Building Society Account

This Current Assets code records building society account. As an asset account, it normally carries a debit balance: debit entries increase the balance and credit entries decrease it.

Real-world examples

This code doesn't really vary by industry — which nominal code a savings balance sits in usually comes down to which institution the business banks with, not what sector it's in.

Any business banking with a building society

A business banking with a building society uses 1220 the same way a business banking with a high street bank uses 1210 — for a savings or reserve balance sitting outside day-to-day trading. There's no real accounting distinction between the two: both are interest-bearing accounts holding surplus cash, just with the deposit-taker being a mutual building society rather than a bank.

Multi-institution cash management

Like bank deposits, building society deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to the standard protected limit per institution, so a business spreading larger cash reserves across a bank and a building society account is often managing that limit rather than chasing a materially different interest rate.

Commonly confused with

Because code 1210 (Bank Deposit Account) sits right next to this one in Current Assets, it's a common mis-posting target. Code 1220 is specifically for building society account, while 1210 covers bank deposit account — similar in nature, but keeping them separate is what makes the current assets section of your management accounts meaningful rather than a single lumped total.

What a mis-posting here costs you

Because Building Society Account sits within Current Assets, an error here overstates or understates working capital on the balance sheet rather than affecting reported profit — it won't move the bottom line, but it can make the business look more, or less, liquid than it actually is.

Other codes in Current Assets