Brightpearl will allow you to keep track of a number of asset accounts, such as your high street bank account as well as directors' or staff personal accounts. Click Accounts - Banking from the main menu to view them.
Any nominal accounts can be set as a bank account in the Accounts - Setup - Chart of accounts screen.
Setup
You should create a separate bank account for each credit card holder that makes transactions on behalf of the company, each actual bank account that you hold with a high street bank, and each payment provider that may hold funds for you until they reach your bank account (such as a credit card sales provider).
This could typically be;
- Main bank account
- Savings bank account
- Credit card sales account (eg Lloyds CardNet)
- Director's credit card ending 3345
- Business credit card ending 4252
Bank Reconciliation
You should reconcile (match up) your Brightpearl bank record with your actual bank statements on a regular basis.
Click here to read about bank reconciliation
Bank payments and receipts
Bank payments should be used to record money that is leaving your bank account but that is not against an invoice. For example you may wish simply to record a one-off payment to a supplier for an invoice paid at the time by credit card, or for miscellaneous and sundry items such as stamps.
You do not have to enter the supplier as a contact, which makes the process faster for a single transaction but on the other hand you will not be able to track invoices and payments for the supplier.
You may wish to record credit card payments to the Royal Mail for stamps as a bank payment. Simply use the Accounts - Banking - Bank Payment / Expense screen and create a payment from the credit card account to the postage account (eg 7501). Enter the supplier name and perhaps a reference into the details box.
To choose the correct nominal account (transaction code), type a few characters into the autosearch box and wait a second. You will be given a few options for codes that match your search query (try a search for post for example - you will be given the option of postage and carriage or mispostings account - press the arrow key down to the required option and then hit the tab key to move to the next field.)
Bank Transfers
If you are paying for items on a personal credit card, the balance on your credit card account (which in Brightpearl is one of the bank accounts that you have set up) will need to be settled. When you actually make the payment from the company bank account to your personal card account, record the payment using the Accounts - Banking - Bank Transfer screen. Since a bank transfer is simply moving money around, there is no profit and therefore no tax implications, hence all bank transfers are T9 tax code.
Batch bank transfers
If you take regular, small credit card payments that are later transferred to your bank account from your credit card supplier, the following procedure should be used.
Each sale should be allocated into the Credit card sales account as set up in your Chart of Accounts. As the period progresses, the balance on the credit card sales account will increase.
When the batch arrives in your bank account:
- Click Accounts - Banking from the main menu and view the activity on the credit card sales account.
- Select the date range that matches the batch
- Select each row that falls within the batch dates, the total of selected rows will be shown on the screen
- When the total matches the batch amount, choose to "transfer balance to"your main bank account.
- Enter some details and the date that the batch appeared in your bank account
- Create the transfer
Loans
If you receive money from outside the business, enter a Bank Receipt against the Loans account (2300). As you make payments back to the loan, enter these as Bank Payments back into the 2300 account. Once the loan is cleared, the balance on the 2300 account will be zero. Note that any interest payable on the loan should be paid as a separate payment to the 7903 Loan interest paid (or similar) account.
Don't forget you can add or remove these transaction codes using Accounts - Setup - Chart of Accounts.
