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CSV mapping each estate agency account to its QuickBooks VAT code. Import file and VAT code list below.
Download chart of accounts (CSV)Also available
For an estate agency on QuickBooks Online, two costs dominate the books: the car and the marketing. Both are easy to mis-record, and the default chart offers no help with either. This is a UK estate agency chart of accounts for QuickBooks Online, in QuickBooks’ own VAT code names, that handles the vehicle two ways and breaks marketing into the accounts the trade really uses. It comes as a readable CSV mapping plus an import CSV for the structure.
Structure imports, codes follow
QuickBooks Online’s chart-of-accounts import carries Account Number, Account Name, Type, and Detail Type, with no tax field. So you import the structure from the CSV and then bulk-assign the default VAT codes from the readable mapping. For an agency the codes are mostly straightforward standard-rated marketing lines; the one that needs care is the vehicle, where the method you choose changes the code.
The vehicle: two accounts, one method per car
The chart records the car two ways and keeps them apart deliberately. Motor vehicle expenses holds actual running costs (fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs) mapped to 20.0% S where VAT applies, for an agent claiming the business-use proportion of real costs. Mileage claims holds the simplified flat rate mapped to No VAT, because the 45p-per-mile first-10,000 and 25p-thereafter rates carry no VAT and already include the cost of buying and running the car. The rule is one method per vehicle: a high-mileage agent usually takes the flat rate, and using one account for it stops the common error of also claiming depreciation.
Marketing, broken down
After the car, marketing is the cost that defines the agency, so the chart splits it into the lines agents recognise: property portal and listing fees (Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket), photography, floor plans and video, for-sale boards and signage, and property styling and staging. Every one maps to 20.0% S, so coding is easy, but the breakdown earns its place in management reporting: it shows what each part of the marketing costs and lets each spend be tied to the instruction it supports. Styling to present a property is a cost of the sale, separate from personal spending, and its own account keeps that distinction visible.
Software, memberships, and the entertainment line
Portal and CRM subscriptions recur monthly and sit in the software subscriptions account at 20.0% S, with the reverse charge available for any overseas-billed tool. Professional memberships such as Propertymark map to Exempt by default, since many body fees are exempt or outside scope, with standard available where VAT applies. The line to avoid misusing is client hospitality: taking a vendor to lunch is business entertainment, not deductible and with blocked input VAT, so it maps to No VAT in the client entertainment account, never into a marketing or travel total.
How to use it
- Open the CSV and adapt the account names to the agency, noting the code mapped to each.
- In QuickBooks Online go to Settings, then Import data, then Chart of Accounts, and upload the CSV for the structure.
- On the import wizard confirm the Type and Detail Type for each account.
- After import, bulk-assign the VAT codes from the mapping, and choose the vehicle method per car.
Keeping a stream of on-the-move receipts coded right is the recurring job:
- Dext reads VAT and supplier from photographed fuel and marketing receipts.
- ExpenseFlow reads each receipt and supplier invoice from a phone photo or forwarded email, codes it to the right marketing or running-cost account, flags vehicle running costs as needing a business-use split, and posts it into QuickBooks Online, so the receipts that pile up over a quarter do not become a month-end scramble.
- Hubdoc pulls recurring portal and software bills into the file.
For the mileage-versus-actual choice, marketing deductions, and home office, see the UK estate agent expenses guide. On Xero instead? See the UK estate agency chart of accounts for Xero. For the codes, see the UK VAT codes in QuickBooks reference.