Set up your bank accounts

How you set up your bank accounts will depend on how your business operates.

For example, the number of bank accounts you have will affect the number of nominal and bank accounts you must set up and whether you need to select a default bank account. When you have more than one bank account you can identify the one you use most as your default and Sage 200 will display it first wherever bank accounts are listed.

When you created your site on Sage 200, we set up a bank account and supporting nominal accounts for you.

The three nominal accounts are:

Bank account.

Normal transactions such as sales and receipts are posted to this nominal account.

It is normal practice to have a separate nominal account for each bank account.
Bank charges.

This nominal account holds bank charges applied to the bank account.

You could use a single nominal account to hold the bank charges attracted by all your bank accounts or use separate nominal accounts for each of your bank accounts.
Exchange differences.

Used only for bank accounts that operate in a currency other than your base currency, this nominal account holds any differences in exchange rate conversions from transactions posted to the bank account.

You could use a single nominal account to hold the exchange differences for all your foreign currency accounts or use separate nominal accounts for each of your foreign bank accounts.

Decisions to make about your bank accounts

Do you want to use the default bank account we have provided?

The bank account we created for you has its sort code set to 00-00-00 and there are no account number or name details. It is also set to be your default bank account. You have a decision to take around if, and how, you use it. You can:
- Use the bank account as it has been provided to you.
  
  If you have a single bank account and don't need to clearly identify it (or don't want to announce its details) within Sage 200 use the bank account we set up for you without amending it. It will work just fine.
- Update its details (description, sort code and account number) so that it looks more like your 'real' bank account.
  
  Use this approach if you want your colleagues to be able to identify the bank account. This would be important if you have more than one bank account detailed in the system and want to identify each of them.
Do you want to create additional bank accounts?

If so, we recommend that you create a nominal account for each new bank account.
Do you want to use the Sage bank feeds service?

This allows you to download transactions from your online bank account, and then reconcile these with your transactions in Sage 200.
Do you want to use the Sage e-Banking service?

This allows you to take advantage your banks e-Banking service and link it to Sage 200. You can import and reconcile your bank statement, and generate payments for suppliers and your VAT Return that you send straight to your bank.
Do you want to use Sage Invoice Payments?

Use Sage Invoice Payments to request and receive payments from your customers by using Stripe, PayPal, or GoCardless. When your customer pays the invoice, the transactions can be downloaded and posted in Sage 200.
Do you want to use the Supplier Payments service?

If you have a Supplier Payments account, you can pay suppliers and your VAT Return directly from Sage 200.

Example

John is setting up his bank accounts.

His company has two bank accounts which both operate in pounds.

He decides to use the nominal accounts and bank account we created for use in Sage 200, and then create a nominal account and bank account for their second bank account.

Once the bank accounts are set up he enters the opening balances of both accounts and then sets one of the accounts to be the default.

The set up tasks John performed in this scenario:

Create a nominal account.

John creates a new bank nominal account for the second bank account. They will use the bank charges nominal account for both their bank accounts. As both of their bank accounts operate in the operating currency of the company, there is no need for exchange differences nominal accounts.
Create a bank account.

John created a new bank account and linked to it the new bank account nominal account he created and the existing bank charges nominal account.
Amend a bank account.

John amended the details of the bank account we provided with Sage 200. He added a Description, Sort code, Account name and Account number so that this account can be easily identified by his colleagues.
Enter each bank account's opening balance.

John posted opening balances to both bank accounts. One of the accounts is new and has only an opening balance so he posted a single value opening balance. The other bank account had been reconciled outside of Sage 200 and contained a number of unreconciled transactions so John posted a reconciled opening balance to it.
Reconcile the bank account's opening balance.

John needed to reconcile the opening balance of the new bank account which contained only an opening balance transaction.
Identify the default bank account.

John recognised that the bank account that would be used most was not marked as the default bank account in Sage 200 so rectified that situation.

Steps to add and use a new bank account

Create a nominal account for each bank account, and if required, nominal accounts for bank charges and exchange differences.
Create the bank account
Enter your bank account's opening balance.

In Sage 200 you can enter an opening balance for your bank account in two ways:
- As a single transaction representing the actual balance on the account.
  
  We recommend that you use this if your bank balance is a single value. This would be the case if:
  - You have reconciled the bank account outside of Sage 200 and there are no unreconciled transactions sitting on your bank account when you bring its details into Sage 200.
  - You are using a new bank account and it contains only an opening balance.
  In this case, we recommend that you reconcile the opening balance within Sage 200 before you start normal bank reconciliation matching.
- As a reconciled balance and unreconciled transactions.
  
  We recommend that you use this when your existing bank account has been reconciled in a previous system and the balance of the account includes unreconciled transactions.
  
  Entering an opening balance this way makes sure that:
  - The statement balance for the bank account in Sage 200 matches the reconciled value of your bank account.
  - The book balance for the bank account in Sage 200 matches your actual bank balance.
Reconcile the opening balance

This is only required if you posted a single opening balance to the account.
Mark a bank account as your default.

This is only required when you have multiple bank accounts and the one you use most is not currently marked as the default.

Some things to remember when setting an opening balance

You cannot amend a posted opening balance transaction

When you have posted an opening balance transaction you cannot amend it directly. If you make a mistake when entering an opening balance you must post a payment or receipt (as appropriate) to adjust the opening balance.

Setting the opening balance on a non base currency account

If you are specifying an opening balance for a bank account that operates in a currency that is different to your base currency, you need to know the exchange rate that is to be applied to the opening balance transaction. Sage 200 will automatically use the exchange rate specified in the currency and exchange rate settings but you can overwrite it if required.

When you post a bank opening balance transaction

For both single value and reconciled opening balance transactions:

An opening balance transaction (OP) is entered for the bank account. This is not posted to the nominal ledger.
The bank account balance is updated.

For single value opening balance transactions only:

The opening balance transaction is not reconciled.
The Statement opening balance on the bank reconciliation window is 0 (zero).

For reconciled opening balance transactions only:

Individual cash book transactions (BR and BP) are entered for the unreconciled value.

They are not posted to the nominal ledger.
The Statement opening balance on the bank reconciliation window is updated.

What do you want to do?

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