Bookkeeping
Chart of accounts design
Chart of accounts design for Saudi companies, built around your actual revenue streams and cost structure and split so the Saudi and GCC ownership share is visible apart from the non-Saudi share, lining up cleanly with ZATCA's Zakat and corporate tax treatment and IFRS categories at year end.
Bank reconciliation summary
Illustrative client · August 2026
SAR
| Account | Difference | Status | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating account··4821 | 184,220.16 | 184,220.16 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Reserve account··0937 | 60,000.00 | 60,000.00 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Company card··1006 | (12,418.52) | (12,418.52) | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Card processor clearing | 8,905.40 | 8,905.40 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Payroll clearing | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
Last weekly runFri 28 Aug, every account agreed to its statement.
Two open itemsTwo card receipts requested from you, marked on the card account until they arrive.
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Starting from how the business runs
A chart of accounts copied from a template usually forces unrelated costs into the same line and hides the categories an owner actually wants to see. We build the structure around your revenue streams and cost base, whether that is a single Riyadh trading company or a group with a MISA-licensed foreign subsidiary alongside a wholly Saudi-owned entity.
Splitting the ownership share from day one
Where a company has mixed Saudi/GCC and foreign ownership, the chart is built so the Zakat base on the Saudi and GCC share and the taxable income on the non-Saudi share can be pulled apart without reclassifying a year of transactions at filing time. That split is set up once, at the start, not reconstructed under deadline pressure.
Lining up with IFRS and Qawaem
The chart is mapped so year-end categories under IFRS, or IFRS for SMEs, as endorsed by SOCPA, fall out of the monthly management accounts naturally, ready for the Ministry of Commerce's Qawaem filing instead of being reclassified by hand at year end.
Moving without losing history
Where a chart already exists, we usually tidy and consolidate it rather than rebuilding from nothing. When a rebuild is the right call, we map every old account to its replacement so prior-period comparisons in QuickBooks Online or Xero still work after the change.
A guide for whoever codes transactions
You get a short reference showing what goes where, useful for a member of staff who codes expenses, or for us when monthly bookkeeping picks the file up. Groups with a Riyadh holding entity and operating subsidiaries in Jeddah or Dammam can extend the same structure to a consolidated view; ask us during onboarding.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Chart of accounts design
We already have a chart of accounts, will you rebuild it?
Only if it is genuinely holding back your reporting; more often we tidy and consolidate what is there.
Does the chart need to split Zakat and corporate tax categories even if we are wholly Saudi-owned?
Not in the same way. Once ownership is entirely Saudi or GCC, the whole base is assessed for Zakat, so the split matters most for mixed-ownership companies.
Will changing the chart break our historical reports?
No, we map old accounts to new ones so prior-period comparisons in QuickBooks Online or Xero keep working.
Can the chart of accounts change as the business grows?
Yes, a chart built for a five-person company will not fit the same business at fifty employees or with a second entity, so we review it when a real change in the business makes the existing structure too coarse.
We already have a chart of accounts. Do you rebuild it?
Only where it is genuinely holding back your reporting. Often we tidy and consolidate an existing chart rather than starting over.
Will a new chart of accounts break my historical reports?
No. We map old accounts to new ones so prior-period comparisons still work after the change.
Who reviews the work before it reaches us?
Every deliverable under chart of accounts design is reviewed by a senior reviewer before it reaches you. You keep access to the underlying file at every stage, so nothing about the work happens somewhere you cannot see it.
What is included in chart of accounts design?
Chart of accounts design covers a chart of accounts mapped to your revenue streams and cost structure and account numbering and naming that stays consistent as you grow. The exact scope is agreed and set out in writing before work starts, so you know precisely what is and is not covered before the first deliverable arrives.
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Industries
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Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.