Chart of accounts and cost centres

Owner: Aaron Tushabe · Last reviewed: 29 Oct 2026

Adapted from GitLab's Accounting and Reporting pages (CC BY-SA 4.0).

NFE's books are in ERPNext (company: Watt Works Foundation Limited, currency UGX). This page explains how the accounts and cost centres are organised. For balances, open ERPNext; this page never copies them.

Change control

Only Aaron Tushabe (owner) and Hillary Arinda (approver) add or change accounts and cost centres. To request one, comment on this page. Record every change in the change log at the bottom.

Key accounts

Account	Use it for
1220 Watt Works UGX Bank Account	The company's UGX bank account. All company cash.
1230 Wise USD Account	USD held in Wise. Company money only.
1210 Open Collective Funds (USD)	Closed. Clearing account for the Open Collective history; zero since 13 Jul 2026.
1652 Supplier Deposits Recoverable	Deposits paid for goods not yet delivered, or that should be refunded
1711 Microgrid Plant and Equipment	Capitalised microgrid equipment (fixed assets policy)
1760 Buildings	Equipment shelters and civil works
1780 Accumulated Depreciation	Built up by ERPNext's depreciation entries
1790 CWIP Account	Capital work in progress: sites not yet live
2160 Customer Advances	Customer deposits received before work is done
VAT	VAT payable and paid
3110 Owner's Capital – Aaron Tushabe	Aaron's contributions, and expenses he paid personally
3120 Owner's Capital – Hillary Arinda	Hillary's contributions
4110 Sales	Electricity sales
4230 Grants and Donations	Grants and donations (not owner money)
5120 Electricity Purchases (UEDCL)	Grid electricity bought from UEDCL
5130 Microgrid Equipment and Installation	Small equipment below the capitalisation threshold
5203 Depreciation	Posted by ERPNext
5219 Exchange Gain/Loss	Currency differences
5221 Bank Charges	Bank, mobile-money and transfer fees, plus excise duty on them
5226 Stipends and Allowances	Stipends, such as the microgrid manager and internet stipends
5227 Software and Subscriptions	Software, domains, hosting
5228 Research and Prototyping	Testing hardware, samples, prototypes

Cost centres

Rule: charge spending to the site or team that owns the outcome.

Cost centre	Use it for
Sezibwa Homes - NFE Pilot	Everything for the Sezibwa microgrid, including its sales, UEDCL bills, fees and equipment
Kyanja Town Homes	The Kyanja site (under construction)
Pearl Marina	The Pearl Marina site (under construction)
NFE Operations	Company-wide operations: registration, software, travel, team costs, monthly bank fees
Main	General: owner contributions and anything not tied to a site

Examples:

A transfer fee on a payment for a Kyanja inspection goes to Kyanja Town Homes, the same as the payment.
A technician's trip that covers two sites is split between their cost centres in one journal entry.

Remark keys

Journal entries created by a migration or bulk process start their User Remark with a key, so they can be searched:

Key	Meaning
`[OC-<id>]`	Migrated from Open Collective
`[BANK-<line>]`	Migrated from a bank-statement line
`[OWNER-n]`	Paid personally by an owner, outside the bank
`[CUTOVER-n]`	Open Collective cut-over entries
`[RECLASS-<entry>]`	Moves an earlier entry to a different account

Change log

Date	Change	Why	Who
29 Oct 2026	Added 1652, 1711, the two asset categories, and the Microgrid System and Equipment Shelter items	Capitalising the Sezibwa build-out	Aaron Tushabe
17 Oct 2026	Created bank accounts 1210/1220/1230, owner's capital 3110/3120, 4230, and 5120–5228; cost centres for each site; FY2024-25 and FY2025-26	Open Collective migration	Aaron Tushabe