Im starting to do the books for a local hair and beauty salon and want to enter them into sage.
The company is vat registered so when i get the till decs i work out the net and the vat. On the till decs there is a breakdown of the cash element and also the card element.
Im a bit confussed as to which date to enter them into the accounts. For example..... if iv rec'd £100 in cash and £100 in cards on the 1 sept, but the credit for the cards hit my bank on the 5th and i banked the money on the 5th which date do i enter the sales up as?
Also, if i have one off invoices do i post these as purchase payments or shall i put them all on the purchase ledger and set up supplier accounts.
I would enter the sales as the 1st, as this was the date the sale took place.
For purchases my preference is to have a supplier account for all purchases as I find this to be the quickest way to trace suppliers rather than having to hunt through the nominal ledger to find them.
Thanks for the reply mark. With regards to posting the sales at the 1st. I would credit sales and debit bank wouldnt i? And then if the money wasnt banked until after the month i would just reconcile it in my bank.
In order to make reconciling the bank easier, I would post the sales on, say a daily basis, into a separate bank account (make a new one in the 1200 range or rename one you don't use) also post to this same account any expenses taken out of the takings. Then transfer the difference to the bank account when the money is actually banked.
Kirstie, you are correct in thinking that you would credit sales and debit bank. The only thing I would watch out for is how you post the sales and whether you split the card and cash transaction.
It may get difficult reconciling the card transactions depending on how the card merchant shows the receipts in the bank (ie as one total or individually) and what reprots you get form them. Sometimes some card payments take longer than others so it can get messy, but you seem to have the basic jist of how to do it correctly.
With regards to purchases, if its a one off, then perhaps look at having one supplier account called "one off" or "non regular", Several of my clients have done this before I took them one and it seems to work ok based on the volume of invoices going through it.
You can if you wish have a separate file for these is you wish to just post the payment on, but you will need to file in order paid and make sure you write on the invoice or receipt when it was paid and how, but i wouldn't really recommend this way.
You can set-up a supplier account for all suppliers, but if they use many different ones than it can clutter up your purchase ledger reports. Last thing you want is 30-40 accounts that have only been used one and never to be used again.
just a few thoughts and its really down to what you feel comfortable with. as long as you can keep track of it and the accountant is aware, then all should be ok.
