Set up operational settings

Before using Sage 200, you must choose your Operational settings. These apply across the Sage 200 Financials and Commercials modules.

Open: Accounting System Manager > Settings > System Settings | Operational settings.

Open: Accounting System Manager > Settings > View System Settings | Operational settings.

Enter or view the following settings:

Number of open accounting periods

Enter the number of open periods that are permitted in the current year. You must have at least 1 period open. You can open up to 20 accounting periods. Use Maintain Accounting Periods to open the periods.

You can have more than one accounting period open at a time. This means that you do not have to complete a month end routine before opening the next period.

Sage 200 uses the transaction date to decide which period the transaction should be posted to.

First VAT Return Date / Next VAT Return Date

When you first create your company, enter the date for your first VAT Return.

Once you've submitted a VAT return, you can see your Next VAT Return Date. This updates each time a VAT Return is produced.

You can't change your Next VAT Return Date here. To change this date, use Nominal Ledger > Utilities > Amend VAT Period End Date > Amend VAT Period End Date. See Amend VAT period end date.

Next Unique Reference Number (URN)

When a transaction is entered or automatically generated by an activity, such as Foreign Account Revaluation, or Balance Ledgers, a URN The unique reference number assigned to a complete transaction to assist in tracing the progress of the transaction through Sage 200. This number is 12 digits long and comprises of: 3 digits for the user number, 2 digits for the source module in which the transaction was created, and a 7 digit sequential reference number. is automatically allocated to it, for example, URN 002010000168.

The last seven digits represent a sequential reference number. When you first use Sage 200 Accounts you can enter a starting Next Unique Reference Number (URN) here. Once transactions are posted to the Sage 200 ledgers, you cannot change this number.

Enter the sequential reference number in the Next Available URN box. All subsequent transactions will have a URN following on from this number.

Note:

In certain circumstances, instead of one URN per transaction, groups of transactions are given one URN. For example:

If you are consolidating Nominal Ledgers, one URN is supplied by the receiving company. There will be one per consolidation run.
Cash Book transactions in the Nominal Ledger are given one URN for the set of postings.
Prepayment and Accruals are given one URN per set of postings.
If the Nominal Ledger is set to update with a batch total on accounts, one URN is given for the single posting that is created.

The URN is used essential for tracking postings through the system into the Nominal Ledger.

What do the first five digits mean?

The first three digits represent the user number.

To identify a user number you need to look at the user details. The User ID (number) is shown on the User list within System Administration.
The fourth and fifth digits is the code for the module where the transaction was entered and posted.

The modules are identified by the following numbers:
- 01: Sales Ledger.
- 02: Purchase Ledger.
- 03: Nominal Ledger.
- 04: Payroll (n/a).
- 05: Job Costing (n/a).
- 06: Stock Control.
- 07: Sales Order Processing.
- 08: Purchase Order Processing.
- 10: Cash Book.
- 11: Bill of Materials (n/a).
- 12: Fixed Assets (n/a).
So, for example, we would know that URN 002010000168, was created by user number 002, and posted in module 01 (Sales Ledger).

Split postings between cost centres for balance sheet accounts

If required, you can also choose to create a balance sheet per cost centre A segment of an organisation for which costs are required to be collected and formally reported on separately; e.g. a company division such as sales or production. or department A subdivision of a cost centre where costs are required to be collected and reported on separately; e.g. a sales area or a manufacturing depot.. To do this, transactions are also posted to the balance sheet nominal accounts that have the same CC and Dept combination as your costumer and supplier accounts.

Select this option to produce balance sheet reports, broken down by cost centres A segment of an organisation for which costs are required to be collected and formally reported on separately; e.g. a company division such as sales or production. and departments A subdivision of a cost centre where costs are required to be collected and reported on separately; e.g. a sales area or a manufacturing depot..

Transactions will post to the default nominal balance sheet accounts, together with the appropriate cost centre and department for that transaction.

The cost centre and department is taken from the default nominal account held on the customer or supplier record. Transactions for customers or suppliers, with different default cost centres and departments, will post to different Debtors, Creditors and VAT Control accounts. You must create Debtors, Creditors and VAT Control nominal accounts for each default cost centre and department used in your customer and supplier records.

Note: If you have not created a default balance sheet account for the appropriate cost centre or department, that part of the transaction will post to the suspense account.
If this option is not selected, transactions will still post to Profit and Loss accounts using the CC and Dept combination taken from the default nominal accounts held on customer and supplier accounts.

See Using cost centres and departments with nominal accounts.

If you use the Split postings between cost centres for balance sheet accounts setting, make sure that your default nominal accounts for Creditors Control and Debtors Control are not set to use a specified account with a cost centre. To check this:

Open: Nominal Ledger > Utilities > Ledger Set Up > Default Nominal Accounts.

Select the Balance Sheet tab.
Make sure the Use Specified setting is set to No for both the Creditors Control and Debtors Control accounts.

The following examples show how a standard invoice transaction is posted to the Nominal Ledger with, and without, the split posting option selected.

Example

These two examples are based on:

A customer record where the default nominal account is 31100, cost centre SAL, department WHS.
The default nominal account for debtors is 14100.
The default nominal account for VAT on sales is 26100.
A sales invoice is posted for £100 plus £20.00 VAT.
The revenue posted to 32100 cost centre SAL, department XYX.

When the transaction is posted, the nominal breakdown is:

The split posting option is not selected.

32100	SAL	XYZ	100	Credit
26100			20.00	Credit
14100			120.00	Debit

The split posting option is selected.

32100	SAL	XYZ	100	Credit
26100	SAL	WHS	20.00	Credit
14100	SAL	WHS	120.00	Debit

Note: The cost centre breakdown is always applied for Profit and Loss accounts.

Update the nominal ledger immediately once transactions are entered

If you enable Update the nominal ledger immediately once transactions are entered this means the Nominal Ledger is updated automatically, and the transactions are posted as follows:

Transactions dated in accounting periods that are either Open or Closed, are posted directly to the accounts.
Transactions dated for periods that are Closed, are posted to the next nearest open period.
Transactions dated in Future periods go to the deferred postings file.

When the Future period is opened, the transactions in the deferred postings file (dated in that period), are posted to the accounts.

When you choose to update the Nominal Ledger immediately, your Nominal Ledger will always reflect the latest position. Your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet information will change as transactions are entered.

If you disable Update the nominal ledger immediately once transactions are entered this means you have to update the Nominal Ledger manually, and the transactions are posted as follows:

Transactions dated in Open or Closed periods are placed into the current postings file.

Transactions in the current postings file can be posted to the accounts. Do this by running Update Waiting Postings in the Nominal Ledger.
Transactions dated for Future periods go to the deferred postings file.

When the Future period is opened, the transactions in the deferred postings file, dated in that period, are moved to the current postings file. To post transactions from the current posting file to your accounts, run Update Waiting Postings in the Nominal Ledger.

When you choose to update the Nominal Ledger manually, your Nominal Ledger reflects the position at the last time you ran the Update Waiting Postings option.

Enable Intrastat consolidation

Select this in the UK to summarise all your low value transactions into one entry on Intrastat declaration.

Note: This does not apply in Ireland.

Check the low value threshold amount in Consolidate Intrastat entries with a value less than.

As of August 2018, the low value threshold was £175 (HMRC). For more information about the low value threshold, see UK Trade Info - Low Value Threshold (opens in a new tab).

Once selected:

All transactions below the threshold specified are consolidated into one entry on the Intrastat declaration, for each destination or arrival country.
Each consolidated entry is given a special commodity code of 9950 000.
The threshold is applied to the total value of each line on the sales or purchase invoice, not to individual items on the line.

Use period exchange rates

Select this to set up more than one exchange rate per currency. The multiple exchange rates are set up to be used in date ranges.

Use segmented addresses

Select this if you want to enter detailed address information throughout Sage 200.

You can enter City, County and Country information for an address, in addition to the address and post code. This makes it easier to report on your information, by different cities, counties and countries.

Select this if you are using CRM, as it allows fuller integration with Sage CRM, which uses segmented addresses.

Sage 200 CRM is no longer supported with Sage 200 Professional from September 2021. This has been replaced by the Qmulus Qnect Connector integration. See Sage CRM - Qmulus Qnect Connector (opens in a new tab).