A Chart of Accounts for a Small Hong Kong Trading Company (Template)

By Di Ma, Project Manager 28 OCT 2026 · 4 MIN READ

The chart of accounts is the list of headings every transaction is filed under: each bank account, each kind of income and cost, everything the company owns and owes. Get it right and the accounts more or less produce themselves; get it wrong and every month-end involves untangling a "sundry expenses" account nobody understands.

Here's a practical starting chart for a small Hong Kong company that buys and sells goods, and the reasoning behind it.

The principles

Fewer accounts, used consistently. Thirty to fifty accounts suit most small companies. Every extra account is another place for an entry to go wrong.
One account per bank account, per currency. Each must agree to its own statement (see bank reconciliation).
Mirror the financial statements. Accounts should roll up cleanly into the lines of your balance sheet and income statement.
Separate what the auditor and the tax computation treat separately. The audit fee, entertainment, donations, depreciation, the director's account.
Customers and suppliers aren't accounts. Use one trade receivables and one trade payables account, with each invoice and bill tracked against them, not an account per customer.
Number in ranges, leaving gaps: 1000s assets, 2000s liabilities, 3000s equity, 4000s income, 5000s cost of sales, 6000s expenses.

The template

A starting chart of accounts for a small Hong Kong trading company (illustrative codes):

Assets

1010 Bank: HSBC HKD current — one account per bank account and currency
1020 Bank: USD account — reconciled in USD, translated to HKD
1050 Payment platforms (Airwallex, PayPal, Stripe…) — one per platform and currency
1090 Petty cash
1100 Trade receivables — customer invoices not yet paid
1200 Inventory — stock held for sale
1300 Prepayments — insurance, subscriptions paid in advance
1310 Deposits — rental and utility deposits
1400 Amount due from director — only if the director owes the company
1500 Office equipment: cost — plus a matching accumulated depreciation account
1510 Office equipment: accumulated depreciation
1550 Leasehold improvements: cost — renovation of rented premises

Liabilities

2100 Trade payables — supplier bills not yet paid
2200 Accrued charges — costs of the period not yet billed
2210 Deferred revenue — customer payments in advance
2300 MPF payable — contributions deducted, not yet paid over
2400 Profits tax payable — net of provisional tax paid
2500 Director's current account — what the company owes the director
2600 Amounts due to related companies — one per company
2900 Clearing: transfers between own accounts — should be nil at each month end

Equity

3000 Share capital
3100 Retained earnings

Income

4000 Sales — split by product line or market if you report on it
4900 Other income: interest

Cost of sales

5000 Cost of goods sold — purchases adjusted for stock movements
5100 Freight and delivery

Expenses

6000 Salaries
6010 MPF: employer contributions
6100 Rent and rates — include management fees if you like
6200 Office and IT — software subscriptions, supplies
6300 Professional fees — keep the audit fee separately
6310 Audit fee
6400 Travel
6410 Entertainment — keep separate from travel
6500 Bank charges
6600 Depreciation
6700 Exchange gain or loss
6800 Donations — kept separately: the tax computation treats them differently
6900 Profits tax — the year's tax charge

Accounts Hong Kong companies often forget

A director's current account, so personal spending and money the director puts in never land in expenses (see the director's current account).
A clearing account for transfers between your own accounts, which should come back to nil (see own-account transfers).
Exchange gain or loss, if you hold any foreign currency (see multi-currency bookkeeping).
Prepayments, deposits, accruals and deferred revenue, so monthly profit is right (see month-end adjustments).
Profits tax payable, net of the provisional tax already paid (see provisional profits tax).

Mistakes that make a chart hard to use

"Sundry" or "general expenses" as a catch-all. If more than a few percent of costs end up there, split it.
An account per customer or supplier. The chart balloons and the receivables total gets harder to check.
Changing accounts mid-year. Month-on-month comparisons stop working. Add accounts at a year end where you can.
Mixing currencies in one bank account in the books.
Copying a large company's chart. Two hundred accounts suit a group with a finance team, not a five-person trading company.

How Certanta uses it

Set up when you start, with your bookkeeper, to fit your business.
Every transaction classified against it. AI suggests the account, learning your company's own rules from your bookkeeper's corrections, and a bookkeeper signs off every entry.
The same chart in every report: the income statement, the balance sheet, the general ledger and the monthly management pack.

The Certanta client portal, general ledger account list for the fictional demo company Harbourfront Trading Ltd: balance sheet accounts (accrued charges, trade payables, trade receivables, Hang Seng Bank HKD current and USD savings, petty cash, director current account, office equipment cost and accumulated depreciation, inventory, prepayments and deposits, retained earnings, share capital) and income statement accounts (bank charges, cost of goods sold, depreciation, freight, exchange gain or loss, office and IT), each with opening balance, debits, credits, closing balance and number of entries. — The demo company's chart of accounts in the general ledger: 24 accounts, each with its balance and the entries behind it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a chart of accounts?

The list of accounts a company uses to record its transactions: each bank account, type of income and cost, asset, liability and equity item. Every entry in the books is posted to one of them, and the financial statements are built from them.

How many accounts should a small company have?

Usually thirty to fifty. Enough to separate what the financial statements, the auditor and the tax computation need to see separately, and few enough that every entry has an obvious home.

How should accounts be numbered?

In ranges with gaps for later additions, for example 1000s for assets, 2000s for liabilities, 3000s for equity, 4000s for income, 5000s for cost of sales and 6000s for expenses.

Should each customer have its own account?

No. Use one trade receivables account and track each invoice against it, and likewise one trade payables account for supplier bills. An account per customer or supplier makes the chart unwieldy.

Which accounts should a Hong Kong company keep separately?

A separate account for each bank account and currency, the director's current account, MPF payable, profits tax payable, the audit fee, entertainment, donations and depreciation, because the audit and the profits tax computation look at them separately.

Can I change my chart of accounts?

Yes, but preferably at the start of a financial year, so that month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons still work.

A chart of accounts that fits your company

Certanta sets up your chart of accounts when you start, classifies every transaction against it, and keeps it the same from month to month, so your reports compare like with like.

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This article is general information about bookkeeping, not accounting or tax advice for your company. The codes are illustrative; agree your chart of accounts with your accountant or auditor.