The Swiss Chart of Accounts (Kontenrahmen KMU) in 2026: How SMEs Structure Their Books

The Kontenrahmen KMU is the standard chart of accounts used by most Swiss SMEs. It sorts every transaction into nine numbered classes, from assets through to the year-end result, so your books stay comparable, auditable, and ready for tax filing.

It is not written into law. The Swiss Code of Obligations requires orderly bookkeeping and a true and fair annual account, but it does not prescribe a specific set of accounts. The Kontenrahmen KMU fills that gap. It is maintained by veb.ch, the Swiss association of accounting professionals, and was updated to match the accounting law reform that came into force on 1 January 2023. A clean chart of accounts is the difference between books that produce an annual report in days and books that take weeks to untangle before an audit or a sale.

What the Kontenrahmen KMU is and who maintains it

The Kontenrahmen KMU is a recommended, not legally mandated, account framework maintained by veb.ch and aligned to the Swiss Code of Obligations.

Swiss accounting software (Bexio, Abacus, Banana, Run my Accounts), fiduciaries, and auditors all expect it. Because the framework is shared, a set of books built on the KMU chart can move between a founder, an outsourced accounting team, and an auditor without translation. That shared language is the practical reason to keep the standard structure rather than invent your own. For the setup and monthly running of these books, see our accounting and payments service.

The nine account classes

The chart runs from class 1 (assets) to class 9 (year-end closing). Classes 1 and 2 form the balance sheet, classes 3 to 8 the income statement.

Class	Content	Statement
1	Assets: cash, receivables, inventory, fixed assets	Balance sheet
2	Liabilities and equity	Balance sheet
3	Operating revenue from goods and services	Income statement
4	Cost of materials, goods, and third-party services	Income statement
5	Personnel expense	Income statement
6	Other operating expense, depreciation, financial result	Income statement
7	Result from ancillary operations	Income statement
8	Extraordinary, non-operating, and prior-period items; direct taxes	Income statement
9	Year-end closing: profit or loss for the year	Closing

How the numbering hierarchy works

Every account number reads left to right: the first digit is the class, the second the main group, the third the group, and the fourth the individual account.

So account 1000 is cash, 1020 the bank, 1100 trade receivables, 2000 trade payables, 2800 equity, 3000 sales revenue, 4000 cost of materials, 5000 wages, 6000 premises cost, 6800 depreciation, 6900 financial expense, and 8900 direct taxes. You extend the chart by adding your own four-digit accounts inside an existing three-digit group. You do not change the class logic. That keeps the balance sheet and income statement in the shape every Swiss fiduciary and auditor reads by default.

When your SME must use double-entry accounting

Sole proprietorships and partnerships must keep double-entry books once turnover reaches CHF 500’000; every AG and GmbH must do so regardless of turnover.

This comes from Art. 957 of the Code of Obligations (valid 2026). Below the CHF 500’000 threshold, a sole proprietorship or partnership may keep a simplified record of income, expenditure, and asset position rather than a full double-entry ledger. Legal entities have no such relief: an AG or GmbH keeps double-entry books from incorporation. Art. 957a sets the principles of orderly bookkeeping (complete, truthful, systematic, supported by vouchers), and Art. 958f requires books and vouchers to be kept for 10 years. Once you cross into double-entry, the Kontenrahmen KMU is the structure you build on. The tax accounts in class 8 connect directly to your corporate tax and VAT compliance work.

Setting up your chart of accounts: a practical sequence

Start from the standard KMU chart, activate only the accounts your business actually uses, and add detail inside existing groups rather than inventing new class logic.

• Select the standard Kontenrahmen KMU as the base chart in your accounting software.
• Keep the nine-class structure intact. Do not renumber classes to suit a preference.
• Map each revenue stream into a class 3 subgroup so you can read turnover by line of business.
• Separate personnel cost (class 5) from other operating cost (class 6) so gross and operating margin stay visible.
• If you are VAT registered, set up the VAT accounts in the class 2 liability range correctly from the start.
• Keep direct taxes and one-off items in class 8, out of the operating result.

You can review the full accounting cluster in our accounting and payments guides.

Common chart-of-accounts mistakes Swiss SMEs make

The frequent errors are over-customising the class logic, mixing private and business transactions, and burying tax and one-off items inside the operating result.

• Renumbering or collapsing classes, which breaks comparability and confuses the auditor.
• Recording owner drawings or private costs in operating expense accounts instead of the equity or shareholder accounts.
• Posting corporate income and capital tax inside classes 3 to 7, which hides the true operating margin.
• Creating a new account for every supplier instead of using a payables ledger under a single control account.
• Leaving VAT postings unstructured, which turns each quarterly return into a manual reconstruction.

Kontenrahmen versus Kontenplan: the difference that trips founders up

The Kontenrahmen is the master framework of possible accounts; the Kontenplan is the shorter list your specific company actually uses.

The two words are often used interchangeably, and that causes confusion. The Kontenrahmen KMU is the full catalogue: every class, group, and account a Swiss business might ever need. Your Kontenplan is the subset you activate. A software company with no inventory will never open the class 1 stock accounts or the class 4 goods accounts; a retailer will use both heavily. The discipline is to draw your Kontenplan from the standard Kontenrahmen rather than build one from nothing. That way the numbers keep their standard meaning, and a new accountant, fiduciary, or auditor reads account 3000 as sales revenue on day one without asking.

A worked example: mapping a small GmbH to the classes

The clearest way to see the chart in use is to post a month of a small GmbH and watch each entry land in its class.

Take a Zurich software GmbH. A client pays an invoice: the bank account (1020) rises and trade receivables (1100) fall. The company pays its developers: wages (5000) increase and the bank (1020) falls. It pays office rent: premises cost (6000) rises. It books the monthly write-down on its laptops: depreciation (6800) rises and the asset account in class 1 falls. At quarter end it files VAT: the VAT payable account in class 2 clears against the bank. At year end it estimates corporate income tax: direct taxes (8900) rise in class 8, kept out of the operating result so the operating margin still reads cleanly. Every one of those entries sits in a standard account, which is why the resulting balance sheet and income statement need no reformatting before they go to the auditor or into the annual report. This is the same structure our team runs for clients in accounting and payments.

VAT, Swiss GAAP FER, and where the chart connects to the rest of your finance stack

The chart of accounts is the base layer; VAT logic, the closing standard, and your reporting all sit on top of it and depend on it being clean.

If your business is VAT registered, the input and output VAT accounts in the class 2 range must be set up so each quarterly return reads straight off the ledger rather than being rebuilt by hand. Most SMEs report under the Code of Obligations. Larger or externally financed companies sometimes prepare a second set of figures under Swiss GAAP FER for lenders or investors; that reporting layer still draws on the same underlying chart, so a disciplined Kontenplan pays off twice. When the chart is clean, month-end close, VAT filing, and management reporting all speed up together, which is the point of getting the structure right before volume builds.

Is the Kontenrahmen KMU required by Swiss law?

No. The Code of Obligations requires orderly bookkeeping and a true and fair annual account (Art. 957 and 957a CO) but does not prescribe a chart of accounts. The Kontenrahmen KMU is the recommended standard maintained by veb.ch and expected by fiduciaries, accounting software, and auditors.

What turnover triggers double-entry accounting in Switzerland?

CHF 500’000. A sole proprietorship or partnership that reaches this turnover in the prior financial year must keep double-entry books. An AG or GmbH must keep them from incorporation regardless of turnover (Art. 957 CO, valid 2026).

Which account classes make up the balance sheet and which the income statement?

Classes 1 (assets) and 2 (liabilities and equity) form the balance sheet. Classes 3 to 8 form the income statement, and class 9 holds the year-end closing that produces the profit or loss for the year.

Where do direct taxes go in the KMU chart of accounts?

In class 8, typically account 8900, outside the operating result. Keeping corporate income and capital tax out of classes 3 to 7 lets you read the operating margin before tax.

Can I add my own accounts to the Swiss chart of accounts?

Yes. Extend within the existing groups by adding four-digit accounts under the relevant three-digit group. Keep the class logic (1 to 9) unchanged so your statements stay comparable and your fiduciary and auditor can follow them.