Download Your Construction Chart of Accounts 2023

In the construction industry, you have a million things to track: various projects, materials, suppliers, employees, contractors, tools, bills, and more.

Now imagine that you need to find out what you bought for $2,932.32 last February at Home Depot… and why.

Perhaps your operations manager or worse, the IRS, needs to see all of the receipts in the business from May to November last year.

Are you going to hunt through a pile of receipts in your glovebox?

We hope not!

This is where your chart of accounts comes in.

In today’s blog, we’re going to go over what the chart of accounts is, why you need one (pssst.. see example above), and how to create a chart of accounts for your construction business.

Let’s dive in.

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What is a chart of accounts?

First things first, let’s discuss what a chart of accounts is.

An easy way to think about it is like a table of contents for your finances. It’s an ordered list of sections, or categories, for all of your transactions.

More often than not, it’s uploaded to your bookkeeping software (QuickBooks, Xero, etc.) to help organize all of your financial transactions.

With a chart of accounts, everything from an invoice to a utility bill is recorded into an appropriate category, making it easy for you to locate any piece of financial data at any time.

Here’s a sample of what that could look like for a construction chart of accounts:

Construction Costs
610 Materials
620 Labor
630 Subcontract
640 Equipment
690 Other

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Why is a chart of accounts important?

A chart of accounts is important because it provides consistency and accuracy in financial reporting.

Without it, your bookkeeping software will just become a vast pit of various transactions – aka your glovebox - with no order or organization to it at all.

Additionally, putting your transactions into designated categories helps you generate financial reports, and makes it easier to track and analyze financial trends.

Plus, it ensures compliance with accounting standards and regulations, which is essential for audits and financial reporting.

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How do you use your construction chart of accounts?

The chart of accounts is most commonly used in your bookkeeping or accounting software, and depending on which software tool you use, the process for uploading your chart of accounts will differ.

For QuickBooks, you can follow these instructions:

Sign in to QuickBooks Online.
Select Settings ⚙. Then select Import Data.
Select Chart of Accounts.
To upload a file from your computer, select Browse and choose the file. Then select Open.
Select Next.
Map your spreadsheet to QuickBooks fields
Import your chart of accounts

For Xero, you can follow these instructions.

Our advice? Make a copy of our COA template, customize it for your business, and upload it to your bookkeeping software. Voila!

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Download your construction chart of accounts template 2023

Download construction chart of accounts (COA)

While your construction business may be more complex than the average small business, the good news is that your chart of accounts doesn’t need to be.

To make it easy for you, we’ve made a template of the construction chart of accounts that we use with our clients.

Note: your chart of accounts should be unique to your company, and will vary depending on how you track your projects. To get help with your specific chart of accounts, you can reach out to our team anytime.