OHADA accounting: the complete guide to revised SYSCOHADA

In the 17 OHADA countries, every company keeps its books under the same framework: revised SYSCOHADA. Whether it is based in Douala, Abidjan, Dakar or Libreville, an SME applies the same chart of accounts and produces the same financial statements. This guide brings together what a business owner, an accountant or a founder needs to know about OHADA accounting, with links to detailed guides on each topic.

OHADA, AUDCIF, SYSCOHADA: what are we talking about?

OHADA (Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa) brings together 17 States sharing a common business law, adopted as Uniform Acts that apply directly in each country.

For accounting, the reference text is the Uniform Act on accounting law and financial reporting (AUDCIF), adopted on 26 January 2017. It comes with the revised OHADA Accounting System (revised SYSCOHADA), which sets the chart of accounts, valuation rules and the format of financial statements. People often say “SYSCOHADA 2017” or “revised SYSCOHADA 2019”, depending on whether they mean the adoption date or full application.

The 17 countries:

Zone	Countries	Currency
CEMAC	Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Chad	CFA franc (XAF)
UEMOA	Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo	CFA franc (XOF)
Others	Comoros, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo	National currency

The nine-class SYSCOHADA chart of accounts

The OHADA chart of accounts files each transaction in one of nine classes:

Class	Content	Examples
1	Long-term resources	Share capital, reserves, profit, borrowings
2	Fixed assets	Buildings, equipment, software
3	Inventories	Goods, raw materials
4	Third parties	Customers (411), suppliers (401), State, staff
5	Cash	Banks (521), cash (571), Mobile Money
6	Ordinary activity expenses	Purchases, transport, external services, salaries
7	Ordinary activity income	Sales, services
8	Other expenses and income	Non-ordinary items (HAO), income tax
9	Management accounting	Tracking by activity, project or branch

Classes 1 to 5 feed the balance sheet, classes 6 to 8 the income statement. The full list of 2 and 3-digit accounts is on the OHADA chart of accounts page; see also the help center: setting up your chart of accounts.

Normal system or minimal cash-based system

The AUDCIF provides two systems:

the normal system, for most companies: full accrual accounting, four financial statements and detailed notes;
the minimal cash-based system (SMT), for very small entities whose turnover stays below thresholds set by the Uniform Act by type of activity: lighter bookkeeping based on cash receipts and payments.

The choice depends on your activity and turnover. It is detailed in SYSCOHADA normal system and Minimal cash-based system.

Mandatory books and records

Every company subject to the AUDCIF keeps:

a journal, recording each transaction day by day, with supporting evidence;
a general ledger, grouping entries account by account;
a trial balance, summarising the balances of all accounts;
an inventory book, listing assets and liabilities at year end.

Each entry relies on a dated supporting document. Documents and books are kept for ten years. A validated entry is never deleted: it is corrected by a reversing entry.

To read these records without getting lost, see reading the general ledger and reading the trial balance.

OHADA financial statements

Under the normal system, a company produces every year:

the balance sheet, what the company owns and owes at year end;
the income statement, what it earned or lost over the year;
the cash flow statement, where cash comes from and where it goes;
the notes, which detail and explain the figures (fixed assets, debts, headcount, commitments…).

These statements show the previous year’s column alongside (OHADA financial statements in SynkriaOps). The guide Tax package and revised SYSCOHADA financial statements details their content.

The DSF and tax obligations

Financial statements also form the basis of tax obligations. In Cameroon, they are filed with the statistical and tax return (DSF), which adds identification forms and tables required by the tax authority. Filing requires, in some cases, the visa of a chartered accountant.

On top of that come VAT (19.25% in Cameroon, specific rates in each CEMAC and UEMOA country) and withholding taxes. See preparing your DSF from your general ledger and VAT returns in the CEMAC zone.

Closing the financial year

Every year, closing follows the same sequence: inventory, adjusting entries (accrued expenses, deferred income, depreciation, provisions), reconciliation of third-party accounts, bank reconciliation, computing the result, then generating the next year’s opening balances. The most costly traps are detailed in Closing a SYSCOHADA year: the 5 traps and opening balances.

The most common mistakes

Mistake	Consequence	Good practice
Using a chart of accounts from another framework	Non-compliant financial statements	Start from the revised SYSCOHADA chart
Mobile Money booked as petty cash	Wrong cash position, forgotten fees	One cash account per wallet, fees split out
Entries edited or deleted afterwards	Books that prove nothing	Reverse, never delete
Unreconciled third-party accounts	Customer and supplier balances impossible to justify	Reconcile every month
Suspense account never cleared	Distorted balance sheet	Clear it before each closing
Financial statements built in a spreadsheet	Copying errors, unjustifiable figures	Compute them straight from the entries

On Mobile Money, see booking Mobile Money under SYSCOHADA.

Keeping OHADA books without re-keying

Up-to-date OHADA books rest on three principles: capture transactions at the source (imported bank and Mobile Money statements, invoices read automatically), review instead of keying in, and compute financial statements straight from the entries, so every figure traces back to its voucher.

That is what SynkriaOps does, OHADA accounting software built for revised SYSCOHADA: preloaded chart of accounts, bank and Mobile Money statement import, automatic invoice reading, financial statements and DSF bundle computed from your entries, real-time collaboration with your accountant. If your books are in other software, accounting migration takes over your history from your general ledger.

Going further:

Try SynkriaOps free for 14 days, no credit card.