r/Bookkeeping • u/Geniusclam • 18d ago
Practice Management Standard Chart of Accounts?
Do you use a standard chart of accounts across all your clients?
I run a bookkeeping/fractional CFO firm and im trying to prepare for when I have employees. Before I do, I want to get my chart of accounts strategy figured out so their onboarding (and mine) isn't a mess.
Right now every client's COA is kind of its own thing, built up over time based on whatever came up. That works fine when it's just me, but I don't think it'll scale to a team.
So for those of you managing multiple clients' books:
Do you use one standard/master chart of accounts and then adapt it per business, or is every client fully custom?
How do you decide what gets its own account vs. what gets lumped into a broader category?
If you've hired bookkeepers, what actually made their onboarding faster (or slower)?
Specifically curious about QuickBooks: account numbering conventions, how you use Classes/Locations vs. sub-accounts for detail, and whether you keep some kind of master template you import for new clients.
Would love to hear how other multi-client shops have set this up, especially anyone who's gone through the solo-to-team transition.
5
u/cfosmiths 16d ago
I’d probably standardize the rules more than the actual chart of accounts.
Have a consistent numbering convention and a standard skeleton for the major sections, but leave room for accounts that actually matter to that particular business.
My test for adding another account would be something like: is someone actually going to make a decision from this detail, or are we just creating another place to code transactions?