It might very well be that you do have statements already saved with those numbers - especially for a "busy" account, ie lots of transactions, meaning lots of statements. The banks seem to only go up to 999 and then start again from 1 for statement numbers.

You have three choices:

1) Purge your statements. This is a manual process - you need to open the folder that contains them ("View History" button on the bottom of the bank-rec screen. (Which obviously means you need to get into that screen first...)

2) Use a different numbering system: Instead of the statement number, how about the date in the form YYYY-MM-DD ?

3) Turn off saving statements. ("Settings" -> "Bank Defaults" -> Untick "Create Bank Reconciliation PDF")

If you're confident in what you are doing and your use of the software, I'd go for #3. However, if not, I'd suggest you opt for #2 (which will then allow you to do #1).

The most recent versions of Sage actually default to a variation of #2: it offers the bank nominal code, plus today's date in that format.

Hi,

No, you don't have to do it - it's just a bit of tidying up, really.

The folder it stores them in is just a folder on your hard drive, and you'll end up with lots of files in there, depending on how often you reconcile, and what you reconcile to. As long as there are no problems - ie as long as everything reconciles and balances, there's no real need to keep the PDFs that Sage generates.

You could just (for example) periodically open the folder by clicking the button on the reconcile screen, and delete everything that's more than a year old: Perhaps doing that once every three months. Since it's just a standard folder in Windows, you can change the sort order from one of the menus at the top: Have Windows display the folder in 'Details' form (so you get a columnal display, including the date the file was created, and click on that column heading to sort into that order).

It would be nice if Sage optionally did this for you - but (as yet) it doesn't.

The Bank Defaults might not offer the option to not save a PDF reconciliation file because of the version you are using. I have a vague recollection that when the facility was first introduced, it only did it if you put something in the statement reference field, and if you left it blank it wouldn't save the file.

I've actually just suggested to Sage that the software should include an option to automatically 'expire' reconciliation PDFs over a certain age. (There is a hard to find 'wishlist' suggestion form on their site).

When it comes to tidying up old payments/receipts:

First of all, remember that cheques can still be presented to the bank for up to six months after the date you put on them - so don't remove any cheque payments that remain outstanding until at least that amount of time has passed (unless, as per your comment, it's a duplicated entry).

With that note aside, how you do it depends on a number of factors.

The easiest way is to identify the transaction number (if the transaction number column isn't displayed in the bank rec screen, you should be able to get it by right clicking on one of the column headings and ticking 'No.') and then go into file maintenance and delete that transaction.

There are pitfalls and catches, though:

1) Was the transaction made in the previous financial year? If so, you shouldn't do it this way, and should instead 'reverse' the transaction by other means (see below).

2) Has the transaction been included on a VAT return? If it has, Sage won't let you delete it. In which case you'll have to reverse it (see below).

Reversing a transaction is the next option, and to do that, you need to identify all the key elements of the transaction: date, reference, where it was posted (nominal, sales or supplier code), VAT code and amount, etc.

Basic payments and receipts are easiest - to reverse a payment, post a receipt with (almost*) identical details, to reverse a receipt, post a payment with (almost*) identical details. Having done so, you can match the payment against the receipt on the reconciliation screen.

* almost identical because of the date issue: Once a financial year has been closed down, you shouldn't post transactions in that year - so if the transaction is in the previous financial year, you should post the reversal as the first day of the current year.

Reversing sales and purchase ledger payments used to be a bit nasty, but it's improved greatly, depending which version of Sage you are using. I'll hold off explaining that for the moment, in case you don't need to do that - ie in case your duplicated transactions are just plain payments/receipts.

Hi,

That was quite a bill from your accountant! Ouch!

To your questions:

1) You can delete the mistake, but (as I said) it might not be a good idea:

You say your financial year runs from February to January - so your last financial year was to January 2012. Has that financial year been 'closed down' in Sage? Have you (or your accountant, for a greatly reduced fee) produced (or started working on) a set of accounts for that year based on the back-up taken from Sage just before closing it down?

If your 2011/12 year is still 'live' (not closed down and/or not handed to someone to produce accounts) then the answer is "yes - you can delete the transactions (if Sage will allow you)."

Why might Sage not allow you? If those transactions have been included on a VAT return. Which it sounds like they might have done.

If so (and if you have closed the year and handed it off for accounts production) follow the 'reverse' procedure I suggested.

2) Don't worry about going 'back' into a previously done bank rec: Just create a new one (give it a unique reference - perhaps the date followed by the word 'supplemental' ?). Alternatively, wait until you *next* do a bank rec, and clear them off with that. It won't affect your paper statements because, if any such reversed transactions are cleared off, there should be a payment and an exactly matching receipt. (ie if you reversed a payment for £100, you will have posted a receipt for £100; the net effect of matching a £100 payment against a £100 receipt is nil.)

3) I answered that in the thread about payments on account.

Sage v16... that's, what, the 2010 edition of Sage 50 (or perhaps 2011 Instant, which I believe tends to be a year behind 50 in terms of the version number)?

Cheaper than your accountant? Probably. People often tell me I'm too cheap. ;)

Okay - in that case, deleting the transactions will probably be okay, subject to the VAT side of it. See how you get on, post back here if you encounter problems. (I'll be offline for a few hours now - it's the day's end for me, until I switch on again at home, but others might be able to help in the meantime.)