About Nominals in IRIS Financials

The chart of accounts is a complete list of financial codes (nominals) that provide a way of categorising income and expenses into logical groups.

When an academy/MAT spends or receives money, it needs to be classified, such as money spent on stationery, income from trips or bank interest, etc. These classifications are required for analysis purposes, so that you can see for example, how much each department has spent on stationery. Additionally, depending on what the money you have received or paid out was for, it will be treated differently for tax purposes and will be displayed differently in your academy/MAT accounts. A nominal is effectively a classification for what is being bought, sold or reported on.

When entering financial transactions into IRIS Financials, you can determine which nominal the transaction is allocated to. By categorising information in this way, it can then be utilised for both management and reporting purposes.

Nominals consist of a code and a title, e.g. 4020 - Stationery. They are grouped into numbered ranges based on related categories. For example, income nominals have codes within the 1000s, salaries within the 2000s, premises within the 3000s and so on.

IRIS Financials has worked with users and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to develop a whole package of functionality and default data specifically for the education sector. This is referred to at the Education Standard. Commercial Standard is available for organisations in the commercial sector.