Chart of Accounts for a Ugandan Small Business

The short answer

A chart of accounts is the numbered list of every account a business’s books run on, grouped under five headings: assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses. A Ugandan shop, restaurant, school or service firm needs roughly 25 to 40 of these accounts to work properly, and the four most commonly missing from an out-of-the-box pos-system or accounting system are a separate mobile money float account, a mobile money transaction charges expense account, an owner’s drawings account, and the URA payables (PAYE, VAT, withholding tax, provisional tax) that apply to the business.

Assets and liabilities feed the balance sheet. Income and expenses feed the profit and loss account. Equity sits between the two: it is what is left for the owner once every asset and liability is accounted for, and it must always balance, assets equals liabilities plus equity. Set the codes once, load them into a POS or accounting system, and every sale, purchase and expense from then on posts itself to the right line without extra work at month end. This page is a bookkeeping reference, not tax advice: for a ruling on how a specific transaction should be treated, confirm with URA or a tax adviser.

The five groups of a chart of accounts

Every account in the business’s books sits under one of five groups. Most systems number them in blocks so the group is obvious from the code: 1000s for assets, 2000s for liabilities, 3000s for equity, 4000s for income and 5000s to 6900 for expenses. This numbering is a common convention, not a legal requirement, and a business can keep its own as long as it stays consistent.

• Assets, what the business owns or is owed: cash, bank, mobile money float, stock, equipment, money customers owe it.
• Liabilities, what the business owes: suppliers, NSSF, PAYE, VAT, loans.
• Equity, what is left for the owner: capital put in, drawings taken out, and retained profit.
• Income, money earned: cash sales, mobile money sales, credit sales, other income.
• Expenses, money spent to earn that income: cost of goods sold, rent, salaries, fuel, airtime, mobile money charges.

The table below shows where each group lands once the month’s books are closed.

A chart of accounts example: the accounts a shop, restaurant, school or service firm actually needs

This is a working chart of accounts a small or medium Ugandan business can copy and adapt. Delete what does not apply, a service firm has no inventory account, for example, and add trade-specific lines as needed. The account code is just a label: what matters is that the same code is used every time that type of transaction happens.

1000s: assets

1. 1000 Cash in hand (the till)
2. 1010 Bank account, current
3. 1020 Mobile money float (MTN MoMo / Airtel Money)
4. 1030 Petty cash
5. 1100 Trade receivables (customers who owe the business)
6. 1200 Inventory / stock
7. 1300 Prepaid expenses (rent paid in advance, for example)
8. 1400 Furniture and fittings
9. 1410 Equipment (POS devices, fridges, machinery)
10. 1420 Motor vehicles
11. 1490 Accumulated depreciation

2000s: liabilities

1. 2000 Trade payables (suppliers the business owes)
2. 2010 Accrued expenses (unpaid rent, utilities)
3. 2100 NSSF payable (employer and employee contributions)
4. 2110 PAYE payable
5. 2120 VAT payable / VAT control account, once VAT registered
6. 2130 Withholding tax (WHT) payable
7. 2140 Provisional or presumptive income tax payable to URA
8. 2200 Short-term loans / overdraft
9. 2300 Long-term loans

3000s: equity

1. 3000 Owner’s capital
2. 3010 Owner’s drawings
3. 3020 Retained earnings

4000s: income

1. 4000 Sales revenue, cash
2. 4010 Sales revenue, mobile money
3. 4020 Sales revenue, credit / on account
4. 4100 Sales returns and allowances
5. 4200 Other income (commissions, rent received)
6. 4300 Interest income

5000s to 6900: expenses

1. 5000 Cost of goods sold / purchases
2. 5010 Freight and transport inwards
3. 6000 Rent and rates
4. 6010 Salaries and wages
5. 6020 NSSF employer contribution expense
6. 6030 Staff welfare and medical
7. 6100 Electricity and water
8. 6110 Airtime and internet data
9. 6120 Fuel and transport
10. 6130 Mobile money transaction and withdrawal charges
11. 6140 Bank charges
12. 6150 Repairs and maintenance
13. 6160 Stationery and office supplies
14. 6170 Marketing and advertising
15. 6180 Insurance
16. 6190 Professional fees (accounting, legal, audit)
17. 6200 URA fees, fines and penalties
18. 6210 Depreciation expense
19. 6220 Bad debts written off
20. 6900 Miscellaneous / sundry expenses, kept small

Two of these are the ones hand-kept books and basic POS setups miss most often: 1020 mobile money float and 6130 mobile money transaction charges. Add both even if the rest of the list stays short, because mobile money fees are a real, recurring cost that otherwise disappears into “miscellaneous”.

How to code mobile money charges, fuel, rent, airtime, salaries and URA payments

These six cost lines cause most of the confusion in a Ugandan small business’s books, so code them the same way every time.

• Mobile money charges (6130): the fee MTN MoMo or Airtel Money deducts on a deposit, withdrawal or merchant payment. Post it as an expense separate from the sale itself, never netted off the sales figure.
• Fuel (6120): fuel for delivery vehicles or a generator. Keep it separate from repairs and maintenance (6150) so the owner can see the real running cost of transport.
• Rent (6000): the business premises only. Rent paid in advance for a future month sits in prepaid expenses (1300) until the month it covers arrives, then moves to 6000.
• Airtime and data (6110): business lines and data bundles. This is one of the accounts most systems do not create by default, so it gets lumped into “miscellaneous” unless someone adds it.
• Salaries (6010): net pay to staff. The employer’s NSSF contribution is a separate expense (6020), and both the employer and employee NSSF amounts due but not yet remitted sit in NSSF payable (2100) until they are paid over.
• URA payments: split by type rather than lumped together. PAYE deducted from staff sits in PAYE payable (2110) until remitted. VAT collected sits in VAT payable (2120), relevant only once the business is VAT registered, see vat-in-uganda-guide. Provisional or presumptive tax sits in 2140. Any penalty for late filing or payment is its own expense line, 6200, so the owner can see what late filing actually costs rather than it hiding inside normal tax expense.

Whether a specific payment is VAT-able, PAYE-able or subject to withholding tax is a tax question, not a bookkeeping one. The chart of accounts records the transaction correctly once the treatment is known. For the treatment itself, check do-i-need-efris or confirm with URA.

How the codes roll up into the profit and loss account and balance sheet

The five groups are not just a filing system, they are how the two main statements are built. A worked one-month example for a small Ugandan retail business, September 2026, in UGX, shows the mechanics.

Income accounts (4000s) minus cost of goods sold (5000) gave a gross profit of UGX 4,800,000 on sales of UGX 12,000,000, a 40% gross margin. Subtracting the operating expense accounts (6000s), UGX 3,560,000 in total, gave a net profit before tax of UGX 1,240,000, and UGX 1,090,000 after an accrued tax charge, a 9.08% net margin. That net profit is what moves into retained earnings (3020) in the equity section.

On the balance sheet side, closing assets (1000s) of UGX 16,840,000 less closing liabilities (2000s) of UGX 4,450,000 equal closing equity of UGX 12,390,000, made up of owner’s capital plus the retained earnings the profit and loss account just calculated. Assets always equal liabilities plus equity: if they do not, an account has been coded to the wrong place. See a full line-by-line version of both statements, plus the cash flow statement, in financial-statements-explained-uganda. To check a month’s own numbers against this pattern, the free business-profit-calculator-uganda does the gross and net margin maths without a spreadsheet.

Set this up first, in this order

The basics come first, and they are not free even where they feel like they should be. Registering a business name with URSB costs UGX 90,000 officially, UGX 35,000 to reserve the name plus UGX 55,000 to register it, checked September 2026, and a private company costs UGX 105,000 plus 0.5% stamp duty on nominal share capital up to UGX 5,000,000. Many agents charge several times the official fee for the same online form. A TIN is free from URA. A trading licence from KCCA or the local council depends on the trade and the grade of the business area, for example a small shop runs UGX 31,500 to 210,000 a year and a restaurant UGX 36,000 to 187,500 a year, figures checked September 2026. After that, the genuinely free habits matter as much as any registration: keep business money separate from personal money, the drawings account, 3010, above exists for exactly this, a daily sales and expense record, WhatsApp Business with a catalogue, and a Google Business Profile so the business shows on Maps, free to claim, though most owners still pay someone to set it up. See how-to-add-business-to-google-maps-uganda.

Once there is stock that can walk, staff on the till, or more than a handful of sales a day, this chart of accounts earns its keep inside a system rather than on paper. Growth Informer Business, our own cloud POS, inventory and business-management platform, runs sales, stock, purchases and expenses from a phone and issues URA EFRIS e-receipts and e-invoices today, with EFRIS switched on when URA requires it and left off until then. See pos-system. Most systems create some of these accounts by default, cash, bank, receivables, payables, inventory, sales, cost of goods sold, rent, salaries and bank charges, and miss the same four every time: the mobile money float account, mobile money transaction charges, owner's drawings, and whichever URA payables apply to the business. We can show it running with this chart of accounts already coded in before a business commits to anything.

Once customers look the business up before they come, or the business sells past walk-ins, a website earns its place. See how-to-create-a-business-website-uganda for what one costs and takes, with a monthly care plan at if the business wants it kept running. When the bookkeeping or reporting workflow is one no ready-made system handles, that is a custom build, priced with once it has been scoped.

When a penalty, assessment or EFRIS or VAT deadline is already live, that is a tax question, not a chart of accounts one. See efris-uganda-guide or vat-and-efris-disputes-uganda for what to do first.

Bookkeeping mistakes a clean chart of accounts stops

The single most common bookkeeping mistake in small Ugandan businesses is mixing owner and business money: paying personal expenses (school fees, family shopping, rent at home) straight out of the till or the business mobile money line without recording it as drawings (3010). That makes the recorded profit meaningless and makes it impossible to tell whether the business is actually viable.

Other mistakes a clean chart of accounts and a daily routine stop: no petty cash vouchers, so cash disappears with no trail; inventory never physically counted, so the stock figure on the books drifts from what is actually on the shelf; sales not recorded until the money is banked, which makes credit sales and debts owed to the business vanish from the records; and books only updated once a month from memory instead of daily, which guarantees errors and omissions.

A simple month-end routine catches most of this: reconcile cash, bank and mobile money to statements and counts, post the sales and purchases day books, count physical stock against the book figure, review who owes the business and who it owes, post NSSF and payroll deductions due, check what is due to URA in the coming days, then produce a one-page profit and loss and balance sheet before moving to the next month. See the daily habits that feed this in business-record-keeping-uganda and a fuller walkthrough of setting the books up from nothing in bookkeeping-for-small-business-uganda.

When to bring in a bookkeeper, accountant or auditor

Most sole proprietors and small partnerships in Uganda are not legally required to prepare IFRS-compliant financial statements; that requirement is built around companies and around entities with public accountability (listed companies, financial institutions, government-invested companies). In practice, even among companies that could apply the simpler IFRS for SMEs Standard, one academic study found only 35% fully apply it, 54% apply it partially and 11% do not apply it at all, so plenty of businesses are running from an incomplete chart of accounts today.

A limited company is a different matter: the Companies Act, 2012 requires every company to keep proper books of account and to have its accounts audited, there is no small-company exemption, and tax records generally must be kept for 5 years after the tax period they relate to under the Tax Procedures Code Act, longer if a URA audit, objection or appeal on that record is still open. None of this is a ruling on any specific business’s position: confirm what applies to a specific company with URA, URSB or a licensed accountant.

Growth Informer Software Services is registered with URA as a tax agent. If this is live for the business right now, a penalty has landed, URA has asked for records, or a VAT or EFRIS deadline is only days away, first read the notice for the exact deadline and what URA is asking for, and keep the records it names ready. If it needs a second opinion or someone to represent the business, WhatsApp +256 702 946 946 with what URA has sent; we reply within 6 hours and set up a meeting for the next day, and we quote after seeing it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a chart of accounts for a small business?

It is the numbered list of every account a business’s books use, split into five groups: assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses. A Ugandan shop or service firm typically needs 25 to 40 accounts, most importantly a mobile money float account, a mobile money charges account and an owner’s drawings account, which basic setups often miss.

What is a chart of accounts example I can copy?

See the full numbered list on this page, organised by group: assets 1000 to 1490, liabilities 2000 to 2300, equity 3000 to 3020, income 4000 to 4300, and expenses 5000 to 6900. Delete what does not apply and add trade-specific lines, for example a table service charge account for a restaurant.

How do account codes work?

The code is a short number that groups similar transactions together so reports add up correctly. Most Ugandan systems follow the same convention: 1000s for assets, 2000s for liabilities, 3000s for equity, 4000s for income and 5000s to 6900 for expenses. It is a convention, not a legal requirement, so a business can use its own numbering as long as it is consistent.

What are the main bookkeeping categories?

The five groups are the categories: assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses. Under each sits the specific accounts. The cash book, sales day book and purchases day book feed these categories daily, and the month-end close rolls them into the profit and loss account and balance sheet.

What expense categories should a small business use?

At minimum: cost of goods sold, rent, salaries, NSSF employer contribution, electricity and water, airtime and data, fuel, mobile money transaction charges, bank charges, repairs, stationery, marketing, professional fees, URA fees and penalties, and depreciation. Mobile money charges and airtime are the two most often left out and end up buried in miscellaneous.

Can Growth Informer Business be set up with this chart of accounts?

Yes. Growth Informer Business, our cloud POS and inventory platform, is and can be configured with this chart, including the mobile money and URA accounts most systems miss, with EFRIS switched on when you need it. WhatsApp +256 702 946 946 and we can show it running before you commit.