I need a little help with sage, I am using sage for my own accounts, I invoiced a customer on the last day of my financial year 31st March, consequently showing on my balance sheet was an outstanding debtors amount, I then banked the money on the 7th April, the new financial year, but if I look at my balance sheet I now have this amount showing in brackets next to debtors. Surely this should now be nil as I don't have any outstanding money due to me at this time. I've obviously missed something but can't get my head around it Sorry if this is a simple question but pretty new to this and slightly confused...
Have you run your Year End? I'm assuming you have. The trouble with the balance sheet in Sage is that it's not really a proper balance sheet. You have the Period figures and the Year to Date figures. The figure that appears in the Period column will be the movement on debtors during the period, not the actual balance on the debtors account. You need to look at your TB for the balance on the debtors account.
Yes I did run my year end, but even though it states the figure in brackets, when I next enter a new invoice for my customer it will then show the difference in the period column ie. Debtors is (142.50) when I next invoice say for £185.00 the debtors column will then be 42.50 which is obviously the difference between (142.50) and 185.00, is this to be ignored then as you say the balance sheet isn't showing the exact debtors balance.
Yes that is correct. The Period figure for debtors on the Balance Sheet will show the movement on the debtors account for the period, not the actual debtors balance. The Year to date figure will give you the balance on the debtors account, but bear in mind that this will include the debtors control account and anything else that comes within the debtors range in the Chart of accounts (such as prepayments). (Unless you've separated them out in the COA).