Create or edit a category

Summary

How to create and edit a category in Accounting Start.

Description

You can create and edit categories, also referred to as nominal accounts or nominal codes.

If you're transitioning from another system like Sage 50, you may want to import your ledger accounts. You can only do this when you've not yet entered transactions in Accounting Start.

Learn how to review your chart of accounts.

Resolution

What are categories

We use categories to group your transactions so you can see how your business is performing.

Each category includes a Group and Type, which determine how transactions appear on your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports.

Accounting Start automatically uses certain categories when recording transactions to ensure the accurate recording of items like VAT. This is a control account, which you're unable to edit. You can identify control accounts by the asterisk * marking.

Create a category

From More, then Business Settings, choose Chart of Accounts.
Select New category.
Enter the details and Save. The fields marked with an asterisk * are mandatory.

Edit a category

You can change the details of a category.

Changing the type:

You alter how you include the values on your reports.
Does not update transactions that have already been entered.

Changing the category name:

From Chart of Accounts, select the category you want to edit.
Edit the Category Name to adjust how the category appears in the Chart of Accounts.
Edit how you display the category throughout the program by editing the Display Name.

Delete a category

You can't delete a category once it's created.

If you decide to no longer use a category, you should exclude it from the chart of accounts. This action will eliminate it from the selection lists when you create transactions.

Please note that you can't exclude control accounts (those marked with an asterisk *) from the chart of accounts.

Select More, then Business Settings, Chart of Accounts.
Open the relevant category.
Clear the Included in Chart check box.
Select Save.

Category fields

If you're not sure what all the fields are for, here is an explanation:

Types and Groups >

Each category has a type and group.

You can use this to group categories together and ensure that you report them correctly on your profit and loss and balance sheet reports.

Profit and loss

Group	Type	Description
Income	Sales	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	Overheads	Other costs such as staff wages, utility bills, business expenses etc.

Balance sheet

Group	Type	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	Value of your stock and the amount owed to you by your customers
Liability	Current Liability	Amount you owe to creditors such as the total amount owed to your suppliers, amount owed to HMRC/Revenue for VAT and PAYE
Capital	Equity	Any capital bought into the business such as your profit (or loss)

Nominal codes >

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

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

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

VAT rate >

To ensure that you enter transactions with the correct VAT rate, you should set a default VAT rate on categories.

When you select a category, the VAT rate configured for the category is automatically applied. You still have the flexibility to change the VAT rate for each transaction.

This feature is particularly helpful when transactions associated with a specific category consistently use the same VAT rate. For example, your standard VAT rate is typically applied to your sales, making it beneficial to set a default VAT rate for your sales categories.

If certain categories don't require VAT, select No VAT.

Visibility >

In order to minimise errors, we have configured categories to only be available for selection in specific types of transactions.

For example, sales categories are accessible only for sales transactions. You can determine which transactions use certain categories with the visibility checkboxes.

Select the options that best suit your business needs. It's important to note that all categories are accessible for use in journals and reports.

If you're unable to locate a category, please check the visibility settings.

Errors creating categories

If you see the following error:

Sorry about this – It looks like we’re experiencing a technical problem.

Check the following:

Make sure you are not trying to use a nominal code that already exists
Make sure that Bank is not selected under Visibility. Only categories with a type as Bank can also have their Visibility set to Bank

If you are trying to set a Current Asset with a code greater then 1300, it may give you a technical error. If this occurs, choose a different type (we recommend Bank) and Save, then go back in and edit the category to change the type back to Current Asset and Save again.