# How to import this chart of accounts into QuickBooks Online

Companion to `quickbooks-for-church-chart-of-accounts.csv`.
Written 29 July 2026 by Church Posting. Read the honesty note at the bottom before you start.

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## 1. Buy the right plan first, or none of this works

Class tracking does not exist in QuickBooks Online Simple Start or Essentials. It starts at Plus.
The funds in this file are classes, so a church on Simple Start cannot run the fund reports no
matter how the chart of accounts is built.

Published usage limits, per subscription:

| | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Billable users | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
| Reports-only users | not available | not available | unlimited | unlimited |
| Classes and locations, combined | not available | not available | 40 | unlimited |
| Chart of accounts | 250 | 250 | 250 | unlimited |

This file holds 95 accounts, so it uses 38 percent of the 250-account ceiling on Plus.
The class list in section 5 uses 10 of the 40 combined class-and-location slots.

## 2. Turn three settings on before you import anything

1. **Company type.** Settings, then Account and settings, then Advanced. Set the company type to
   the nonprofit option. This renames the Profit and Loss to Statement of Activity and the Balance
   Sheet to Statement of Financial Position, which is the language a finance committee and a
   reviewer expect.
2. **Class tracking.** Same Advanced section, under Categories. Turn on class tracking, and turn on
   the warning for a transaction with no class assigned. That checkbox is the single thing that
   keeps the fund reports honest.
3. **Location tracking.** Turn it on if you need a functional-expense split (program services,
   management and general, fundraising). Classes carry the fund. Locations carry the function.
   You need both because one line cannot hold two classes.

Also turn on account numbers: Chart of accounts, then the gear icon above the list, then check the
account-number column. Without that, the `Number` column in this file has nowhere to land.

## 3. Import the file

1. Settings (gear icon), then **Chart of accounts** under Lists.
2. Click **Import**.
3. Browse to `quickbooks-for-church-chart-of-accounts.csv`, then Next.
4. Map the columns. Our headers are named to match what the import screen asks for:
   `Number` to Account Number, `Account Name` to Name, `Account Type` to Type,
   `Detail Type` to Detail Type, `Description` to Description.
5. Review the grid. **You can edit any cell here before committing.** Fix anything QuickBooks
   flags, then check the rows you want and click Import.

Expect to fix a handful of Detail Type cells by hand. See the honesty note.

## 4. Delete before you import, not after

Read the file once and cut what your church does not have. A chart of accounts with empty accounts
in it is worse than a short one, because nobody trusts a report with fourteen zero lines on it.

Almost every church can delete these rows:

- `1100 Pledges receivable` and `8100 Bad debt` unless you actually book pledges as receivables.
- `1020 Payroll checking` unless you keep a second bank account.
- `1250 Vehicles` and `2310 Vehicle loan payable` unless the church owns a van.
- `3100` and `3200`, the two net-asset rows, if you would rather let the class columns carry the
  restricted split and leave QuickBooks' own Retained Earnings account alone. Both approaches work.
  Pick one and write down which.
- `9900` and `9910`, the transfer pair, if you never move money between funds. If you do move it,
  keep them, and class both sides of every transfer.

Two accounts are deliberately **not** in this file: Retained Earnings and Opening Balance Equity.
QuickBooks creates and owns both, so importing them would either fail or leave you with duplicates.
Opening Balance Equity is a setup holding account; get it to zero and never post to it again. A
stray balance there is the most common reason the fund columns on a balance sheet refuse to tie.

## 5. The class list, which is the actual fund accounting

Create these by hand under Settings, then All lists, then Classes. There is no CSV import for
classes in QuickBooks Online.

| Class | Restriction | Who can lift it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| General fund | None | The budget governs it |
| Building fund | Donor-restricted | Nobody. The donors gave it for the building |
| Benevolence fund | Donor-restricted | Nobody, if it came from a benevolence appeal |
| Missions fund | Donor-restricted | Nobody |
| Memorial fund | Donor-restricted | Nobody, where the family named a purpose |
| Reserve, board-designated | None | The board, by vote, at any meeting |
| Capital replacement, board-designated | None | The board, by vote, at any meeting |

Keep the two board-designated classes visually separate from the donor-restricted ones. They are
unrestricted money the board chose to set aside, and reporting them as restricted overstates your
restrictions.

Locations, if you turned them on:

| Location | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| Program services | Worship, discipleship, missions, outreach |
| Management and general | Office, insurance, accounting, governance |
| Fundraising | Appeals, campaign costs, donor communication |

Seven classes plus three locations is ten of the forty combined slots on Plus.

## 6. The numbering, and why it is what it is

| Block | Holds | Where the convention comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1000 | Assets | Both denominational samples we checked start assets at 1000 |
| 2000 | Liabilities | Same |
| 3000 | Net assets | Nonprofit Accounting Basics states net asset numbering usually begins with 3 |
| 4000 | Contributions and other income | Both samples, and the nonprofit unified chart of accounts |
| 5000 | Personnel | The two church samples. The unified nonprofit chart uses 5000 for program expense instead, so the two conventions genuinely disagree |
| 6000 | Ministry and program | Our choice |
| 7000 | Facilities and property | Our choice |
| 8000 | Administration and office | Our choice |
| 9000 | Missions, benevolence, denominational, transfers | Our choice |

Four digits, gaps of ten between accounts inside a block, so a new account fits without a
renumbering project. If your denomination publishes a required chart, use theirs and use this file
only for the class structure.

## 7. One account per restricted fund is the mistake to avoid

The denominational samples that rank for "church chart of accounts" put every fund in the chart of
accounts as its own income line: capital development income, benevolence income, missions income,
other designated giving income. That produces an income report and it can never produce a fund
balance, because an income account resets to zero at year end.

This file has one restricted-gift income account, `4100`. The class says which fund. That is the
whole difference between a report that answers "what came in for the roof" and a report that
answers "what is left for the roof."

## 8. What we did not check

We did not open a QuickBooks Online trial to build this. Nothing in this file has been imported into
a live QuickBooks company and no screenshot in the article it came from is ours.

The consequence you will meet: the `Account Type` values in this file come from Intuit's own
published `AccountTypeEnum` in its QuickBooks V3 Java SDK, so those are exact. The `Detail Type`
values are our rendering of Intuit's published `AccountSubTypeEnum` codes into spaced words, and we
could not confirm the exact punctuation the US import screen shows in its own Detail Type menu.
Ampersands, slashes and capitalization are the likely mismatches. QuickBooks flags the row, the
review grid lets you pick the right value from the dropdown, and the import proceeds.

The Detail Type controls where QuickBooks files an account on the statement, so after you import,
print the balance sheet and the statement of activity once and check that every account landed
where you expect.

Nothing here is accounting or tax advice for your church. Fund restriction has legal consequences.
Take the setup to a CPA who has done church books before.

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Church Posting, churchposting.com. The full article, with sources and dates:
https://churchposting.com/resources/software/quickbooks-for-a-church/