Different permutations of the same Chart of Accounts

Support Developer
1

In the Swiss SME chart of accounts, there are very minor differences for the different types of organization:

  • sole proprietor
  • company limited by shares (AG, Gmbh)
  • non-profit association / Verein
  • partnership

Is it necessary to provide a different module for each type of entity? Or is there a way to let the user choose the entity type and then they get the relevant accounts under the Equity account section?

All the asset, liability, revenue and expense accounts are identical for each entity. It is only in the Equity accounts that there are 2 or 3 variations.

2

I think multiple modules for one account_ch_* would be confusing.

I do not see why you can not create multiple charts of account templates inside the same module.

Then the company configuring their company can create a chart of accounts by selecting the appropriate chart of accounts template.

How you manage the data and avoid duplicating it between the chart of accounts is another matter.

3

If I remember correctly the Spanish chart of accounts had the same kind of issue. You might want to take a look at how they solved it.

4

Indeed it really depends of what are the variation. If it is just about accounts/types that are not used or used only for a kind of business. This can be merged into a single chart with those accounts closed and the business that needs them will just “unclose” them.
If it is more than that so as already stated it should probably managed with a common source XML that is transformed into multiple chart like account_es does.

5

Could you explain what is the variation? There are more accounts? They are reported on diferent types? There is the name of some accounts that changes?

For me if it’s just the name that change we should chose one and let the user change that name by overriding the template.

6

Please see the Equity accounts, code 28xx and 29xx in the Swiss Chart of Accounts.

This is the English version, it has two permutations, Limited Company and Sole Proprietor

The French version, here, also has Partnerships

Another possibility is the Swiss form of non-profit Association, this spreadsheet is an example in German.

In each of those documents, the only accounts that vary are the 28xx and 29xx accounts.

Please note they use the same account codes but they change the names of some accounts or they hide some of them.

Partnerships create extra copies of each account for each partner.

These patterns are similar for other countries too.

7

That was my guess.

So for be its better to use a single name for both accounts and let the user create the required sub accounts.

Are they reported under the same type? If not we should consider a diferent aproach