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IFRS for SMEs / Categorising bank transactions for IFRS for SMEs: a bookkeeper's guide

Categorising bank transactions for IFRS for SMEs: a bookkeeper's guide

Decide what the line is before choosing an account

Most categorisation errors in small-company books are not wrong expense accounts. They are lines that should never have reached the income statement at all: a transfer between the company's own accounts, a payment to SARS, money from a director, a loan instalment or a laptop. Each of those belongs on the balance sheet.

Ask what the transaction is first. Only then choose the account. The guides below take each common case in turn, with the IFRS for SMEs paragraph that decides it.

Start with a clean bank statement

Categorising is easier when the statement has been converted accurately, with the running balance checked line by line. SightScan converts statements from the major South African banks and reconciles every line to the balance on the statement.

The guides

Convert a bank statement

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