Electrician chart of accounts
An electrician's books are built from many small jobs: call-outs paid by card at the door, parts collected from the wholesaler for one job, and vans and licences that cost money between jobs. These accounts add those lines to the general chart.
- By Book Keeping Pros
- Sources checked 15 Oct 2026
What this industry adds
- Card settlements in transit sits between a call-out invoice and the bank deposit, so a card payment taken at a job that hasn't come through stands out.
- Parts bought from the wholesaler for a particular job are a cost of that job rather than stock for resale, so they go to Job parts and materials. Tape, fixings and drill bits used across many jobs go to Job consumables.
- Labour hire firms bill the business for apprentices or electricians they place with it, and subcontracted electricians bill for their own work, so Labour hire and subcontractors gives that cost its own account.
- A return visit to fix finished work at no charge has its own account, Warranty call-back costs, so its cost can be watched apart from paid jobs.
- Vans and licences are costs of the trade rather than of any one job, so Vehicle fuel and running costs and Electrical licence and registration fees sit with the general expenses rather than the job costs.
Download the chart
The general accounts and this industry's accounts in one CSV file, in code order, which opens in any spreadsheet program.
Download the CSV fileThe accounts this chart adds
| Code | Account name | Type | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1500 | Card settlements in transit | Asset | Card payments customers made at the job that the payment provider has not yet deposited into the business bank account |
| 5-1100 | Job parts and materials | Expense | Cable, switchgear, light fittings and other parts bought for a customer's job and installed as part of the work |
| 5-1200 | Labour hire and subcontractors | Expense | Invoices from labour hire firms for apprentices or electricians placed with the business, and from subcontracted electricians |
| 5-1300 | Warranty call-back costs | Expense | Parts and outside labour used on return visits to put right completed work when the customer is not charged |
| 6-2100 | Job consumables | Expense | Cable ties, tape, fixings, drill bits and other small items used up across many jobs |
| 6-2200 | Vehicle fuel and running costs | Expense | Fuel, tolls and parking for the work vans |
| 6-2300 | Electrical licence and registration fees | Expense | Application and renewal fees for the business's electrical contractor licence or registration, and for electricians' licences it pays for |
Illustrative example only: these rows show the method and are not sourced data.
What goes in each column
- Code: A number that sorts the account into its group: 1 for assets, 2 for liabilities, 3 for equity, 4 for income, and 5 and 6 for expenses.
- Account name: The name that appears in your books and reports.
- Type: Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense, which decides whether the account appears on the balance sheet or the profit and loss statement.
- What goes in it: The transactions to record against the account.
How to use it
- Enter each wholesaler bill against the job the parts were bought for, then tick the bills off against the wholesaler's statement at month end.
- Match each card payment taken at a job to its invoice, hold it in Card settlements in transit, and clear it when the provider's deposit shows up in the bank feed, with any fees the provider deducts going to Bank fees.
- Keep van servicing and repairs in Repairs and maintenance and the vans themselves in Motor vehicles, so Vehicle fuel and running costs holds fuel, tolls and parking.
- Code parts and outside labour used on a return visit to Warranty call-back costs instead of to the original job.
- The chart holds the business's own money and costs. Check with your accountant before adding accounts beyond these.
The chart is a CSV file, which opens in a spreadsheet program. It is not set up for importing directly into any particular accounting software, so check the format your software expects before you load the accounts into it.
Related pages
Related terms
Sources
- Key financial terms
business.gov.au, Australian Government. Current at 15 October 2026, released 9 July 2024. Checked 15 October 2026.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2020, licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU. Licence: CC BY 3.0 AU.
- Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, Conclusions Paper: Glossary of Key Terms
Reserve Bank of Australia. Conclusions Paper, March 2026, released 31 March 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source: Reserve Bank of Australia 2026 Licence: CC BY 4.0.
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