Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50

Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50 can help you with a ton of clarity on how to go about things once you get started. Once you have opened your account in Sage, there are multiple times you would want to make the changes in the entrance opening balance in Sage 50. However, most times, these changes are what your system requires in itself. So, how do we do this? Well here is the list of changes that our system can need in itself and how to accomplish the same.

ABOUT OPENING BALANCES IN SAGE 50

When starting a new business venture, or transitioning between sizes of the business, you will need to set the right procedures for ACCOUNTING. This is where the SAGE 50 software comes into the picture. You can open balance for:

• Ledger Accounts
• Bank Accounts
• Customers and Suppliers

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

• You must use the ACCOUNTING at the start of the new ACCOUNTING period. Be it the new TAX month, quarter, or the beginning of the Financial year. This way it will be easy to close off any information in the ongoing current system and go ahead with the accounting.
• Enter the START date in the SETTINGS. This can be done by selecting ACCOUNTING DATES & VAT and entering the ACCOUNT START DATE in the required field.
• Submission of the VAT return using the previous system
• To be able to PRINT  the trial balance from the previous system
• Create the records from the customers, bank accounts, and suppliers in ACCOUNTING.

WHAT YOU NEED

• A list of the outstanding transactions for the customers and suppliers
• The balance of each Bank Account from the BANK statement.
• The balance of each ledger account from the TRIAL BALANCE.

HOW OPENING BALANCE WORKS

This can be entered at once or at different times as required. This can be illustrated with the situation where the accountant has previously processed your accounts for you, but might not have sent the full trial balance as of yet. This can be done by entering your customer, supplier, and bank opening balances. Next enter the rest of the data from the trial balance at a later date.

You can also enter the opening balances in the form of a single value or as a list of transactions. In case you have unpaid invoices, from the previous system, these can still be entered as separate values and matched with the payment later on.

In the case of a large number of suppliers, you can import opening balances from the CSV files.

RECORDING OF THE OPENING BALANCES

For this, all the transactions must conform to double-entry bookkeeping rules to be able to have both credit and debit values.

On one side is the transaction entered against the ledger account entered, and on the other side the transaction is recorded against the Opening Balance Control Ledger account.

Method to Entering The Opening Balance in Sage 50

• Making corrections in the opening balance
• To separate Reconciled items and Opening Balance
• To be able to reverse the incorrect opening balance

TO ENTER THE OPENING BALANCE IN SAGE 50

Most times, the business comprises opening balances. This could be when they have just started or are transitioning from a previous accounting system to a Sage application. One cannot have a clear idea about the financial position, of the reports that are generated without accurate opening balances. Hence it is quite important to get a correct picture, of the process. So, before you go deeper, on how to enter the balances in Sage 50, it is recommended that you get acquainted with the term ‘Opening balances’. So, let’s get started more on that.

TO ENTER THE OPENING BALANCE: THE REQUIREMENTS

 Here is a list of basic requirements that you need to set into place before you enter the opening balance in SAGE 50:

• It is important to confirm the START date for the accounting transactions before opening balances in SAGE 50.
• The VAT scheme setup must be done accurately. To adjust the information, you will need to:
• SETTINGS > ACCOUNTING DATES & VAT > enter the ACCOUNTS START DATE in the required field.
• Next, you will need to get a record of the Supplier, bank account, customer, Credit card, and loan accounts.
• After the above steps have been accomplished you can go ahead and begin entering the opening balances for the below-mentioned:
  • Outstanding supplier transactions
  • Nominal ledger trial balance
  • Outstanding customer transactions
  • Bank accounts

HOW TO SEPARATE OPENING BALANCE AND RECONCILE ITEMS:

For this you will need to perform the below steps:

STEP 1: The uncleared items can be found in the OPENING BALANCE, in this case, you will have to reverse all the data. For this you will need to:

• Select the Bank Account, and next click on the account you need to create the changes in. To this select EDIT/NEW or EDIT.
• Next, click on CURRENT BALANCE OPTION
• Select the SAGE 50 version, select the Bank and click on the ACCOUNT. Here you will discover the CURRENT OPENING BALANCE OPTION in the BANK RECORD OPTION
• Next, you will need to enter the DATE AND REFERENCE in the opening balance. This is where you need to enter the un-cleared payments, located in the RECEIPT OPTIONS, and click on SAVE.
• Next, click on CURRENT BALANCE once again and enter the DATE AND REF. in the OPENING BALANCE. It is here that you enter the UNDECLARED RECEIPT.
• Next click on SAVE AND CLICK ON CLOSE.

STEP 2: When you need to enter Receipt or Bank Payments to Enter the Un cleared Item

For Bank payments

• You will need to select the Bank Account and click on the Bank Account you need to process. Next, click on the Bank Payments (S).
• Next, enter the Date and Reference and enter the SAN CODE 9998. This is the SUSPENSE ACCOUNT NOMINAL CODE. The digits are by default.
• Next, you will need to enter all the important credentials like Tax, T9, and Net column)
• Finally, you can repeat the above steps to take care of all the individual payments. Lastly, select SAVE and CLOSE.

For the corrections in Opening Balance

There are two methods how to making corrections in bank opening balance:

• At first, for the case when the wrong entry is made in the Opening balance, you will need to reverse the opening balance and enter the opening balance with the right.
• In case of the reconciled items are entered wrongly, which are meant to cover Lump Sum reconciled Opening balance, you will need to correct and rectify the ERROR. This is done by correcting the right sequence of the transactions in the Bank Reconciliation Window.

Below are a few more informative steps that will help you in correcting the bank Opening balance:

The reversal of the Incorrect Opening Balance

One can reverse the error entered into the reconciled opening balance if one enters the opposite transaction into the original transaction. For this, you will need to enter the same date and reference. To do so you will need to:

• Select the Bank Account. Next, you will need to click on the Required Account. Next, you will need to click on EDIT/NEW or EDIT.
• Select SAGE 50 LATEST VERSION- Select the Bank, and click the required account. Finally, select the BANK RECORD.
• Click on the CURRENT BANK OPTION, it is here that you enter the credentials: date and reference.
• In case the Receipt of the Debit is the original entry, you will need to enter the data in the PAYMENT BOX.
• If the CREDIT happens to be the original entry, then you will need to enter the necessary CREDENTIALS  In the RECEIPT BOX.
• Finally, Click on SAVE, and CLOSE.

CONCLUSION

So, there you have it my accounting whiz. These are some of the prominent aspects of entering the opening balance in Sage 50. Be sure to check your requirements and follow the steps accordingly.

FAQ