Chart of Accounts + Nominal Codes

The Chart of accounts is the set of nominal codes that are used to categorise each of your financial transactions. Brightpearl is set up with a broad range of accounts nominal codes so that you can keep track of revenue and spending accurately. Those users familiar with Sage accounts will find the Brightpearl nominal account structure very similar. Sales, for example, are always marked with a nominal code between 4000 and 4999. Purchases are marked between 5000 and 5999. Nominal codes can be added, removed or edited as you wish.

You can define your Chart of Accounts:

• Manually Add or amend accounts as and when you need
• Importing Import a spreadsheet of account nominal codes and balances

To edit your chart of accounts, i.e. to add or remove codes, go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts. You can also define whether an account is due to be reconciled against statements, for example your bank current account should be set to reconcile.

Learn more about importing your chart of accounts & balances

Explaining the Chart of Accounts

In Brightpearl the following number ranges are used for each type of account. It important that when you create a new account that you add it into the correct number range so that postings into the account are treated correctly and your transactions and financial statements balance.

0001-0999 : Fixed Assets
Asset account
Assets that are not expected to be turned into cash within one year. These may be items such as vehicles, property, office equipment, etc.

1000-1999 : Current Assets
Asset account
Assets that are likely to be turned into cash receipts within one year, such as stock, outstanding customer invoices, short-term loans etc.

2000-2299 : Current Liabilities
Liability account
These are debts to others that are likely to be paid within one year, such as supplier invoices.

2300-2999 : Long Term Liabilities
Liability account
Debts that are not likely to be paid within one year, such as mortgages, loans and directors' cash injections.

3000-3999 : Capital and Reserves
Do not post transactions with these codes unless you know what you are doing.

4000-4999 : Sales
All your sales should use one of these accounts. If you want, you can split sales up and allocate part of a sales invoice with one code and part of an invoice with another code.

5000-5999 : Purchases
These codes should be used for purchases that relate directly to your sales (cost of sales), for example Import Duty on products, Carriage invoices from your courier company, packaging costs and so on.

6000-6999 : Direct Expenses
Use these codes for payments such as advertising fees.

7000-7999 : Overheads
These are the codes most commonly used for tracking all your other business expenses, such as travelling, wages, rent, utility bills and so on. There is a code here; 7501; Postage and Carriage, that should not be confused with 5100; Carriage. The 7501 code should be used for non sales related postal expenses (such as stamps for a mailshot). The 5100 code should be used for carriage expenses that relate directly to items shipped (such as postage expenses if you are a mail order company).

8000-8999 : Depreciation and Sundry
These accounts are used for recording depreciation of your assets and miscellaneous items.

9000-9999 : Suspense Accounts
These accounts are used on a temporary basis for receipts, disbursements or discrepancies until such time as the analysis is complete and they can be properly classified.

Reserved Nominal codes

There are a few codes in Brightpearl that are required for tax and other calculations. These cannot be changed:

1100 : Debtors control account
2100 : Creditors control account
2200 : Sales Tax control account
2201 : Purchase Tax account
2202 : VAT Liability account
3200 : Retained Earnings account

Adding Nominal Codes

You can customise your chart of accounts by importing it from your old system or by manually adding new codes. Follow these steps to manually add a new nominal code:

1. Go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts.
2. Select the account type where you'd like to add the new code; Current Assets, Current Liabilities etc.
3. Click the Add a new nominal code button.
4. Enter a name for the nominal code.
5. (Optional) Enter a 4 digit code for the nominal, use the list on the right to see which numbers are available; it must be within the range for the account type. Or leave it blank and the system will automatically assign one for you.
6. (Optional) Select the Tax Class. This is allows you to check your tax figures on the Sales/Purchase Tax Report and the VAT Exceptions report.
7. Specify whether this is a bank account.
8. Indicate whether this account needs to be reconciled.
9. Specify whether this account should show on the expenses screen; this will allow expense claims to be raised against it, for example travel expenses.
10. Indicate whether discounts can be allocated to this account. Select Yes to use this account for adjustments when you're allocating payments, to write-off a small outstanding balance for example.
11. Ensure the account is active. If you no longer wish the account to be used make it inactive.
12. Click Save.

The account is added to your chart of accounts and is ready to be used. You can only delete a nominal code if it has no transactional data recorded against it. You should make codes inactive to ensure you can still report on the data but don't continue to use it.