IFRS Chart of Accounts

The IASB (link) does not discuss the COA. To fill the void, we have been publishing an IFRS COA since 2010.

There is no shortage of COAs presented on various web pages or by various consultants.

For example, Googling "chart of accounts template" brings up a myriad of results:

The final two examples, German and French COAs, are prescribed by law. They are identical for every entity regardless of software vendor.

The remainder are from vendors in countries where law does not mandate a specific COA (which also explains why they are not particularly good).

Usually, a company's management may decide what works best and simply go with that.

Or they can simply use the default COAs supplied with small business software packages available in practically every country that can generate national GAAP financial statments together with an XML-tagged, tax return in seconds.

Engineering a fully IFRS compatible COA is overkill, like using a Fendt 1050 Vario to dig up a garden.

However, the freedom dissipates when a COA must be robust enough to conform to IFRS (link) recognition, measurement, and reporting requirements, particularly if the resulting report is to be submitted to an ESMA-supervised regulator, the FRC, ASIC, AFRC, etc.

As a general rule, only publicly traded entities have a formal obligation to apply IFRS or US GAAP guidance. As such, their accounting system must be robust enough to fulfill the extensive recognition and measurement guidance outlined in these standards.

Non-public entities in jurisdictions that do not mandate accounting practices have more flexibility and may elect to use any structure they choose. Nevertheless, a sound account structure will help any business, regardless of size, optimize its operational efficiency and fuel data-driven decision-making. Equally important, it allows the entity to fulfill the tax reporting obligation shared by all entities, regardless of size or ownership structure.

Since the IFRS SME standard is the backbone of accounting for all entities, COAs that reflect this guidance are useful to all but the smallest businesses.

As anyone who has ever started a business knows, starting a business is the easy part. Keeping it running smoothly and profitably is where the real challenge lies. To help those just starting out, this site publishes workable, basic COAs, that can be expanded as needed, free of charge. After all, every business that survives the startup phase makes the business community richer and more diverse so is in everyone's best interest.

The advanced version is suitable for a single, large entity as well as a group of entities. The expanded version is a multi-dimensional COA designed more complicated entities. The XBRL cross-referenced version is designed for publicly traded entities that face the task of drafting machine-readable financial reports required by some regulators.

A guide on how to set up the COA to serve various roles is presented on the implementation guidance page below.

Data can be loaded into an ERP in various ways (SQL, APIs, migration tools), but Excel remains the lingua franca of accounting, immediately understandable to virtually everyone. As illustrated on the implementation guide page (link), a COA may be flat or multidimensional, set up to handle multiple sub‑ledgers or to include additional metadata.

To simplify the process of creating an ERP training file, Pro view includes a Python script that illustrates how to generate a dynamic hierarchical COA from the Excel source file, with posting and summation accounts defined automatically and, more importantly, flexibly. It also includes a script to map the output to a balance sheet and P&L (also in Excel).

Additional guidance on how to implement a COA is provided on this page.

As outlined in IFRS 16.47.a.i, an ROU should be classified like the underlying asset if that asset were owned (unless the ROU is presented separately). Thus, the right to use, for example, a building, would be presented in PP&E while the right to use a patent would be intangible (below).

Thus an ROU associated with an underlying asset that is an item of PP&E, it should be recognized as PP&E.

Note: provided the right‑of‑use asset is recognised on the balance sheet, the guidance is flexible about how it is presented. For example, a leased building may be presented within the “Buildings” line item rather than on a separate “right‑of‑use asset” line, as long as the notes explain that the amount relates to a leased (right‑of‑use) building rather than an owned building. From an internal accounting perspective, the building could thus be posted either to the Buildings account with a metadata flag indicating that it is an ROU or to the ROU account with metadata describing the underlying asset as a building.

A right to use an asset is a contractual right. Thus, the right-to-use asset (ROU) is, strictly speaking, always intangible. Nevertheless, as outlined in IFRS 16.47.a.i, an ROU should be classified (unless it is presented separately) in the same way as the underlying asset if it were owned. Thus, an ROU of a building would be presented in PP&E (above) while an ROU of a patent would be presented here.

Note: provided the right‑of‑use asset is recognised on the balance sheet, the guidance is flexible about how it is presented. For example, a leased patent may be presented within the “Patents” group or as a standalone "Patent" rather than as a separate “right‑to‑use patent” item, as long as the notes explain that the amount relates to a leased (right‑of‑use) asset rather than an owned asset. From an internal accounting perspective, a patent could thus be posted either to the Patents account, with a metadata flag indicating that it is an ROU, or to an ROU account, with metadata describing the underlying asset as a patent.

While crypto assets have more in common with financial assets than intangible assets, the IFRIC (June 2019 agenda decision) concluded that typical cryptocurrencies meet the definition of an intangible asset under IAS 38, unless they are held for sale in the ordinary course of business, in which case IAS 2 (inventories) applies.

Not updated for 2026 reflecting the IASB decision to not update the 2025 XBRL taxonomy.

The COA published on this page may be republished provided the following citation is provided:

Source: https://www.ifrs-gaap.com/chart-accounts.