In this article
With Banana Accounting, you can freely customize the chart of accounts to analyze data by projects, departments, or specific activities: you can add or delete accounts and groups, change descriptions, and create new total and subtotal structures (grouping system), according to your operational needs. You can make these changes both at the beginning, when you choose the template to start from, and during the year.
Cost/Profit Centers and Segments are two powerful tools for classifying and organizing transactions according to different criteria, allowing you to obtain detailed reports and targeted analyses without having to create additional accounts or make the accounting structure more complex.
And if your business management evolves over time, you can easily adapt the account structure to new needs while maintaining consistency and continuity in your data.
The grouping system
The grouping or totaling system defines how Banana Accounting calculates and displays totals and subtotals in the different tables, such as the Chart of Accounts or the Categories table.
Thanks to group levels, you can organize your accounting clearly and according to your needs:
- structure accounts into logical sections (e.g. Assets, Liabilities, Revenue, Expenses),
- add new totaling groups or subgroups,
- delete or modify existing groups according to your needs.
This multi-level grouping system allows you to create fully customized balance sheet structures, adapting them to the type of activity or reporting model you want to use.
▶ Video: Grouping and totaling system
Cost and Profit Centers
Cost/Profit Centers are used to classify transactions according to specific activities or projects, for example:
- a company department (e.g. Marketing, Sales, Production),
- a project or event (e.g. Training course, Trade fair),
- specify a source of revenue or expense in detail.
Each transaction can include one or more cost centers, which allow you to:
- add multiple levels of categorization to transactions, for example:
- monitor expenses and revenue for each activity,
- obtain summary reports
- analyze the efficiency and profitability of the different areas.
It is a simple and immediate way to keep internal management under control, even in complex accounting systems.
Segments
Segments further extend analytical flexibility. They allow you to adapt the accounting structure to specific needs using different allocation criteria. All data always remains linked to the general accounting, so there is no need to duplicate information: you only need to set the categorization criteria once. Segments allow you to:
- Distinguish branches, geographical areas, or jobs,
- Separate product lines or services,
- Create cross-analyses (e.g. project + location + person responsible).
Thanks to Segments, Banana Accounting allows you to obtain:
- Balance Sheet and Income Statement divided by categories, departments, or projects,
- Comparative analyses between different activities,
- Customized reports to improve management decisions.
Change Chart of Accounts
In some cases, you may decide to adopt a new chart of accounts, for example because you become subject to VAT, because you start managing accounts in different currencies, or for other reasons. Banana Accounting provides practical tools to convert and adapt existing data in a simple and secure way.
You can maintain continuity of the accounting data by updating the account numbering and automatically carrying forward balances and transactions into the new chart of accounts.
The page Change Chart of Accounts explains how to proceed step by step, both for a conversion during the year and for starting a new accounting year with an updated structure.