Each month, your accountant receives a list of your business’s card purchases and account transactions. They then need to review the transactions one by one: what was purchased, which account a transaction belongs to, and whether an expense or income should be assigned to a specific team or project.

As your business grows, so does the number of transactions. More company cards, multiple projects, different teams – and then one day, it’s hard to understand where your money is actually going.

In Holvi, you can now assign chart of accounts categories and cost centres to your transactions in the same place you manage your payments. This eases bookkeeping, while giving you better visibility into your business expenses, income and profitability.

What is a chart of accounts?

A chart of accounts (COA) tells your bookkeeping system what was bought or sold. It’s a list of categories used in accounting to organize your business income and expenses.

Example COA categories:

  • Software
  • Travel expenses
  • Office supplies
  • Marketing
  • Sales revenue

Once you assign each transaction to the correct accounting category, your accountant doesn’t have to sort it out later. Instead, the accounting entry instantly tells them which items your business purchased and the categories they belong to.

In Holvi, you can build a chart of accounts yourself. You can:

  • Create custom categories
  • Edit existing categories
  • Archive old categories
  • Build category hierarchies based on your needs — for example, create a parent category like Marketing and a subcategory like Advertising expenses

Tip: Ask your accountant for a list of accounts they currently use for bookkeeping and use it to build your chart of accounts.

What is a cost centre?

A cost centre tells you which team, project or business area a transaction belongs to.

Examples of cost centres:

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Project A
  • Ecommerce
  • Consulting

Cost centres can be used for income as well as expenses. For example, if you want to track the profitability of a specific project, you can assign that project’s income and expenses to the same cost centre.

This makes it easier to see:

  • Which projects are profitable
  • How much money each team is spending
  • Which areas of your business generate the most revenue

In Holvi, you can assign cost centres to your card transactions, so the information is automatically transferred to your bookkeeping export without any manual sorting.

Why should you use both?

Chart of accounts (COA) categories and cost centres solve different problems:

Chart of accounts = What happened?
 → For example: a software purchase

Cost centre = Who does the transaction belong to?
 → For example: to the marketing team

Together, the chart of accounts and cost centre give you a clear picture of how money moves through your business.

For example, in Holvi you could instantly see that marketing spent €3,000 on software last month, while sales spent €1,500 on travel expenses. These insights help you make better business decisions.

Your accountant will also thank you. They’ll receive ready-to-go, neatly structured data instead of having to manually review a long list of transactions. That saves time — and can reduce your bookkeeping costs.

How to set up cost centres and chart of accounts in Holvi

Setting up cost centres and categories in Holvi doesn’t require any additional technical expertise or systems. It only takes a few minutes and just four steps.

Step 1: Setting up Cost Centres

1. Log in: Log in to your Holvi account and click the “BOOKKEEPING” button on the left. Then select “Cost centres.” Here you’ll see the balance sheets (income and expenses) for each cost centre.

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to navigate to cost centres.

2. Setting up a cost centre: Click “+ ADD NEW,” name the cost centre (e.g., “Project C” or “Marketing”), and confirm by clicking “ADD.”

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to add a new cost centre.


Step 2: Setting up Account Categories

1. Go to category management: Click “BOOKKEEPING” on the left, then select “Category management”.

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to navigate to category management.


2. Add a category: Click “ADD NEW”.

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases where to add a new category.

3. Fill in the category details: You can enter the following information:

  • Parent(s)
  • Number (optional; helps in organization)
  • Name
  • Category group

Click “ADD” to create the category. It will be available for use immediately.


Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to add a new category and which information can be added: parent category, number, name, and category group.


Step 3: Add cost centres and chart of accounts to a transaction

Click on a transaction in the account. Navigate to “Invoice Breakdown" and select the desired Category (chart of accounts) and Cost centre.

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to add a category and cost centre to an individual transaction.

Step 4: Exporting accounting data

You can easily export all your data to your accounting software, including cost centres and the chart of accounts. Click the “Reports” button on the left, scroll down to the “Export Files” section, and download a ready-made export file compatible with your accounting software.

Screenshot from the Holvi app. Showcases how to navigate to Exports in Holvi, allowing for the downloading of ready-to-go accounting data for your accounting software of choice.

Examples: how a chart of accounts and cost centres simplify expense management

Below are three common situations related to managing team and project expenses, and how Holvi helps solve them.

Example 1: “I have 5 company cards and no idea which team is purchasing what.”

Create a cost centre for each team in Holvi and assign transactions accordingly. At the end of the month, you’ll see each team’s purchases at a glance.

For example, marketing may have spent €3,000 while sales spent €1,500.

Example 2: “We have 3 active projects, and I need transactions separated by project.”

You can use cost centres as project codes in Holvi. Assign each expense and income transaction to the correct project.

Now it’s easy to see which projects stay within budget.

Example 3: “My accountant keeps asking me to reorganize exports.”

Set up your chart of accounts in Holvi to match your accounting software and add cost centres as well.

Holvi exports include categories, VAT information and cost centres. The file is compatible with tools like Netvisor, which makes your month-end routine faster. You’ll have one ready-to-go file instead of having to maintain extra spreadsheets for your accountant.

Tip: If you no longer have a use for certain categories, you can always archive them.

Less back-and-forth, and better visibility into your business finances

Cost centres and charts of accounts are now available directly in Holvi — no separate tools or spreadsheets needed.

Using both, you’ll get a clearer view of:

  • Where your money goes
  • Where your income comes from
  • Which teams or projects are most profitable

And your accountant will have fewer questions at the end of the month.

Cost centres and charts of accounts are available in all Holvi plans.

👉 You can find detailed setup instructions in our Help Center.