Financial Accounting System (Questions)

I'm starting to build a financial accounting system, beginning with a new database design. Some folks assert that accounting for profit-making enterprises is substantially different than non-profit organizations - like schools and government entities.

I see their point go a degree - mostly on a surface level in that some of the terminology is different, the chart of accounts may be different, and some of the financial statements may be different. But it appears to me that many core table layouts and bookeeping procedures could be the same.

School districts and government entities normally refer to their type of accounting as "fund accounting". A "fund" may have a different name and a number of different objectives than a "corporation" but fund managers and corporate managers still account for assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses using a system where debits and credits must balance.

I'd like to get some feedback on the design of a chart of accounts to serve both types of entities. I'm aware that some organizations use a fairly lengthy account number consisting of a number of concatenated segments. For example, a church with a world-wide presence may have various segments to represent congregations at various levels such as local, regional, country, area, and world-wide (in hierarchical fashion) so that financial statements can be delineated at each level, or consolidated from bottom to top.

One the other hand, an organization may concatenate a number of segments into a larger account, but not in a hierarchical fashion, and not for purposes for bottom-to-top consolidation. Would a few be willing to share what criteria you use or may be aware that others may use for defining the layout or segmentation of your accounts?

Thanks,

Nathan.