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Accounting

How to set up the Chart of Accounts

Version 1 · Updated 22 Jun 2026

How to set up the Chart of Accounts

1Open Accounting → Chart of Accounts. Accounts are organised into groups — Assets, Liabilities & Equity, Capital, Incomes and Expenses. Expand a group to see its ledgers and balances.
2Use Add Groups to create a new account group.
3Use Add Ledgers to add individual ledger accounts under a group.
How to set up the Chart of Accounts

Organise your Sacco’s accounts into groups and ledgers in CAMS.

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Summary

Build and organise your SACCO's ledger structure in the Chart of Accounts, where groups hold the ledgers that every transaction posts to.

You add groups to organise the tree, then add ledgers underneath them.

About 5 minutes · 7 steps.

Prerequisites

  • An admin login with access to the Accounting module.
  • A plan for your account structure — which groups and ledgers you need.
  • The opening balance for any ledger you want to start with a balance.

Step-by-step

  1. Sign in to CAMS Admin. If you are not sure how, see How to sign in and navigate CAMS Admin.
  2. In the left menu, open Accounting and click Chart of Accounts. You see the ledger tree — groups with their ledgers nested underneath — plus tabs for Entries, Ledger Entries, Asset Types and Reports.

Figure 1: The Chart of Accounts screen showing the ledger groups and ledgers tree with the Add Groups and Add Ledgers buttons and the Entries, Ledger Entries and Reports tabs

  1. To create a group, click Add Groups.

Figure 2: The Add Group form with the Group name field, Select parent group dropdown, and Group Code field

  1. Fill in the group:
  • Group name (required).
  • Select parent group if this group sits under an existing one. Leave it empty for a top-level group.
  • Group Code — your numbering for the group.
  1. Click Save. The group appears in the tree.
  2. To add a ledger, select its group and click Add Ledgers. Give the ledger a name, a unique code, its type (Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense), and an opening balance if it has one. Then click Save.
  3. Click any ledger to open it and see its transactions, balances and references.

Common pitfalls & FAQ

  • Group vs ledger. Groups only organise the tree. Ledgers are what transactions post to — you cannot post to a group.
  • The Save button is disabled. The group name is required. Fill it before saving.
  • Where do balances come from? A ledger's balance updates as transactions post to it. Set an opening balance when you create it if it should start with one.
  • It landed in the wrong place. Set the parent group when you add the ledger so it sits under the right group.

Also called: COA, ledgers, general ledger, account structure.