Using analytical codes

Management accounting (comptabilité analytique) is an internal tool that lets you allocate expenses and revenue across management axes: department, project, cost centre, activity. It operates alongside the statutory general ledger without replacing it.

Management accounting vs general accounting

Aspect	General accounting	Management accounting
Legal obligation	Yes — SYSCOHADA mandatory	No — internal management tool
Impact on financial statements	Yes (balance sheet, P&L, FEC)	No — zero legal impact
Accounts used	Classes 1 to 8	Class 9 (analytical)
Purpose	Statutory and tax compliance	Decision support, performance monitoring
Level of detail	Legal (aggregated by cost type)	Free (by department, project…)

Concepts — Analytical family and codes

Analytical family = a management axis (e.g. DEPARTMENTS, PROJECTS, BRANCHES).

Analytical code = a value within the axis (e.g. in the DEPARTMENTS family: COM = Sales, OPS = Operations, FIN = Finance).

An accounting voucher can carry one code per family on each entry line.

Creating an analytical family

Go to Accounting → Analytics → Families → New family.
Enter the family code (e.g. DEPT) — short, no spaces or special characters.
Enter the name (e.g. Departments).
Click Save.

Adding codes to a family

Open the family just created (e.g. DEPT — Departments).
Click New analytical code.
Fill in:
- Code: COM (Sales), OPS (Operations), FIN (Finance), DIR (Management)
- Label: the full name of the code
- Family: already pre-selected
Repeat for each code. Click Save after each entry.

Assigning an analytical code during entry

When creating an accounting voucher, each entry line can receive an analytical code:

Open Accounting → Vouchers → New voucher.
Enter the account, label, and amount as usual.
On the expense or revenue line (class 6 or 7 accounts), click the Analytical code field.
Select the family (e.g. DEPT) then the code (e.g. OPS).
Continue entry as normal. The analytical code does not affect the debit/credit balance.

Example — allocating payroll across 3 departments

Situation: May 2026 payroll cost = XAF 3,250,000 to be split between Sales (45%), Operations (40%), and Finance (15%).

Account	Label	Debit	Credit	Analytical code
661000	Gross payroll — Sales	1,462,500		DEPT: COM
661000	Gross payroll — Operations	1,300,000		DEPT: OPS
661000	Gross payroll — Finance	487,500		DEPT: FIN
422000	Payroll payable		3,250,000

Total debit = XAF 3,250,000 = Total credit → balance maintained.

In the general ledger, account 661000 shows XAF 3,250,000 in payroll expense. In the analytical view, filtering on DEPT: COM shows XAF 1,462,500, etc.

Viewing analytical reports

Go to Reports & Exports → General ledger, then activate the Analytical code filter and select the desired code (e.g. OPS).

SynkriaOps displays only entries tagged OPS, with their running balance. See Consulting the general ledger →.

In Reports → Analytics → Expenses by code, select the DEPT family.

The report shows, for each code (COM, OPS, FIN, DIR), the total class-6 expenses for the selected period, broken down by account.

In Reports → Analytics → Analytical P&L, select the PROJECTS family.

For each project, SynkriaOps displays the tagged revenue (class 7) and expenses (class 6) and computes the analytical margin: Revenue − Expenses.

Limitations to be aware of

Limitation	Detail
No tax impact	Statutory financial statements (SYSCOHADA balance sheet, P&L) do not include analytical codes
No carry-forward	Analytical balances do not roll over — analytics is a management view for the current period
Optional per line	An entry without an analytical code is valid — completeness depends on data-entry discipline
Not included in FEC	The statutory FEC export does not include analytical codes (fixed format imposed by the standard)