Mononuclearf our coordinate Co II complexes have drawn ag reat deal of attention as they often exhibit excellent single-ion magnet (SIM) properties. Among the reported complexes, the axial zero-field splitting parameter (D)w as found to vary drastically both in terms of the sign as well as strength. There are variousp roposals in this respects uch as structural distortions,h eaviera tom substitution, metalligand covalency,t uning secondary coordination sphere, etc. that are expected to control the D values. To assess the importance of structurald istortions vs. heaviera tom substitution effect, herew eh ave undertaken detailed theoretical studies based on the ab initio CASSCF/NEVPT2 methodt o estimate zero-field splitting parameters for twelve complexes reported in the literature. Our test set includes the {Co II X 4 } (where X = O, S, Se) core structure where the D value was found to vary from + 19 to À118cm À1 .B ased on the structural variation, we have classified the complexes into three types (I-III)w here type I complexes were found to exhibit the largestn egative D value as desired for SIMs. The other two types (II and III)o fc omplexes have been found to be inferior with respect to type I. The secondary coordination spherew as also found to influence D,a ss ubstitution on the secondary coordination sphere atom was found to significantly alter the magnitude of D values. Particularly,t wo structuralp arameters, namely,t he dihedrala ngle between the two ligand planes and the ffX-Co-X polar angle were found to heavily influence the sign and strength of D values. Our analysis clearly reveals that these structural factors are much more important than the heavier atom substitution,o r metal-ligand covalency.Alarge variation in the D and E/D values among these complexesd espite possessing av ery close structuralsimilarity offers an exquisite playground for a chemistt odesign and develop new-generation Co II -based SIMs.