How to skip default Chart of Accounts creation and import custom COA from Excel during ERPNext setup

ERPNext Accounting
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1

Hello Team,

During ERPNext installation and Company setup, the system automatically creates a default Chart of Accounts based on the selected country / template.

However, in our case:

  • We already have a pre-defined Chart of Accounts in Excel

  • We do not want to use ERPNext’s default COA

  • We want to create/import only our custom COA from Excel

My questions are:

  1. Is there a supported way to prevent or skip the automatic Chart of Accounts creation during Company setup?

  2. Can the Company be created without selecting a default COA template, and then have accounts imported manually?

  3. What is the recommended approach to import a full Chart of Accounts from Excel (including groups, root types, and hierarchy) without conflicts with default accounts?

  4. Are there any best practices or pitfalls to be aware of when replacing the default COA with a custom one?

The goal is to ensure:

  • Clean accounting structure

  • No unused default accounts

  • Safe and upgrade-friendly implementation

Looking forward to guidance on the correct ERPNext-supported approach.

Thanks in advance.

2

I don’t think it’s possible to skip default chart of accounts but after setup there is an option through chart of accounts import tool.

I have used this in one of our implementations earlier.

3

@mujeerhashmi

Thank you for your Help. If you have any idea about the Unable to remove Company Abbreviation from Chart of Accounts – is there a supported way?

Please Share you thoughts.

Regards,

Yash

4

  1. Create the company and use the default COA

  2. Use the Chart of Accounts Importer in the Accounting Workspace

  3. As long as you have not created any transactions it will replace the default COA and keep your imported COA. Even if you have created transactions they can all be deleted with Company → Manage → Delete Transactions (hopefully your admin never goes rogue :slight_smile: )

Hope it helps