Hi, just joined as was crying to my daughter on line about these accounts in front of me and she found this link, so I have joined and I write out of desperation. Need help for end of year accounts. Have some idea of what I am doing on Sage system, but when I bring forward figures from last year's accounts am left not knowing which is a credit or a debit on the balance sheet. Even better would be an experienced book-keeper in the Barnard Castle area of County Durham. Or some of you to write to me with the links to similar posts on this site.
Sorry to hear your having some problems with these accounts - are they your own accounts? or are you working on someone else's?
Are you starting using Sage for the first time in the accounting year? I'm guessing so as that's why you need to bring in opening balances. You should have a trial balance from an accountant or who did the accounts last year, showing you the debits and credits to be brought forward - do you have this information?
If you can provide a bit more information I may be able to help further.
Oooh, thanks for very much for such a quick response. Can I email you direct or what is the procedure? Thanks for your time
Yes I have the previous year's balance sheet that my accountant did. But decided to go it alone as did not make enough money to pay myself or an accountant
-- Edited by Redlady on Wednesday 12th of October 2011 02:11:04 PM
You would probably be best posting the details on here so others can chip in with their responses - unless Ann-marie wishes to contact you directly by email.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
Basically I have this information from my accountant for year start 1st Feb 2010 (yes 2010!)
I am trying to do my accounts for 01/02/2010 - 31/01/2011 - I have been struggling for weeks and only have two weeks left to upload to Companies House.
I am a very small Ltd Co. This is for a reason which is personal and safe for me if anything goes wrong. I do not really do enough business to warrant it and was not growing at the right pace and was losing money. Last year, the year in question, was a very bad year such as was the case for many others. However, next year I think I may be turning the corner into profit.
I struggle with the debit and credit of book-keeping (to me it is unecessarily complicated lol - I have a list of money & stock that I have, and another list of what I owe which is paid or unpaid). Two lists seems reasonable to me whereas the sage system wants to break it all down into 9999 lists!! Hence my confusion and frustration at not getting the balance right.
So I have this info and not sure where to put it:
Net Current Liabilities: (6,624) for 2010 - Does this £6,624 go into a debit column or a credit column.
Total Assets less current liabilities: (6,391) for 2010 .
Cap & Reserves: Called Up Share Cap £1 for 2010
Profit & Loss A/C (6,392) for 2010
Shareholders Funds : (6,391) for 2010
For you to tell me the line numbers I have to put them into on the b/f from previous year and whether it is a credit or a debit column I would appreciate it.
Hi, thanks for the offer but at this stage I would just like some simple answers via email or this forum for the question re info posted. If that solves the immediate problem for me then I can maybe manage the rest and get these accounts uploaded to companies house, on this occasion and then look to taking someone on to help me that lives within a short car drive for the future.
Do you have a further breakdown of the figures, particularly for the net current liabilities (the £6,624) and the total assets?
Also, just to make sure I've understood you correctly... you have opening balances from your accountant as at 1 Feb 2010. The accountant should be able to provide an opening trial balance (which would give more info that the year end accounts themselves). From this opening trial balance, you can turn it into an opening balance journal to put onto Sage (which several of us on here would be able to help you with)
(By the way, are you then trying to do a whole year's worth of bookkeeping on your Sage (from 1 Feb 2010 - 31 March 2011) so that you can prepare the accounts for the year?)
To be honest the double entry system can be complicated. For your sake I hope you can afford to hire someone to help you at the year end next year because then you won't have to worry about a double entry system.
Liabilities are credit entries and net current assets (assets minus current liabilities) are debit entries assuming the answer was a positive number. Is the profit/loss figure a profit or a loss? And is the shareholder fund the money that the shareholders have paid into the business? If so this is a credit balance.
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Please correct me if I'm wrong... I am only human sucking up knowledge... Sometimes bits leak out!
In reply to your first question, I will try to break the information down for you later. I have allocated myself tomorrow and the weekend to work on these flat out. I have been off line today dealing with biz etc.
Second question - Yes - I am trying to do a years accounts for the previous year in one go and I only have they have to be uploaded by the end of the month or I am in deep trouble. I am also using Sage because my accountant wanted me to put everything onto Sage to save me money for the end of year accounts to reduce his fees!! So 99/10 went onto Sage for the first year.I cannot bring this up because i have inadvertently deleted it all. (But I have the figures) I am starting from scratch for Feb 1st 2010/11.
During this year I wrongly stuck my head in the sand thinking that was the end of the biz because I was doing so poorly and losing money, but this year everything has gone crazy and turned around that if I am lucky I may at least get my money back.
So, yes - take my head out of the sand, plow through my box of invoices etc etc and then realise i only have one month to sort it out and thought i had managed it but no the figures never balanced out and now i need to check that at the very least i bought forward the correct figures from the previous year.
Incidentally I shall be doing a Sage Course in the next few months but not in time to get these accounts done and dusted. I KNOW I can do this, I WILL do this in time especially with the help of you all on the forum... so thanks for the response so far... I am at least learning the Debtors are in fact an ASSET and the Creditors are a liability... which to my mind has been a contradiction coz if I am in debt it is not an asset and if I am in credit I am happy lol. (If that makes sense)... anyway, thanks ever so much for your support
Debits and credits were the Bain of my life for months... I thought I had it then something would disprove all that I know! The sage course will be great because I'm assuming you don't have too many transactions every month so the bookkeeping will be a lot easier. There are so many online help things to help with the basic bookkeeping, if you're ever in or around Shildon you can have my Basic Accounting work books, they cover the basics of most day to day things that you will come across and even when you have done the sage course it would be good to have a bit more incite as to why you do what you do on the computer, it'll help you spot errors that you might not otherwise notice.
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Please correct me if I'm wrong... I am only human sucking up knowledge... Sometimes bits leak out!
The opening balances shouldn't take too long (famous last words!), assuming you have the detailed figures. You should be able to pop it all on one journal.
The main thing to watch out for, is if there are opening trade debtors/creditors, you can't post journals directly to customer & supplier accounts, which just adds a minor complication.
Though, I don't envy you doing an entire year's bookkeeping in the space of about a week!
Good Morning.. all I can do is give you the figures that I have from the previous year's account balance sheet:
Fixed Assets (Tangible) - £233 which is the last year's value on my computer which I believe goes into these accounts but will be finished on the financial year I am working on (Original price 699 and in 2009 had gone done to 466 and then 233 in Jan 31 2010 end of year.
Current Assets - Stocks £6500 ............ 12,000
Debtors - £299 ......... 209
Cash at Bank - £4357 ....... 6587
Total: £11,086........ 18,796
Creditors amounts falling due within 1 year - £17,710.........19,912
Leaving Net Current Liab - (6624)............. (1116)
Total Assets Less Current Liab - (6391).........(650)
Profit & Loss (6391) ................. (650)
{The previous years figures show in red italics}
The main creditor to the company is 'me' coz I initially put in 7,000 plus stock if this makes sense and stock value was about 10,000 if I remember rightly, plus a few other smaller cash payments which I believe is where the 17,710 belongs - think this is considered a Loan? Directors Loan?
At the end of this year end 31 Jan 2010 - the accountant suggested that we devalued the stock down to 6,500 because when I opened the company I included loads of stuff that I thought would sell that in fact did not so in the notes to go with the accounts to companies house this was explained.
Not sure what other info you need... please advise thanks very much
Good Morning.. all I can do is give you the figures that I have from the previous year's account balance sheet:
Fixed Assets (Tangible) - £233 which is the last year's value on my computer which I believe goes into these accounts but will be finished on the financial year I am working on (Original price 699 and in 2009 had gone done to 466 and then 233 in Jan 31 2010 end of year.
Current Assets - Stocks £6500 ............ 12,000
Debtors - £299 ......... 209
Cash at Bank - £4357 ....... 6587
Total: £11,086........ 18,796
Creditors amounts falling due within 1 year - £17,710.........19,912
Leaving Net Current Liab - (6624)............. (1116)
Total Assets Less Current Liab - (6391).........(650)
Profit & Loss (6391) ................. (650)
{The previous years figures show in red italics}
The main creditor to the company is 'me' coz I initially put in 7,000 plus stock if this makes sense and stock value was about 10,000 if I remember rightly, plus a few other smaller cash payments which I believe is where the 17,710 belongs - think this is considered a Loan? Directors Loan?
At the end of this year end 31 Jan 2010 - the accountant suggested that we devalued the stock down to 6,500 because when I opened the company I included loads of stuff that I thought would sell that in fact did not so in the notes to go with the accounts to companies house this was explained.
Not sure what other info you need... please advise thanks very much
Is this your entire balance sheet?
How much share capital have you got?
Are you saying that you were the only creditor of the company? (yes, money owing to you would be a director's loan)
(Your assets don't seem to total to £11,086, by the way, unless I've missed something...??)
All the information I gave you is the complete Balance Sheet that is contained in the year end accounts prepared by the accountant at the time and sent up to Companies House:-
I have a balance sheet (pg 4), profit & loss account (pg 3), profit and loss account sheet (pg 6 which states it is not part of the statutory financial statement and this contains a bigger breakdown of figures *** figures below),
and various notes to the 'whoever' regarding the figures. (Notes to the financial statements) (pages 7) in which it states that at 31st Jan 2010 the company is under the control of .....(me)....., who owns 100% of the issued share capital. At the balance sheet date, the following balance existed on a loan acount with the directors: .... me.... and... my hubby.... £16,233 credit (2009 - £17,786 credit).
I have called up share capital of £1, Ordinary.
Reserves
as at 1st Feb 2009 = (651)
Deficit for the year = (5,741)
As At 31 Jan 2010 = (6,392)
***
Tangible fixed assets - computer which cost 699 on 1st Feb 09 and the depreciation for 09 and 10, net book value at 31 Jan 10 = £233 (is this a credit?)
Debtors falling due within one year:
Other debtors 2010 = 229 (I believe this is 1/2 yr prepay as year cost £500 July 09)
Creditors falling due in one year:
Trade cred - Zero
Tax/Soc Sec - (2) do I bring this forward as a debit or credit?
Other Cred - 17,712 = £17,710 (is this a credit or a debit to the company loan a/c?)
Called up Share Cap = £1
Profit & Loss A/C
As at 1 Feb 2009 - (651)
Deficit for the year - (5,741) = (£6,392) when I bring this forward does it go in the credit and the debit column?
Hope this helps you to help me, thanks for your interest..
All the information I gave you is the complete Balance Sheet that is contained in the year end accounts prepared by the accountant at the time and sent up to Companies House:-
I have a balance sheet (pg 4), profit & loss account (pg 3), profit and loss account sheet (pg 6 which states it is not part of the statutory financial statement and this contains a bigger breakdown of figures *** figures below),
and various notes to the 'whoever' regarding the figures. (Notes to the financial statements) (pages 7) in which it states that at 31st Jan 2010 the company is under the control of .....(me)....., who owns 100% of the issued share capital. At the balance sheet date, the following balance existed on a loan acount with the directors: .... me.... and... my hubby.... £16,233 credit (2009 - £17,786 credit).
I have called up share capital of £1, Ordinary.
Reserves
as at 1st Feb 2009 = (651)
Deficit for the year = (5,741)
As At 31 Jan 2010 = (6,392)
***
Tangible fixed assets - computer which cost 699 on 1st Feb 09 and the depreciation for 09 and 10, net book value at 31 Jan 10 = £233 (is this a credit?)
Debtors falling due within one year:
Other debtors 2010 = 229 (I believe this is 1/2 yr prepay as year cost £500 July 09)
Creditors falling due in one year:
Trade cred - Zero
Tax/Soc Sec - (2) do I bring this forward as a debit or credit?
Other Cred - 17,712 = £17,710 (is this a credit or a debit to the company loan a/c?)
Called up Share Cap = £1
Profit & Loss A/C
As at 1 Feb 2009 - (651)
Deficit for the year - (5,741) = (£6,392) when I bring this forward does it go in the credit and the debit column?
Hope this helps you to help me, thanks for your interest..
Hi,
I think there must have been a typo in your first post, which said debtors £299, but your second post says debtors are £229... (which is why your assets didn't seem to add up by £70 in your first post).
So, assuming that the correct figure for debtors is £229, this is your basic opening balance journal, based on what you've said:
Fixed assets Dr £233 * Current assets (stock) Dr £6500 Debtors Dr £229** Bank Dr £4357 Tax/Social Security a/c Dr £2 Directors Loan a/c Cr £16,233*** Other Creditors Cr £1,479*** Share Capital Cr £1 Profit & Loss account Dr £6,392
*You would actually be better putting this in as: Fixed Assets Dr £699, Accumulated Depreciation Cr £466.
**Assuming that the £229 figure is correct. If it is a prepayment, then obviously use the prepayments code, rather than a debtors code. (it hopefully gives a bit more info in the notes to your accounts to help you decide which it is)
*** You've put that the directors loan account is only £16,233, therefore there must be either other creditors, or may be accruals for the other £1,479 (again, it hopefully says in the notes to your accounts, which it is)
Thank you so very much Figurate... I am so so gratefull for your help. (and everyone else who has contributed. (The 229 is a prepayment on a postal collection service as the annual fee is due each 31st July of £500 for that particular year and so would be due again in July 31 2011)
I shall put these figures in and then carry on with my accounts and hopefully things may balance as I go along and if there are any more problems I do hope you will all help.
for the future.
