Hi Jon Carter

To select a different business type, you must reset the account under Settings > Business settings > Data Management. 

some control accounts can not be changed after the company is set up, however, you can edit its information by going to the chart of accounts and clicking on the account in question.

I hope this answers your question

Regards

JohnS.

Thank you JSelemani. I really appreciate you responding.

However, your suggestion does not appear to work. I am using the US version of Cloud Accounting. I am in a trial. In case either of those things matter.

The option you offer does not appear under "Business Settings" in the version I am using but it does appear under "Customize". I mention this not to object to your suggestion, but just in case it matters as to why your suggestion is not working in the version I am using.

If I therefore use Settings > Customize > Data Management and then confirm I want to delete my data and then enter my email address (as requested) to confirm my choice, then I am told the deletion is successful and I am only asked three set-up questions:

1/ My company name

2/ My company address

3/ Do I charge sales tax

The setup process then reestablishes the exact same sole proprietorship chart of accounts that was always present. I am never given any choice to change my company type.

The particular issue I have is that the equity accounts are "Owners Contribution" and "Owners Drawings". These are not relevant in a corporation. I simply want to change the chart of accounts into the equity accounts typical for the structure of a corporation.

I just tried a new trial from scratch with a new email address. I took screen shots of the process but cannot appear to upload them here.

During the original registration process for a trial I am asked two additional questions to the 3 I have already listed above being:

4/ What industry am I in (I selected retail)

5/ How many employees do I have

(These two additional questions are actually asked before the first three but I have numbered them this way for convenience.)

The employee question offered "Sole Trader" as an option and then various employee ranges up to 5,000+. I chose "1 to 4 employees".

The employee question appears to be the only registration step where the company type (sole trader or corporation) is mentioned. In fact, corporation is not mentioned at all, it is only implied by the choice of employees and the NON selection of "sole trader". 

But the setup process nevertheless sets up equity accounts that mirror a sole trader ownership structure. This would be OK if they could be hidden or changed afterwards. But I cannot hide those equity accounts from my chart of accounts. They are marked as system accounts and the option to exclude them from the chart of accounts is greyed out. 

I therefore cannot see how to create a typical corporation equity structure in my chart of accounts.

I am left thinking that the US Version of cloud accounting does not appear to cater for a corporation structure - only sole trader? A quick web search suggests that other international versions (for example your UK version) allow for a corporation. The UK cloud accounting website supplies Chart of Account (CoA) upload templates that provide equity control accounts for a corporate structure (as well as a sole trader template). The US support site only provides a sole trader template. When I try to upload the UK template into my US trial I get error messages saying that the CONTROL_ACCOUNT codes are not recognized.

I am now thinking that your US version of cloud accounting is restricted only to sole trader company types. 

What is wrong with my thinking? What am I missing?  

The business setup questions you get at the beginning are used to set up an online account on our end but not the business type CoAs. I went through it again and can confirm that no different CoAs will be created by selecting a particular business type like Corporation.

You can add/Edit existing accounts, also if you want to upload using a CSV file, please make sure to copy your information into the US provided template as the Control Number column may contain 

Import Chart of Accounts US

The business setup questions you get at the beginning are used to set up an online account on our end but not the business type CoAs. I went through it again and can confirm that no different CoAs will be created by selecting a particular business type like Corporation.

You can add/Edit existing accounts, also if you want to upload using a CSV file, please make sure to copy your information into the US provided template as the Control Number column may contain 

Import Chart of Accounts US