Guide to adopting the academies chart of accounts
Updated 16 April 2024
Applies to England
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1. Introduction
The academies chart of accounts (CoA) is the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) standard for financial data that underpins the academies accounts return and budget forecast returns.
For more information, please view the introductory video below. Chart of accounts introduction
2. Benefits of adopting the DfE’s chart of accounts
When a trust first converts to using the DfE’s CoA, there will be an initial outlay for a trust in terms of time and effort to bring the new accounting structure into operation. However, once embedded, the benefits of using the DfE’s standardised CoA are:
- that it maps directly to the accounts return and budget forecast returns and therefore enables direct input of financial data into these returns
- it enables trusts to make use of the DfE’s application programme interface (API) tool for pre-populating the Accounts return completing up to 80% of the AR, resulting in a reduction of data entry time
- enables use of automated draft financial statements via API
- reduces subjectivity across the academies sector and so develops the reliability of benchmarking data comparisons
- potential for efficiency savings
3. How to use the chart of accounts (CoA)
This section includes:
- CoA structure
- Mapping
- Adding account codes to the chart of accounts
- Excluding accounts codes
- Renaming of account codes
- Account code level guidance
- CoA and cost centres/management reporting
Adopting the CoA means using the ledger codes in the DfE’s chart of accounts. Trusts’ cost centres do not need to change. Trusts may map their existing ledger codes but will need to ensure that the existing ledger code structure has enough detail for full adoption, particularly balance sheet reporting in the accounts return.
3.1 CoA structure
The chart of accounts structure for nominal codes is laid out in the table below:
| Account code range: code | Account code range: description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 10000 to 19999 | Balance sheet: Fixed assets | Trusts may find more fixed asset account than they are used to, these should be made use of, as appropriate, in order to make full use of the on-line forms’ automation functionality |
| 20000 to 29999 | Balance sheet: Current assets | None |
| 30000 to 39999 | Balance sheet: Liabilities | None |
| 40000 to 49999 | Balance sheet: Funds | See balance sheet codes heading below for more information |
| 50000 to 58999 | I&E: Income | Please note manual adjustments needed for COVID-19 funding in section 3.10.1 |
| 59000 to 59999 | I&E: Transfers | Account codes are used for balances of an Academy transferring in or out of a trust |
| 60000 to 69999 | I&E: Staff costs | Please note specific account code guidance with regards to temporary staff |
| 70000 to 79999 | I&E: Premises costs | None |
| 80000 to 89999 | I&E: Supplies and services costs | Please ensure that expenditure is allocated to the appropriate direct costs or indirect costs account code by checking where this is mapped to in the accounts return |
| 90000 to 99999 | Not trial balance | These are account codes allocated to additional information fields within the AR that are not linked to the trial balance, and therefore the mapping columns indicate the additional information trusts are required to provide over and above data that is pulled into the accounts return via automation |
3.2 Mapping
The ‘Academies chart of accounts’ spreadsheet provides a “CoA structures and mapping” tab which shows the direct relationship between accounts codes and the different tables of the accounts return, the budget forecast return, and also how the account codes map to ‘View My Financial Insights’ (VMFI).
The current chart of accounts mapping to the ‘Academies accounts return’ is shown in column G.
Mapping to the draft financial statements
Mapping columns show where the account codes map to in the draft financial statements spreadsheet which the DfE has recently developed.
The draft financial statement spreadsheet can be automatically populated from the trusts general ledger if they are able to take advantage of the API functionality. Alternatively, a spreadsheet which can be manually populated will be available on the CoA and automation webpage in due course.
3.3 Adding account codes to the chart of accounts
The DfE have designed the CoA to meet the reporting needs of most academy trusts and it is important to keep a standard format. We expect trusts will be able to use their own cost centre structure to meet local reporting requirements, but we will consider creating new ledger codes where one or more of the following criteria are met:
- there is a change in accounting standards
- we change the reporting requirements
- we receive enough requests for additional codes for clearly different cost classifications
If you require codes that do not meet the above criteria, we advise:
- using cost centres or analysis codes to create the internal breakdown you need
- creating a ‘local’ ledger code in the CoA. The DfE have left the last digit free under each ledger code. This gives the option to create an additional nine account codes for each account code in the standard chart of accounts.
As an example, there is no specific CoA account code for maths hub funding. If a trust wished to record this separately, a trust could either
- allocate this income along with associated expenditure under a separate cost centre heading using account code 510950 “Other DfE revenue grants”, or
- set up a flexible account code within the range 510951 to 510959 for ‘Maths Hub funding’ to report this grant separately. Any flexible codes set up by a trust for local reporting would roll up to the DfE CoA account code level for the purposes of DfE reporting
Please see our home page for details of mapping workshops that we run.
This short video demonstrates examples of how a trust can set up their own local account codes.
Chart of Accounts: adding a local account code
3.4 Excluding accounts codes
The CoA account code structure has been set up to cover the variety of all trusts’ material needs. For this reason, there may be many CoA account codes that are not applicable for some trusts.
Trusts only need to use those account codes that are applicable to them, and therefore may exclude relevant account codes on the CoA from their nominal ledger.
3.5 Renaming of account codes
It is advised that account codes are not renamed as this reduces consistency across academies and trusts. Flexible account codes may be set up as described in the section above.
3.6 Account code level guidance
Guidance for each income and expenditure nominal account code is now provided the Account code guidance document on the CoA Gov.UK web page. This guidance may be updated and evolve to help trusts in using the CoA.
3.7 CoA and cost centres/management reporting
The CoA only lays out a structure for nominal codes, that is ‘what’ a trust has received income for and expended funds on. The CoA does not dictate ‘where’ income and expenditure should be allocated, therefore it is up to each trust to decide how they wish to set up their own cost centre headings.
It is suggested that cost centres should be set up to at least be able to define income and expenditure at Academy level so that completion of the accounts return academy tables, such as benchmarking, can easily be populated. It will not be possible to automate academy level tables if information cannot be extracted from the FMS database at academy level.
4. Guidance for areas commonly queried by trusts
4.1 General guidance
4.1.1 Balance sheet codes
The balance sheet codes in the CoA reflect the full range of the DfE’s fixed assets, investments and disposals. Most academy trusts will not need to use all of these. You can mark these inactive in your finance system and activate them if you need them in the future.
The ‘Funds’ section is currently not mapped in full to fields within the ‘Funds’ tables of the AR on-line form and balances have to be manually broken down and input, even when using automation. We are currently reviewing this section of the CoA.
4.1.2 Capital expenditure
The DfE’s CoA does not provide revenue account codes for capital expenditure. It is good practice to capitalise expenditure at the point it is incurred and post directly as an ‘addition’ to the relevant capital asset category on the balance sheet account code range 100000 to 199999. It is suggested that trusts either:
- set up separate capital cost centres to record this data
- and/or use analysis codes if you are mapping to supplier software that has this facility This will help group the income source with the expenditure, which will aid in the management of grant.
Exceptions to the above would be:
-
where the trust has paid an invoice for items that maybe split between capital and revenue, prior to deciding what value needs to be capitalised or
-
where a trust is unsure of what the total value of the asset will be and whether or not it will fall above or below the de minimis capitalisation threshold set by the trust for that asset class.
In such cases, the trust may wish to use 710200 ‘Repairs and maintenance - Building improvements’ as a holding account until revenue and capitalisation values can be ascertained.
4.1.3 Trusts who operate in an Agency capacity
Where trusts are acting as an agency for funding that is reported outside of their financial statements, they should use cost centres and/or the ‘local’ general ledger codes as described in section 3.3 ‘Adding account codes to the chart of accounts’.
The financial year end process should then journal out these balances to show a net zero in revenue and any carry forward balance would be shown as a creditor on the balance sheet. An exception to this would be where the trust has been allocated funds as the co-ordinating body, and therefore the relevant income and expenditure should be reported within their financial statements.
4.2 Specific CoA guidance
In addition to the guidance below, please also review the Academies chart of accounts: account code guidance 2023/24 which can be found on the CoA and automation home page.
4.2.1 COVID-19 income
There are no CoA codes available to post COVID-19 funding directly to, and as noted in the ‘Guide to using the academies chart of accounts’ the trust should allocate COVID related income to the following account codes (columns B,C & D), then manually reallocate the balances relating to COVID funding (columns A,E & F), as follows:
| AR field description (A) | Initial FMS coding of COVID income in CoA – (B) | AR field mapped to via automation API – (C) | Bench-marking field mapped to via automation API – (D) | AR field to manually reallocate grant to – (E) | Benchmarking field to manually reallocate grant to (F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other DfE/ESFA COVID-19 funding | 510950 | RGR150 | BAI010-A | RGR151 | BAI061 |
| Catch-up premium | 510950 | RGR150 | BAI010-A | RGR152 | BAI061 |
| Recovery Premium | 510950 | RGR150 | BAI010-A | RGR153 | BAI061 |
| Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Grant | 520300 | ORG040 | BTI060 / BAI060-A | ORG041 | BTI061/BAI061 |
| Other COVID-19 funding (Non DfE/ESFA) | 520300 | ORG040 | BTI060 / BAI060-A | ORG042 | BTI061/BAI061 |
Table configuration:
- columns B to D - shows CoA income allocation and mapping
- columns E & F - shows action for trusts to manually amend field value
Trusts may wish to keep this information separate on their chart of accounts by either allocating to a separate cost centre or by using the flexible 6th digit of the existing account codes stated above to set up additional income codes.
Any other new COVID -19 related funding not mentioned above should be allocated to 510950 unless further guidance is provided.
4.2.2 Supplementary Grant and Mainstream Schools Additional Grant
- for 2022/23 financial year - please allocate both of the grants allocated to 510950 ‘Other DfE revenue grants’
- for 2023/24 financial year- continue to allocate Mainstreams Schools Additional Grant to 510950 and it looks like the Schools supplementary grant will be included as part of your GAG
- for 2024/25 financial year - it looks as if both grants will be received as part of your GAG.
4.2.3 Pupil premium for LAC
Pupil premium received from a local authority for Looked after Children should be allocated to 520200 ‘LA – Other grants’.
4.2.4 Schools Direct salaried income/SCITT
Schools direct salaries income and related expenditure, the income should be coded to 510600 – “DFE Revenue Grants: ITT Bursaries Grant”, and the expenditure allocated to the relevant account code. The trust may wish to identify relevant income and expenditure by allocating it to a separate cost centre on the trusts chart of accounts.
4.2.5 Income from insurance claims
In the main, there is no account code for insurance income as this should be treated as a reimbursement of cost or writing off/down an asset. There may also be further adjustments depending on whether a provision was made on the balance sheet for the insurance income. Trusts may wish to speak to their auditor about the specific details of the claim so they can advise you.
The only exception to the above is supply teacher insurance claims which should be coded to 530300.
4.2.6 16 to 19 Bursary Fund
Please see below, using the example of £100k funding, to illustrate how to allocate income and expenditure for the 16 to19 Bursary Fund.
Table 4.2.6i Worked example showing allocation of 16 to 19 Bursary Fund
| CoA Account code/description: | DR/CR | Example value – in year allocation | Year end action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income allocation – for 16-19 bursary funding (direct costs) = 510110 ‘GAG (student support)’ | CR | (£95k) | Journal to net off against student bursaries 880150 (DR) |
| Income allocation for 16-19 bursary funding (admin costs) = 510110 ‘GAG (student support)’ | CR | (£5k) | No action |
| Bursary payments to students, please allocate in year to 880150 ‘Student bursary expenditure’ | DR | £95K | Journal to net off against 16-19 bursary funding for direct costs 510950 (CR) |
| Expenditure of circa 5% for admin costs = show against the relevant persons salary in the 625100 to 625300 ‘Finance and admin’ range | DR | £5k | No action |
Table 4.2.6ii CoA account code balances** (using values in the example above)**
| CoA Account code/description: | In Year | Year end balance (after journal) |
|---|---|---|
| 510110 ‘GAG (student support)’ | (£100k) | (£5k) |
| *625100 to 625300 ‘Finance and admin’ range (or Account codes where admin expenses have occurred) | £5K | £5k |
| Bursary funding element, please allocate in year to 510950 ‘Other DfE revenue grants’ and allocate expenditure to 880150 ‘ Student bursary expenditure’ | £95k | £0K |
*As the 5% admin expenditure is already in the accounts, and the income covers a proportion of staffing, stationery, resources etc, no further coding/journals are required.
4.2.7 Repayment of Salix loans & other loans
The accounting treatment for Salix loans is the same as for other loans, except that repayments need to gross back up the GAG rebatement.
The account code 720400 ‘Repayment of Salix loans’ has been removed from the CoA 2022-23.
Please note that this guidance applies to academy trusts and differs from the advice given to local authority maintained schools.
4.2.8 Allocation between leadership and teaching accounts code categories
The leadership teaching and non-teaching account codes in the chart of accounts have been included to help trusts with their statutory reporting (financial statements and AR), and it is advised that trusts use these account codes from this perspective.
Note that there are differences between the requirements of the trust’s own financial statements (in accordance with the Academy Accounts Direction (AAD), based on the charity SORP (as amended by the Companies Act)) and the academies accounts return (in accordance with the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
For trust’s financial statements, section 2.137 of the AAD 2022/23 sets out the reporting requirements for management as “Management should include senior leadership team members who do not have day-to-day teaching duties. The head of school should always be considered to be management irrespective of any teaching duties.”
The accounts return 2021/22 guidance; section 5.1, sets out the requirement as “the leadership category (STF020) should include salaries and wages direct pay costs for senior leadership team members who do not have day to day teaching duties. Leadership would be those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of a reporting entity, directly or indirectly, including any director (whether executive or otherwise). It should be noted that this breakdown is therefore different to that required by the financial statements between teaching and management costs.”
For trusts who have different reporting requirements for each route, it is advised they adopt one of the requirements, but be mindful of how they will produce the other.
Trusts may be able to meet both requirements through the use of cost centres and/or the flexibility of the final digit in the CoA code.
4.2.9 Recharges
Central services contributions from academies to trust (intra trust):
The CoA has the following account codes to show academies internal contribution towards central services costs where applicable:
- 530990: Trust contribution from academy (income)
- 835170: Contributions from academies to trust (expenditure)
The balances on these account codes must net off to zero across the trust, however, these values are reported in the AR at academy level in the benchmarking tables and are mapped as follows:
- 530990 to BTI170 - Contributions from academies to trust (central services tables), with no mapping to academy benchmarking.
- 835170 to BAI170 - Contributions from academies to trust (academies tables), with no mapping to academy benchmarking.
If a trust wishes to be specific about identified elements of “pooled funding”. they could set up additional codes under these headings, for example: under 530990 the trust could set up account codes 530991 for ‘Finance and administration support’, this would be summarised up to 530990 for the purposes of the DfE’s financial returns.
Other intra trust recharges:
If the recharge is between academies within the trust, we suggest that the appropriate academies either
-
debits and credits the same appropriate expenditure code in each academy or
-
sets up an additional local account code under the relevant DfE account code so that these charges can be identified separately if the trust wishes.
Either way, the balances should net to zero when reporting at trust level but would be identified in the academy level benchmarking tables. This ensures expenditure is allocated to the correct field in the DfE’s financial returns.
Please note the treatment is different where a trusts central services pays an academy within the trust a contribution towards rent, there are two scenarios set out below. The entries shown are based on internal journal entries, assuming the trust have a single bank account.
Scenario 1 : The academy has a leasehold agreement for the building:
- CR: Academy cost centre - 735100 ‘Operating leases’ > ‘Building rent payable’
- DR: Trust (Central services) cost centre - 735100 ‘Operating leases’ > ‘Building rent payable
Scenario 2 : The academy owns the building:
- CR: Academy cost centre - 530990 ‘Trust contribution from Academy’
- DR: Trust (Central services) cost centre - 835170 ‘Contribs from academies to trust’
We appreciate that the descriptions indicate that this is the wrong way round as in most instances funding is transferred from the academy to the trust, but in this instance it is correct to use them in way.
Inter-trust recharges:
If the recharge is between trusts and is part of a traded service, then the charge to the trust should be allocated to an income code. However, for seconded staff, please use account codes 675300/675320 for secondment income, the income is within the staff costs range as the income should be net off against the salary costs, so that your salary costs are shown no higher than they really are.
Intra-trust trading and recharges may need to be reported within the Counterparty section of the Accounts Return. Counterparty categories are shown against relevant account code on the ‘CoA structures and mappings’ tab within the academies chart of accounts spreadsheet.
4.2.10 Leasehold land depreciation
There are only extremely rare circumstances where depreciation should be charged on land specifically, which is why there is no specific chart of accounts code for depreciation against freehold and leasehold land.
The only circumstance may be through such issues as subsidence, but it very rare for depreciation to be charged on land.
Both the AAD and the accounts return (AR) combine land and buildings together in descriptions and reporting requirements, but in practice, depreciation would only be charged against the buildings element for both freehold and leasehold land and buildings.
It may be relevant to impair the land if the value of property in the surrounding area has reduced, and therefore use account code 120910 ‘Leasehold land: Impairment charged’.
If there is good reason to depreciate the land, it will have to be charged to 125710 ‘Leasehold Buildings – depreciation charged’ which maps into AR category TFD030-B. The DfE is content that trusts apply their own accounting policy as the DfE replaces some values within the land and buildings tables using a consistent recognition and depreciation policy across all trusts.
In addition, the DfE does not depreciate land on peppercorn rent sites and are therefore satisfied that both sides of the adjustment are omitted in the DfE returns.
Further guidance can be found in the AAD section 3.23 under the ‘Land and buildings’ heading which provides scenarios of long term leases.
5. Updates to the 2023/24 chart of accounts
This section includes:
There have been a several updates to the Academies chart of accounts for the 2023/24 financial year.
All changes are shown in the tables below and include:
- 49 new account codes, - table 5.1.1
- 1 deleted trial balance account code - table 5.1.2
- updated mappings from account codes to ‘Academies accounts return’ fields – table 5.2.1
- updated descriptions - table 5.3.1
Updates are highlighted in yellow on the “CoA structures and mapping” tab within the “Academies chart of accounts 2023/24” spreadsheet and are also listed on the “Change control” tab within the same document.
The tables below highlight updates to the Academies chart of accounts released 2 May 2023 from the previous version released in May 2022.
5.1 New and deleted account codes and form fields
Please review the following tables to find out what has been updated in the CoA 2023-24 release,
Table 5.1.1 - New account codes
| Account code | Account code description | Reason for update | Action for trusts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 331100 to 331400 | Liabilities: Loans from DfE Group >1 year | Loans account codes previously not split into < & > 1 year | Review loans currently coded against 330100 to 330400 (renamed to <1 year) and for any that are > 1 year, move to this new account code range |
| 336100 to 336400 | Liabilities: Loans from other govt bodies >1 year | Loans account codes previously not split into < & > 1 year | Review loans currently coded against 335100 to 335400 (renamed to <1 year and for any that are > 1 year, move to this new account code range |
| 341100 to 341400 | Liabilities: Loans from non-govt bodies >1 year | Loans account codes previously not split into < & > 1 year | Review loans currently coded against 340100 to 340400 (renamed to <1 year) and for any that are > 1 year, move to this new account code range |
| 351100 to 351400 | Liabilities: Provisions >1 year | Provisions account codes previously not split into < & > 1 year | Review provisions currently coded against 350100 to 350400 (renamed to <1 year) and for any that are > 1 year, move to this new account code range |
| 510970 | Income: Temporary DfE / ESFA revenue grants 1 (for DfE use) | To accommodate changes in reporting requirements for grants after the CoA has been released | Trusts should only use these account codes if instructed by the DfE |
| 510980 | Income: Temporary DfE / ESFA revenue grants 2 (for DfE use) | To accommodate changes in reporting requirements for grants after the CoA has been released | Trusts should only use these account codes if instructed by the DfE |
| 510990 | Income: Temporary DfE / ESFA revenue grants 3 (for DfE use) | To accommodate changes in reporting requirements for grants after the CoA has been released | Trusts should only use these account codes if instructed by the DfE |
| 520400 | Income: Temporary other Government revenue grants - not DfE (for DfE use) | To accommodate changes in reporting requirements for grants after the CoA has been released | Trusts should only use these account codes if instructed by the DfE |
| 550600 | Income: Temporary DfE / ESFA capital grants (for DfE use) | To accommodate changes in reporting requirements for grants after the CoA has been released | Trusts should only use these account codes if instructed by the DfE |
| 610150 | Staff Costs: Leadership - Teaching: Overtime | Adding an overtime account code to be consistent with other staff cost categories | For trusts use as necessary |
| 611100 to 611300 | Staff Costs: Leadership - Non-teaching | New staff cost category to allocate non-teaching leadership costs to so they can be identified by the trust and mapped to the correct benchmarking fields as per current guidance | Trusts should review costs previously allocated to the ‘Leadership’ staff cost range 610100 to 610300 which has now been renamed ‘Leadership - teaching’, and allocate any leadership non teaching costs to this new account code range |
| 649350 | Staff Costs: Pensions: LGPS cash contribution to pension deficit | Following requests from trusts, a new account code has been added for lump sum cash payments to LGPS schemes | For trusts who have this payment type, please allocate to this account new code from 2023/24 (this may have previously been allocated to 649300). LGPS costs from normal payroll costs should still be allocated to the pensions account code within the appropriate categories |
| 825330 | Supplies & Services Costs: Educational Consultancy: Education welfare and attendance services | To create a specific account code for ‘Education Welfare and attendance services’ within the Educational Consultancy category as this will be applicable to many schools, and will ensure this is classed as a direct cost. | Trusts should use this new account code if the account code they are currently using does not map into CAD120 ‘Educational consultancy’ on the AR. Mapping can be found on the updated CoA for 2023/24 |
| 845260 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - cleaning and caretaking | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 845270 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - grounds maintenance | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 845280 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - other occupational costs | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 845290 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - special facilities | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 845300 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - catering | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 845310 | Supplies & Services Costs: Bought in supply cover: Agency support staff - professional services - non-curriculum | New range of account codes 845260 to 845310 replace 845250 to ensure costs are reported to the correct benchmarking category in line with the guidance | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate |
| 855600 | Supplies & Services Costs: Non-educational contracts: Other non-educational contracts | Trusts previously advised to include any non-education contract to non-educational consultancy, if no suitable contract type, however, as the AR mapping is to the incorrect field, a new account code has been set up | If previously coded ‘Other non-educational contracts’ to ‘Educational consultancy’, please amend coding if appropriate |
| 880170 | Supplies & Services Costs: Other supplies & services: Welfare payments to pupils/students | To create a specific account code for ‘Welfare payments’ within the other supplies and services category as a result of trust requests | Trusts should use this new account code if applicable from 2023/24 |
| 880530 | Supplies & Services Costs: Other supplies & services: Donations to charities | To create a specific account code for ‘Donations to charities’ within the other supplies and services category as a result of trust requests | Trusts should use this new account code if applicable from 2023/24 |
Table 5.1.2 - Deleted account codes
| Account code | Account code description | Reason for update | Action for trusts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 845250 | Agency support staff | Account codes maps into the wrong benchmarking field and need to be broken down into service type | Any costs previously coded to 845250 should now be allocated to 845260 to 845310 as appropriate so they map to the correct benchmarking category |
5.2 Updated mappings
Table 5.2.1 – Updated mappings
| Account code | Accounts return (old/new) | Benchmarking Central Services (old/new) | Benchmarking Academies (old/new) | Counterparty (old/new) | BFR (old/new) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 170230 & 175230 | No change | No change | No change | No change | 630 to n/a |
| 240100 to 250500 | No change | No change | No change | No change | 941 - 969 to n/a |
| 310100 | No change | No change | No change | No change | 900 to n/a |
| 310160 to 320700 | No change | No change | No change | No change | 901 - 927 to n/a |
| 360100 | No change | No change | No change | No change | 903 to n/a |
| 371300 | FVA060 to FVA080 | No change | No change | No change | No change |
| 371320 | FVA070 to FVA080 | No change | No change | No change | No change |
| 530990 | No change | No change | BTI170 to BAI170-A | No change | 903 to n/a |
| 835170 | No change | n/a to BTI170 | No change | No change | No change |
| 835450 | CAS380 to CAS180 | No change | No change | No change | No change |
| 855180 | CAS260 to CAS261 | No change | No change | No change | No change |
5.3 Updated descriptions
Table 5.3.1 – Updated descriptions
| Account code | Description column reference | CoA previous description | CoA updated description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 330100 to 330400 | L2 Description | Loans from DfE Group | Loans from DfE Group <1 year |
| 335100 to 335400 | L2 Description | Loans from other govt bodies | Loans from other govt bodies <1 year |
| 340100 to 340400 | L2 Description | Loans from non-govt bodies | Loans from non-govt bodies <1 year |
| 350100 to 350400 | L2 Description | Provisions | Provisions <1 year |
| 610100 to 610300 | L2 Description | Leadership | Leadership - Teachers |
6. Using the chart of accounts with the application programme interface (API) tool
This section includes
The API functionality is based on the DfE’s chart of accounts and allows the DfE to understand your data and automatically match it to the right part of the online forms using the mappings identified in the “CoA structure and mapping” tab of the published chart of accounts. API also provides trusts with the opportunity to produce their draft financial statements.
For those using the API tool, the DfE has providing an automated mapping report which compares the trusts FMS data, at account code level, with the populated AR, enabling trusts to understand how their trial balance data has populated the AR.
6.1 Benefits of adopting API
For trusts adopting API, the benefits are:
- the auto population of a large proportion of the AR including SoFA, balance sheet, land and buildings and benchmarking tables
- allows trusts to use the automated draft financial statements functionality
- potential efficiency savings for trusts in the reduced time spent inputting data into the online AR form by the internal and external preparers
- readiness to take advantage of future developments
6.2 Finance management systems software suppliers
The DfE have worked with a range of FMS software suppliers to develop the chart of accounts, the suppliers included so far are:
- Access Education (formally HCSS)
- Bromcom
- ESS (formally Capita), both SIMS and FMS6 systems
- Civica
- Hoge 100
- IRIS (formally PS Financials)
- Sage (provided by Dayta, Ion and Solutions for Accounting)
- Xero (provided by Thorne Widgery)
Trusts should talk to their supplier about any implications of adopting the chart of accounts with the current version of their software, as well as their plans for integrating the API.
7. Further enquiries
Chart of accounts enquiries
If you have further questions about the chart of accounts, please contact the DfE using the online enquiry form and mark with “Academies chart of accounts” at the top of your enquiry.
API enquiries:
If you would like to get in touch to find out more about adopting API, please contact us via the DfE online enquiry form and mark with “Automation/API” at the top of your enquiry.