Introduction
The Nominal Ledger is at the core of the entire Sage 200 system. The huge range of features within the Nominal Ledger provides the company accountants with total flexibility and control over the structure of the financial accounts as well as sophisticated tools for its analysis and reporting.
The key features of the Sage 200 Nominal Ledger include:
Flexible Chart of Accounts
As well as a Nominal Account Code, the Sage 200 Nominal Ledger permits the user to sub-divide the organisation by include optional Cost Centre and / or Department Codes. For instance, the Cost Centre could be a geographic area (e.g. Wales, Yorkshire, USA etc) and the Department code could represent a business division or the initials of a Team Leader. Reports, including the Financial Statements, can then be generated for a range of codes with the optional inclusion of one or more Cost Centres and / or one or more Departments.
Flexibility in Financial Statements
Any number of Profit and Loss Accounts and Balance Sheets can be constructed. Each Nominal Account also includes a Report Category code, which indicates where on the P & L or Balance Sheet the balance of that account should be included. This allows accounts that are not adjacent in the Chart of Accounts to be summed on a single line of the report (e.g. Input VAT could be in the Current Assets and Output VAT could be in the Current Liabilities but they could be reported on the same line or next to each other in the report).
Budgetary Control
You can store budgets for the last five years. They can be stored as an annualised figure (one amount divided equally across each month) or you can enter budgets against each month. They can also be generated using pre-defined percentage profiles. Finally, they can apply to a group of accounts rather than to a specific account.
Rapid Data Import Routines
There are routines within Sage 200 that allow rapid generation of Nominal Accounts. In addition, new accounts can be added to the Nominal Ledger by importing them from a standard CSV file. The data that can be imported into the Nominal Ledger are:
- Nominal Accounts
- Report Categories
- Budgets
- Transactions (journals)
Also, journals can be stored as templates and used again and again.
VAT Returns
With a replica of the actual VAT Return displayed on the screen, they include drill-downs that allow you to analyse the transactions behind the VAT totals. Also, VAT Returns can be submitted and paid online.
Consolidation
You can define company data sets as subsidiaries and others as parent companies. These parents can in turn be subsidiaries of other parent companies in a complex multi-tiered group structure. You can then choose to run a consolidation in a subsidiary that updates the nominal ledger of the parent company. Group companies can have different Charts of Account and can even trade in different currencies – Sage 200 can still consolidate these entities.
Period Control
You can elect to have up to twenty periods in the financial year. There is a structured period control discipline in Sage 200. Periods can be designated as Closed, Open or Future. This will allow transactions to be entered into the subsidiary ledgers (Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger and Cash Book), ensuring that the day-to-day work is up-to-date but their Nominal postings will only be allowed to update the Nominal Ledger if the period to which they refer is not designated as ‘Future’. These will be held back in a Deferred Postings file until Future periods are opened. This allows the accountants to prepare accounts to an earlier month end.
Transaction Drill-Downs
Any transaction in the Nominal Ledger can be drilled to reveal its details. You can see the other Nominal opstings that make up the double entry for the entire transaction or you can drill across to the trader account in the Sales or Purchase Ledger
Foreign Exchange
Any number of foreign currencies can be maintained along with either their current exchange rates or a table of historical exchange rates. Sales, Purchase and Cash transactions can be carried out in the currency. The Nominal Ledger, however, is maintained in the Base Currency (usually Sterling) and the transactions are converted using the appropriate rate. Exchange gains and losses are automatically posted as and when they crystallise. Furthermore, at the Balance Sheet date any outstanding foreign currency balances in the Sales or Purchase Ledgers can be revalued as can any balances on foreign currency bank accounts.
