Luxembourg’s standard chart of accounts (PCN): the 7 classes and how to read an account number

The PCN: one shared catalogue of accounts

Rent, a sale, a bank transfer, a supplier invoice: every transaction has to land in an account. In Luxembourg, the list of those accounts is standardised.

The standard chart of accounts, or PCN, is the chart of accounts referred to in Article 12 of the Commercial Code. Its current content is set by the Grand-Ducal Regulation of 12 September 2019, published in Mémorial A No 631. It replaced the regulation of 10 June 2009 and applies to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2020; the rules on how it operates and on the reconciliation table took effect on 4 January 2021.

In practice the PCN is a catalogue of numbered accounts. Every business subject to it uses the same structure, which makes figures comparable and lets them be filed in a standard form with the Trade and Companies Register. For the register itself, see our article on the RCS in Luxembourg.

The 7 classes: balance sheet on one side, profit and loss on the other

Article 3 of the regulation splits the accounts into seven classes. Balance sheet items go into classes 1 to 5; profit and loss items go into classes 6 and 7.

Reading an account number: the rent example

The first digit gives the class; every extra digit narrows the account down. Let’s follow office rent from the digit 6 to the account where it is actually recorded.

The regulation distinguishes two kinds of accounts. Grouping accounts (comptes de regroupement) organise and total the information; posting accounts (comptes d’imputation) are the finest level, with no further subdivision. Businesses may only record transactions in posting accounts: office rent is therefore booked in 61112 and rolls up automatically into 6111, 611, 61 and class 6.

A few other accounts a small business meets every day:

Who must use the PCN?

According to Guichet.lu, the following are in principle required to use the PCN: natural persons established as traders, commercial companies with legal personality (SA, SE, SARL, SCA, SCOP, SCS, SENC), European and Luxembourg economic interest groupings, and branches of foreign companies. Since 1 January 2020, financial holding companies (SOPARFI) are also subject to it.

An exempt business still has to keep proper books under the general rules of double-entry accounting: chronological, complete, faithful and up to date. If you are still choosing a legal form, our comparison of the SARL and the SARL-S can help.

An internal chart is allowed, but balances are reported in PCN format every year

The PCN does not force its numbering on your day-to-day software. A business may keep its current accounts with an internal chart of accounts, for example its group’s. In that case it reports, every year, the balances of the accounts listed in the PCN for filing with the RCS, stating that its day-to-day bookkeeping follows an internal chart.

It must also document how its internal chart maps to the PCN and keep that documentation at its registered office. The “account balances” are the general trial balance after inventory, at the closing date, showing the net debit or credit balance of every account.

From PCN to filing: eCDF, then the RCS

Businesses subject to the PCN prepare and validate their accounts electronically on the financial data collection platform (eCDF) before filing them electronically with the RCS. Businesses that are not subject to the PCN file their accounting documents with the RCS under the rules that apply to them.

1. 1
   Book every transaction in the posting account that fits it best, as you go.
2. 2
   At year-end, draw up the trial balance after inventory: these are the account balances.
3. 3
   If you use an internal chart, apply your mapping to the PCN.
4. 4
   Prepare and validate the accounts on eCDF, then file them with the RCS.

See Zuelen’s accounting features and, if you are just starting out, our guide to accounting for the self-employed.