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Create or edit a ledger account

Created on  | Last modified on 

Summary

How to create and edit a category in Accounting Start.

Resolution

Create and edit ledger accounts and discover what each of the fields are for.

Ledger accounts can also be known as nominal accounts or nominal codes.

If you've come from another system such as Sage 50, you may want toimport your ledger accounts. You can only do this when no transactions have been entered in Sage Accounting.

What are categories

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

Each category has a Group and Category that determines how transactions are reported on your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports.

Some categories are used automatically by Accounting Start when recording transactions to ensure that items such as your VAT are recorded correctly. These are known as control accounts and can't be edited. Control accounts are marked with an asterisk.

Create a category

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

Edit a category

You can change the details of a category.

Change the type:

  1. Changes how the values are included on your reports.
  2. Does not update transactions that are already entered.

Change the category name:

  1. From Chart of Accounts, select the category you want to edit.

  2. Edit the Ledger Name to change how the category displays in the Chart of Accounts.

  3. Edit the Display Name to change how the category displays in the rest of the program.

Delete a category

Once a category is created, it cannot be deleted.

If you no longer want to use a category, then exclude it from the chart of accounts. This removes it from selection lists when creating transactions.

You cannot exclude control accounts (indicated with an asterisk) from the chart of accounts.

  1. Click More, then Business Settings, Chart of Accounts.
  2. Open the relevant category.
  3. Clear the Included in Chart check box.
  4. Click Save.

Category fields

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

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.




Related Solutions

Chart of Accounts

About the Nominal Activity report