Plan General Contable: much more than a chart of accounts
Almost everybody knows it by the three-figure numbers, which is precisely the one part that is not compulsory.
The rules that set out, in Spain, the accounting recognition and measurement criteria, the annual accounts formats and the chart of accounts.
It was approved by RD 1514/2007, and there is a reduced version for small companies: the PGC for small companies in RD 1515/2007. It has five parts:
- Conceptual framework — what an asset, a liability or an item of income is; the accounting principles. Compulsory.
- Recognition and measurement rules — how each thing is measured. Compulsory.
- Annual accounts — the standard, abridged and small-company formats. Compulsory.
- The chart of accounts — the numerical coding. Voluntary.
- Definitions and accounting relationships — what goes into each account. Voluntary.
The groups, to find your way around
- 1 basic financing · 2 fixed assets · 3 inventories
- 4 creditors and debtors · 5 financial accounts
- 6 purchases and expenses · 7 sales and income
- 8 and 9 expenses and income taken to equity
The ones used day to day are few: 430 clientes, 400 proveedores, 410 acreedores, 572 bancos, 570 caja, 600 compras, 700 ventas, 472 Hacienda Pública IVA soportado and 477 IVA repercutido.
The sector adaptations
There are charts adapted for particular sectors. The most relevant one outside the commercial world is RD 1491/2011, which adapts the chart to non-profit entities and adds the action plan format.
The mistake that comes up most
Reducing the chart to the account numbers. Picking the right number for an account fixes nothing if the measurement basis is wrong: what gets checked in an audit or an inspection is the recognition and measurement rules, not the numbering.
Where this carries on in Cairos: Accounting and annual accounts in Cairos.
Terms that go with this one
Almost no tax concept makes sense on its own. These three are the ones that most often turn up beside it.
Journal entry
The entry that records an economic event in the journal, split between debit and credit accounts for the same amount.
AccountingAnnual accounts
The set of documents with which a company closes its financial year, which its general meeting approves and which it files at the Registro Mercantil.
Non-profit bodiesAnnual financial report
The document in which a non-profit body sets out its income and expenditure for the year, identified by category and by project.
This, handled without thinking about it
Cairos keeps the invoices, the record books and Hacienda's forms from the same data, so the theory on this page turns into boxes that are already filled in.
No card and no minimum term.