What Is a Chart of Accounts? With EU and Lithuanian Template Examples

The chart of accounts is the list of every account a company's books can post to — the vocabulary of the ledger. Every entry in double-entry bookkeeping names accounts from this list and no other, so the chart decides what questions the books will ever be able to answer. Too coarse, and "administrative expenses" hides everything; too fine, and bookkeepers spend their days choosing between near-duplicates.

Structure: codes, types, hierarchy

A chart of accounts has three structural elements:

• Codes. Each account gets a number whose digits encode its place: in the Lithuanian chart, 2410 starts with 2 (current assets), sits under 24 (amounts receivable within one year), and is the trade receivables account. Codes make accounts sortable, groupable, and unambiguous across systems and languages.
• Types. Every account is an asset, liability, equity, income, or expense account. The type determines its normal balance (see debits and credits) and which statement it lands on: the first three build the balance sheet, the last two the profit and loss statement.
• Hierarchy. Accounts form a tree. Summary accounts (2 current assets, 24 receivables) exist for grouping and reporting; only leaf accounts are postable. Posting to a summary account is a classic data-quality bug — a good system refuses it outright.

One chart, many countries

There is no single EU-wide chart of accounts. The EU Accounting Directive (2013/34/EU) prescribes the statement layouts — what the balance sheet and P&L must show — but each member state decides how charts of accounts get there:

• France mandates a national chart (the Plan Comptable Général) — account numbers are fixed by regulation.
• Germany has no legal chart, but nearly everyone uses one of the standard frameworks (SKR03 or SKR04) popularized by the DATEV ecosystem.
• Lithuania publishes a recommended standard chart aligned with Lithuanian Business Accounting Standards (VAS). It is not compulsory account-by-account, but practice has converged on it: accountants, auditors and VMI all read those codes fluently.
• Elsewhere the pattern repeats: a national convention, sometimes binding, sometimes de facto.

The practical consequence: charts are a localization concern. Software that hard-codes one country's chart exports the wrong vocabulary everywhere else.

The Lithuanian standard chart, in outline

Six classes, one digit each:

Class	Contents	Type
1	Ilgalaikis turtas — non-current assets	Asset
2	Trumpalaikis turtas — current assets	Asset
3	Nuosavas kapitalas — equity	Equity
4	Mokėtinos sumos ir įsipareigojimai — liabilities	Liability
5	Pajamos — income	Income
6	Sąnaudos — expenses	Expense

A few working accounts from the middle of the tree:

Code	Name	What posts here
1220	Mašinos ir įranga	Equipment at cost
1229	Mašinų ir įrangos nusidėvėjimas (−)	Accumulated depreciation (contra)
2410	Pirkėjų skolos	Customer invoices — trade receivables
2441	Gautinas PVM	Input VAT on purchases
2710	Sąskaitos bankuose	Bank accounts
3420	Ataskaitinių metų pelnas (nuostoliai)	Current-year profit or loss
4430	Skolos tiekėjams	Supplier invoices — trade payables
4460	Mokėtinas darbo užmokestis	Net salaries payable
4492	Mokėtinas PVM	Output VAT owed to VMI
5001	Paslaugų pardavimo pajamos	Service revenue
6204	Darbo užmokesčio sąnaudos	Salary expense

Read a code and you know the statement line it feeds: everything under 1 and 2 is an asset line, 5 minus 6 is the period's profit before it rolls into 3420. This is the property a good chart optimizes for — the mapping from ledger to statutory statements becomes mechanical.

Designing and extending a chart

Rules of thumb that hold across countries:

1. Start from the national template, not from scratch. The template already matches the statutory statement layout and your accountant's expectations. Invent only where your business genuinely differs.
2. Add accounts for distinctions you report on, dimensions for everything else. Revenue by country or product line usually belongs in analytic dimensions (cost centers, projects), not in twenty near-identical revenue accounts.
3. Leave numbering gaps. 5000, 5001, 5200 — room to insert without renumbering.
4. Never repurpose an account. An account that meant "software subscriptions" until March and "consulting" after makes every year-over-year comparison silently wrong. Add a new account and stop posting to the old one.

The chart as an API object

In Nordlet the chart of accounts is data, not configuration files. A new company calls POST /v1/ledger/accounts/apply-template and receives the standard Lithuanian chart — codes, Lithuanian names, types, hierarchy and postability flags — ready to post to; POST /v1/ledger/accounts/create and /accounts/update extend it. Every account carries its type and isPostable flag, and the ledger API enforces both: entries naming a non-postable summary account or an unknown code are rejected. Reports — trial balance, financial statements — group by the same tree, so the statutory mapping stays mechanical. See getting started for where applying the template fits in company setup.

FAQ

What is a chart of accounts in simple terms?

The complete list of accounts a company's books may post to — each with a code, a name, and a type. It defines the vocabulary of the ledger: if a distinction isn't in the chart (or in an analytic dimension), the books can't express it.

Is there one standard chart of accounts for the EU?

No. The EU harmonizes financial-statement layouts, not account numbering. France mandates a national chart, Germany runs on de facto standards (SKR03/04), Lithuania publishes a recommended VAS-aligned chart that practice treats as standard.

What is the difference between postable and summary accounts?

Summary accounts exist to group and subtotal — class 2, group 24 — and entries never post to them directly. Postable accounts are the leaves of the tree where actual debits and credits land. Enforcing this in software keeps reports and postings from drifting apart.

How many accounts should a small company have?

Fewer than you think — the working set of a small services company is often 30–60 accounts. Add an account when you need the distinction in statements or tax filings; use cost centers or projects for management breakdowns.

Can I change my chart of accounts later?

You can add accounts freely and stop using old ones. Renaming or repurposing an account mid-history is the mistake to avoid — prior-period comparisons keep the account's balance but lose its meaning. Add new, deprecate old.