Hope someone can put me right, i have gone to start changing my first ever family clients handwritten books over to sage. His year end was 31st march but i have gone to start and he says he only sends his books to the accountant in the summer i understand i will have to do a trial balance to get the opening balances on paper from his books as they are not even filled in from dec 07 (sigh) (i think, no confidence see) but his vat quarter is at the end of April, do i just do the vat at the end of april as normal ? i think what i am trying to say is if my opening balances are correct and i continue with the sage books until the end of april and do the vat will it work out right ???? if anyone wants to coach a complete nubie then all help is very gratfully recieved
I would keep the last year open in Sage so you can enter everything there including the adjustments from the accountant when you have those.
Is his VAT quarter ending in April, or is it due then?
You shouldn't have any trouble simply entering the transactions into Sage for the quarter and running the VAT Return in Sage. You could do it 'as normal', on paper but if you are moving things to Sage I don't see any real reason not to get it going in Sage now.
Do you mean i have to add into sage all of the transactions from the last period april 2007 up to date until now ? keep them open and do the vat end of april as normal then wait for the accountant to have the books to do a proper year end ? My dad has just said he pays vat every quarter, hes never looked at his books in 40 years of business, my grandmother did the books but has died and they have just been left. So im trying to learn a new skill and work out some very strange looking books too. I have only got as far as his business details and his chart of accounts, haha so when i went to start them i had a shock. thankyou for taking the time to write back though Nix
It would be easier for you to enter the opening balances a when the books have been kept to (ie. Nov/Dec 07).
The only real detail here that may help you would be to enter the outstanding debtor & creditor amounts (ie. outstanding invoice amounts for each).
The transactions not entered can then be entered into Sage to bring it up to date. Do keep accounts like the bank reconciled too... if you are unsure best to look at the Sage manual or borrow/buy some books on bookkeeping.
When the accountant needs the data, you will have to give him both the older accounts to Nov/Dec 07 and your new Sage company file (backup).
If you do have difficulty with that, it might be best to have a chat with the accountant.
