Chart of accounts

The plane accountant is the whole of the rules of evaluation and behavior of the accounts which constitutes the standard of accountancy. The plan of accounts, i.e. the Liste of the numbered accounts is one of the elements of the chart of accounts. It is wrongly that the usual language often reduced the chart of accounts to the only plan of accounts.

The French chart of accounts includes/understands following divisions:

Titrate I: Object and principles of accountancy;

Contain II: Definition of the credits, passive, the products and the loads;

Contain III: Rules of accounting and evaluation;

Contain IV: Behavior, structure and operation of the accounts (the plan of accounts constitutes chapter III of title IV);

Titrate V: Summaries.

A plane of accounts is used by an economic actor (undertaken or natural person) within his countable system to record the economic and financial events according to a classification standardized in the respect of the countable Principes. It is a Norme of Classification of the accounts.

In France, the level of details required by the plan of accounts of the Chart of accounts is more or less large according to the size of the company, evaluated according to the total of the assessment, the Turnover and the manpower of the employees. The small companies use a plan of accounts says “shortened” (or “shortened system”), the larger companies use the plan of standard accounts and the large companies can use the plan of accounts “developed”. Very undertaken can choose to function with a plan of accounts more detailed than the minimum to which it is forced.

Each company declines according to its nature and its needs for analysis its own plan of accounts. It can (or must according to certain legislations) be pressed on a preestablished countable framework: countries like France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, the countries of Africa French-speaking and Eastern Europe use a national chart of accounts, commun run with all their companies; the majority of the other countries leave the free companies define their own plan of accounts.

Typology of the accounts

At least, five accounts are necessary to record the economic and financial events company:

Obviously, this strict minimum corresponds the needs of an economic actor who would have one type of product, one standard of expenditure, one customer and one supplier. In practice, very quickly, the need to create subcategories, subsidiary accounts, etc, are done day.

Structure of the plan of accounts

The plan of accounts included in the plane accountant French is preestablished and imposed on the local companies. Cut out in classes, accounts and subsidiary accounts, these elements are ordered according to classification decimal, i.e. one finds at the head the classes (a figure, from 1 to 9) then the principal accounts (with two digits of which the first represents the class), so on. It is enough to add a figure following an account to obtain a subsidiary account. For example:

Class 4 - Accounts of third

Subclass 40 - Suppliers

Account 408 - Suppliers, nonparvenu invoices

analytical Account 408/12 - nonparvenu Invoices of XXX limited liability company

Class 5 - financial Accounts

Subclass 51 - deposit accounts

Account 512 - Banks

analytical Account 512/1 - Bank account at analytical bank Xxxx
Account 512/2 - Bank account at the bank Yyyy

Analytical accounts

Certain computerized countable systems now make it possible to make follow the root of an account by alphanumerics. Ex: count 401 - Accounts and notes payable for trade, subsidiary accounts:

401ABC, supplier “ABC”
401ATENA, company “ATENA”
401…

Disadvantages

This system is relatively rigid: each class can contain only ten accounts, each account can contain only 10 subsidiary accounts (from 0 to 9).

At the European or world level, it misses a standardization. Thus when a company must consolidate accountancies of its subsidiary companies, it is necessary to draw up a table of correspondence of account on account, to see to create specialized analytical accounts since the French chart of accounts is not the same one as, for example, the Czech chart of accounts and than the correspondence between the accounts is never ideally established from one countable legislation to another. In this respect, the “Anglo-Saxon” system which leaves with each company the care to establish its own plan of accounts is preferable since a Multinationale could, in this case, to make adopt by all its subsidiary companies a plan of accounts common to all the countable units of the group, whatever its country of establishment.

Let us note however that with the development of data processing (see “Business package integrated”), the complexity of the supranational countable consolidation is largely facilitated by a double game of accounts on the level of the Filiale S: one national and legal when there exists, the different one intended for the needs for the consolidation of the Parent company.

Advantages

This hierarchical system allows:

to very easily incorporate homogeneous whole of operations (e.g. to know the balance of all the bank accounts, it is enough to consult the balance of account 512),
to multiply without sorrow the subdivisions (certain accountancies contain accounts with 10 digits)

The simple knowledge of certain rules of codings make it possible to rather easily find the desired account number.

The depreciation accounts generally contain one 8 in second position (28154 damping of the material and tools), the accounts reserves one 9 in second position (491 provision for depreciations of the clients' accounts, the accounts functioning in the opposite direction have one 9 in third position (409 debtor suppliers, 609 Handing-over obtained)

A knowledge of the shortened system is enough has to find an account easily.

For the Listener S or any third person charged to examine or give an opinion on accountancy, this system of legally imposed chart of accounts and for all the countable units of the country, allow considerable time-savings since it avoids having to discover and analyze the chart of accounts created ad hoc according to the accounting policies and to have to check of them compatibility with the laws and standards in force.

See too

Plane accountant (France)
Plane accountant (Morocco)
Plane accountant (OHADA)
Plane accountant (Swiss)

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