it. Reassign those accounts to another code first.
Categories — powering the dashboard
Categories are tags on accounts that the dashboard widgets are built from: the KPIs, charts, and breakdowns on your dashboard group amounts by chart category. They are a separate dimension from the parent structure and never affect the journal, income statement, or balance sheet — but if an account carries no category, its numbers are missing from the widgets that rely on them, so keep new accounts tagged.
An account can belong to multiple categories, and an account saved without any is given its parent heading’s category. Use the quick-add button in the Categories column of the list (Add or edit categories) to adjust a single account’s tags on the spot.
The category tags themselves are managed under System → Chart Of Accounts → Categories. The screen shows them as a collapsible tree — categories can nest inside other categories, and each one lists the accounts it covers, so you can see at a glance which accounts feed a given widget. Click a category to rename or delete it, or use Add New for a new tag. A default set of categories is created automatically for new datasets, so you’ll usually be refining rather than starting from scratch.