Current, Deposit & Building Society Accounts: Codes 1200, 1210 & 1220

Most small businesses run day-to-day through a single current account, but as cash builds up it's common to hold some of it somewhere it can earn a bit of interest, still within Sage's normal bank codes.

The three codes, and what each one holds

Code 1200 — Bank Current Account is the main account the business trades through day to day — customer receipts, supplier payments, staff and HMRC payments all pass through here.

Code 1210 — Bank Deposit Account records money moved into an interest-bearing deposit account, usually cash that isn't needed immediately.

Code 1220 — Building Society Account covers the same idea held with a building society rather than a bank. All three are Current Assets codes and normally carry a debit balance.

Real-world examples across industries

Seasonal business

A campsite or agricultural business builds up a large surplus in its current account over its busy summer months, then sweeps £20,000 of that into an interest-bearing deposit account once the season winds down — a credit of £20,000 to 1200 (Bank Current Account) and a debit of £20,000 to 1210 (Bank Deposit Account). The money is drawn back down through the quieter winter months as it's needed, using the deposit account as a deliberate cash-smoothing tool rather than somewhere surplus cash simply happens to sit.

Cash-rich professional services firm

A consultancy generating more cash than it needs for working capital doesn't want £85,000 or more concentrated in a single institution, since that's the limit the Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects per banking group. Rather than leave it all in one deposit account, it splits £40,000 into 1210 (Bank Deposit Account) with its bank and £45,000 into 1220 (Building Society Account) with a separate building society — a credit of £85,000 to 1200 and debits of £40,000 to 1210 and £45,000 to 1220. This is really a risk-management decision rather than anything to do with what the firm does for a living — 1210 and 1220 work identically in the accounts whatever sector the business is in, and which one a balance sits in usually just reflects which institution it's held with.

Why this matters day to day

Keeping deposit and building society balances in their own codes rather than lumping them into the main current account makes bank reconciliation far easier — each code should tie exactly to one real-world account statement. It also means the current cash actually available for trading is visible at a glance, rather than mixed in with money that's deliberately been set aside.