IT company chart of accounts
An IT company earns from projects, support agreements and hardware it sources for customers, and pays contractors and cloud providers to deliver the work. This chart adds accounts for support paid ahead, order deposits, work not yet invoiced and those delivery costs to the general chart of accounts.
- By Book Keeping Pros
- Sources checked 15 Oct 2026
What this industry adds
- Customers often pay for a support or subscription period before it begins. Support and subscription fees paid ahead shows, customer by customer, how much of that paid time is still to be provided.
- A deposit taken before hardware is ordered from a distributor, or before a project kicks off, goes to Deposits on hardware and project orders, linked to the order it was paid for.
- Development and implementation work done since the last milestone or timesheet invoice is tracked in Project work not yet invoiced. Your accountant can say how that balance should be worked out.
- Delivering projects and managed services costs money apart from any hardware sold. Contract developers and technicians and Cloud hosting for customer services each hold one of those costs, and Vendor certification fees holds what staff certifications cost.
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 | Project work not yet invoiced | Asset | Development or implementation work done on a customer project since its last milestone or timesheet invoice |
| 2-1300 | Support and subscription fees paid ahead | Liability | What customers have paid for support, managed service or subscription periods that are still to come |
| 2-1310 | Deposits on hardware and project orders | Liability | Deposits customers have paid before their hardware is ordered or their project begins |
| 5-1100 | Contract developers and technicians | Expense | Invoices from contract developers, engineers and field technicians for work on customer projects and support |
| 5-1200 | Cloud hosting for customer services | Expense | Cloud servers, storage, backup and hosting the business pays for to run customers' websites, applications and managed systems |
| 6-2100 | Vendor certification fees | Expense | Exam and course fees for staff to gain or renew certifications from hardware and software vendors |
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
- Set up each customer or project as a tracking category, so contractor bills and hosting charges can be read against the work they paid for.
- Distributor invoices for hardware and licences the business resells go to the general Cost of goods sold account. The new cost accounts are for work the business delivers itself.
- Keep the company's own office and accounting software in Software subscriptions, and code cloud services that run customer systems to Cloud hosting for customer services, attaching the invoice to each card charge, including any billed in a foreign currency.
- Note the dates each prepaid support or subscription payment covers when you record it, and ask your accountant how and when it should move into Sales.
- These accounts track the IT company's own money and costs. Talk to your accountant before adding others to suit how the company is set up.
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.
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