Nominal Accounts (Configuration Assistant)

Find this screen

Open: Configuration Assistant > Nominal Accounts.

How to

Use our Chart of Accounts

Sets up a Chart of Accounts typical to most businesses. A quick way to create nominal accounts is to use these and edit them to suit your business.

  • Click Use a set of nominal accounts provided by us. The nominal accounts are shown in the list.
  • You can change the Name, CC, Dept or Report Category.

Create individual nominal accounts

You can add individual nominal accounts to the list.

If you're using different Report Categories, Cost Centres or Departments, click the Edit buttons to add these first.

  • Click Add to add a new line to the grid.

Import your nominal data

You can import your nominal accounts into Sage 200 via CSV file, using Excel or a suitable tool. Every account in the CSV file must have Code and Report Category.

If you're using your own report categories, cost centres or departments; then you must import these too.

You can import your nominal accounts into Sage 200 via CSV file, using Excel or a suitable tool. Every account must have a Code and Report Category. Your income and expense accounts will also need and SOFA Category (if you're an Academy), Cost Centre (fund) and Department.

If you're not using the predefined report categories, cost centres or departments, then you must import these too.

Prepare the import files

You must first prepare your data ready for import. Use the links in the Import wizard to get example import files (CSV files), and details about the import file format (Excel XSL files).

  • Click Import your nominal data and follow the steps in the wizard.

Add report categories

Report categories are used to create your financial statements. They divide your nominal accounts into groups, which are then used to create your financial statements.

Every nominal account must be linked to a report category.

We provide a predefined set of report categories for you. You can create additional report categories as required.

If you're a maintained school, your report categories represent your CFR codes. We provide these for your based on the latest guidance from the Education Funding Authority.

If you're an Academy, we provide a set of predefined report categories common to most schools.

If you find that you need additional categories, you can create them as required.

To add a new report category:

  • Click Edit report categories.

Add SOFA categories

You only need these if you're an Academy. SOFA categories are used to group your nominal accounts together to report the income and expenditure of your funds on the SOFA report.

The predefined set of SOFA categories is taken from SORP 2015. You'll only need to add your own if these requirements have changed.

To add a new sofa category:

  • Click Edit report categories.

Add cost centres

This is an additional code for your nominal accounts, so you can report on individual areas of your business. Add a cost centre to all P & L accounts, and you can run a P & L per cost centre.

Only set these up if you want to use them.

If you're not sure, you can create nominal accounts now without them, and then add them later. We strongly advise you to create all your nominal accounts before processing any transactions.

Additional code added to nominal accounts to represent your funds.

We provide a predefined set of cost centres represents the majority of funds used in schools, but you can add your own to these.

As most transactions will be related to a fund, you'll need to set create accounts with each cost centre for the majority of your income and expense ( P & L) accounts.

  • Click Edit cost centres.

Add departments

This is an additional code for your nominal accounts, so you can report on individual areas of your business. Add a cost centre to all P & L accounts, and you can run a P & L per cost centre.

Only set these up if you want to use them.

If you're not sure, you can create nominal accounts now without them, and then add them later. We strongly advise you to create all your nominal accounts before processing any transactions.

Additional code added to nominal accounts to represent your school depts. Allows you to report on income and expenditure by dept.

We have provided predefined set of depts for you, based on your school type, but you can add your own to these.

  • Click Edit departments.

Create nominal accounts linked to cost centres and departments

If you want to use cost centres and departments with your nominal accounts, Sage 200 can do this for you automatically. It creates a set of nominal accounts that have the same Code but different cost centres and department, for all nominal accounts with Profit and Loss Report Category.

  1. Create your cost centres and departments.
  2. Enter the details of your nominal accounts in the table.
  3. Click Create for Cost Centre/Departments.

    New accounts with a CC and Dept are for all Profit and Loss accounts.


Useful info

About the Chart of Accounts

Nominal accounts are fundamental to the successful management of your finances. The value of every transaction entered into Sage 200 is posted to a nominal account. and this is where the revenue and expenditure of your business school is recorded.

Each nominal account has the following elements:

What accounts do I need as a minimum?

We recommend that you set up all the accounts that Sage 200 uses by default. This makes it easier to set up other areas of Sage 200, and makes sure that your transaction post correctly.

You can't exit the configuration assistant until you've set default accounts for Suspense Account, Accumulated Profit, and Accumulated Fund Profit .

You can set up additional nominal accounts at any time.


What happens when I

Click Save and mark this panel as complete

  • The nominal accounts, report categories, cost centres and departments are created. This may take some time to complete depending on the number of accounts you've added.
  • You can now set your default nominal accounts.
  • When you finish adding information and click Save and Mark as Complete, the panel is marked with a tick to indicate that you have completed this step.
  • While you remain on the Configuration Assistant, you can return to this panel to add or amend any of the details you have entered.

Click Save

  • The nominal accounts, report categories, cost centres and departments are created. This may take some time to complete depending on the number of accounts you've added.
  • You won't be able to set your default nominal accounts as this panel is not marked as complete.
  • You can still come back and change your nominal accounts if you need to.

Click Clear

  • All the accounts in the list are removed. This allows you to start creating your accounts again if you need to.
  • If you only want to remove one account, click Delete.

Click Delete

  • The selected nominal account in the list is removed.
Note - information

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