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NA Builder© is an application to create National Accounts structures and to add, edit, balance and report on national accounts data.
SNA 2008 recommends that a System of National Accounts (NA) should consist of a Supply and Use Table (SUT) and a System of Integrated Economic Accounts (IEA), related through a Cross-Classification Table. Together, these component parts make up the integrated set of accounts called the Central Framework. The system can include a variety of extensions and additions to the Central Framework, such as Satellite Accounts, Social Accounting Matrices and Regional Accounts.
In practice, few countries have the capability at present to implement all of the 2008 SNA recommendations and there will be a migration of a simple set of accounts to an ever-more-elaborated set of accounts over time.
The data management needs of the compilation process of these component parts are varied, and few National Accounts offices actually have a unified approach to National Accounts data management. Few tools exist that fulfil all of the requirements posed by an evolving and growing system of accounts. The user of standard spreadsheet software is likely to experience all sorts of inherent limitations, leading to solutions that are difficult to adapt and maintain. Even expensive turnkey systems are usually designed with only part of the economic accounting problem in mind. Software designed with the Integrated Economic Accounts at the center is a weak platform for the automation of the Supply and Use Table and, conversely, software specifically designed for SUT compilation is difficult to adapt for use in the IEA setting.
There is little doubt that NA is best done in a spreadsheet such as EXCEL. This makes it easy to cross tabulate classifications. On the other hand, storage of NA data is easiest done in a database (ORACLE, SQL Server, SAS). The challenge then is to design a system in which data are stored in databases and NA compilations take place in spreadsheet structures.
This is what NA Builder aims to achieve. This EXCEL application lets one set up complex tabular structures in a simple, intuitive way, referring to classification codes, rather than column letters and row numbers. Data can be loaded into these structures from database records. Further data manipulations (such as balancing) can be done directly in these structures. Once results have been achieved data can be exported from the structure into the database again, e.g. as a set of adjustments relative to the original source data.
NA Builder is meant to aid NA Departments with little or no IT support in their full implementation of SNA 2008 using modern IT techniques. NA Builder is freeware, i.e. it can be used by the institution to which permission of use has been granted by the copyright holder for an unlimited period of time free of charge.
A bit of history. NA builder grew out of IAS’96, co-developed by the developer of NA Builder. This application was built in DELPHI, using a PARADOX database back-end. It was based on N-dimensional data cubes, with hierarchical classifications on the axes. However, the fact that users could no longer work directly in EXCEL turned out to be a big obstacle. NA builder therefore re-developed key IAS features in EXCEL.
NA Builder is currently used in Turkey, Albania, Aruba, Kosovo and Serbia. In all these cases SUT compilation is the main use.
This website collects some background materials on the application: