Add an account to your chart of accounts

Add, rename or deactivate the income, expense, asset, liability and equity accounts your books post to, and read any account's register.

In the sidebar, open Bookkeeping, then Accounting, then Chart of Accounts. The page address is /bookkeeping/chart-of-accounts. A new account opens at /bookkeeping/chart-of-accounts/new.

Before you start

• Setting up bookkeeping gives you a full chart for your country (see Set up bookkeeping). Add an account only when nothing in the list fits, for example a new line of work you want to track on its own.
• Your role needs permission to manage the chart of accounts to add, rename or deactivate an account. Read permission lets you browse and open registers.

Steps

1. Press New account. The New account window opens.
2. Type the New account name, for example Subcontractors.
3. Under Type, choose Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income or Expenses. It starts on Expenses, which is what most new accounts are.
4. Press Add account. It stays greyed out until the name is filled in. Nova shows Account added., closes the window and gives the account the next free code in its type's range (expenses are 6000s, income 4000s, assets 1000s).

What you see

• The list shows each account's Code (which you can copy), Name, Class, Type, Normal balance side (debit or credit) and Status (active or inactive). Accounts Nova manages itself show (system) after the name.
• Click a row, or choose Open / ledger from its actions menu, to open the account. The window title is the code and name. Under Register you see an Opening balance row, then every posting, oldest first, with its Debit, Credit and a running Balance. The running balance adds debits and subtracts credits, so liability, equity and income accounts usually show a negative number.
• Filters narrows the list by Class; the search box matches code or name.
• Opening balances at the top opens the start-of-books entry; see Enter opening balances.

If something looks different

• New account is missing: your role cannot manage the chart of accounts.
• Nova shows an error that an account code already exists: the next code in that type's range is taken. Choosing a different name does not change the code, so ask your admin.
• You want to rename an account: open it, change the Name and press Save name. Nova shows Account renamed.
• You no longer use an account: open it and press Deactivate, then press Deactivate again in Deactivate account?. Its Status reads inactive and its history is kept. The confirmation says it is hidden from new transactions, but today it still shows in the category and account pickers elsewhere; it only drops out of the Opening balances window. Press Activate to bring it back; that needs no confirmation.
• The rename and status controls are missing and the window says it is a system account: Nova manages that account's name and status automatically. System accounts cannot be deactivated.
• The list reads that there are no accounts and to set up bookkeeping from the overview: bookkeeping has not been set up yet.

Open Chart of Accounts