How to create or edit a ledger account

Summary

How to create or edit an account or nominal code in Sage Accounting.

Resolution

Creating and Editing Categories (Also called nominal accounts or codes)

Categories group transactions to track business performance. Each category has a Group and Type, which determine how transactions appear in financial reports like Profit & Loss and the Balance Sheet.

ProductName automatically uses some categories called control accounts to ensure correct tax recording. You can't edit control accounts with an asterisk.

Create a category

Go to Settings, Business settings, Chart of Accounts.
Select New category.
Enter the details and click Save. The fields marked with an asterisk * are mandatory.

Edit a category

Changing the type changes how the values show in your reports. It doesn’t update entered transactions.

Delete a category

You must keep all categories, but you can exclude them from selection lists. An asterisk marks control accounts, which you can’t edit or remove.

Go to Settings, Business settings, Chart of Accounts.
Open on the relevant category.
Clear the Included in the Chart check box.
Click Save.

Category Fields

This groups ledger accounts and ensures correct display of profit and loss and balance sheet reports.

Profit and loss

Group	Type	Description
Income	Revenue	Income from the things you sell
Income	Other income	Other sources of income
Expenditure	Direct expenses	Costs directly related to things you sell such as packaging, labour charges, import duty etc.
Expenditure	Expenses	Other costs such as staff wages, utility bills, business expenses etc.

Balance sheet

Group	Category	Description
Asset	Bank	Balance of your bank accounts and credit cards
	Fixed assets	Value of your assets such as your property, any equipment you own, any company cars or other vehicles.
	Current assets	The value of your stock and the amount owed to you by your customers.
Liability	Liabilities	Amount you owe to creditors such as the total amount owed to your vendors, the amount owed to the tax authority.
Capital	Equity	Any capital bought into the business such as your profit (or loss)

Account Numbers

This is a number you can use to help you find and sort your categories.

If you've moved from another accounting system such as Sage 50, match with the codes you’ve used previously.

You can use any number that suits you. By default, we use the following numbers.

Assets = 0001 – 1999
Liabilities = 2000 – 2999
Capital = 3000 – 3999
Income = 4000 – 4999
Expenditure – Direct expenses = 5000 – 5999
Expenditure – Expenses = 6000 – 9999

Visibility

Set categories for specific transaction types, like sales for sales transactions. If a category is missing, check its visibility setting.

Example of when to change the visibility of a category

You buy office stationery and record it under Office Stationery. After returning items, you must record the refund. Since Office Stationery appears only in Other Payments, you can't select it for an Other Receipt. To fix this, update its Visibility to include Other Receipt.

If an unwanted account appears:

Go to Settings, Business settings, Chart of Accounts.
Click the category you want to check.
Select (or clear) the relevant areas in the Visibility section.
Click Save.

Errors creating categories

If you see the error:

"Sorry about this – It looks like we’re experiencing a technical problem.":
- Make sure you aren’t trying to use a nominal code that already exists
- Don't select Bank under Visibility
- Only a ledger with a type as Bank can also have their Visibility set to Bank