Sage Instant year end - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Rhianrach · Expert

Sage Instant year end

elizabeth · Member

Using Sage Instant for Accounts. My year runs 01/04/2011 to 31/03/2012.

Trying to run year end but having problems. Have taken 3 backups - just in case. Went to "Tools" then "Year End". Message appears - Current program date outside financial year. If u continue it may cause discrepencies. Do u want to continue. Clicked Yes. Year end date showing as 31/03/2012. Current date showing as todays date. Posting Yearend Journals date shows as 31/03/2012. When I then click OK it again states that current date beyond current financial year etc. Do I wish to continue? Clicked NO in case of disaster. Am I right in saying that, of course the current date is outside the financial year (April 11 - Mar 12) as I doubt if anyone would be doing their year end on 31st March 2012 as they would be awaiting final invoices etc. Help!!

VinceH · Expert

You could have clicked Yes, and let it carry on. Those warnings in Sage are silly and really don't apply (any longer? I've a vague recollection that it used the current date many years ago - probably back in the days of the DOS version, but I'm over [cough]25[cough] now, so my memory is going, and I could be misremembering). The problem is that the journals need to be posted on the year end date, and that's what it does, irrespective of today's date.

Plus, you said you'd taken backups - you can just experiment, knowing full well that you only have to restore one if disaster strikes.

-- Edited by VinceH on Saturday 21st of April 2012 12:07:07 PM

elizabeth · Member

Many thanks for your suggestions. Will give it a go and come back if any more problems.

Rob-f58049 · Senior Member

VinceH said: "Plus, you said you'd taken backups - you can just experiment, knowing full well that you only have to restore one if disaster strikes."

Indeed. I often get called an expert by non-IT people because I can fix whatever it is they're asking, but to be honest, for the many cases when I don't know how to do something, the two most useful pieces of knowledge are knowing how to find information (F1 help, Google, even just what the menu entries are), and knowing how to undo (which includes restoring from a backup).

Set up some dummy accounts and have a play!

Amanda · Expert

Hi,

Steve is right, you have to set the date to the end of year date 31st march, then you won't get the silly message.

Wella · Expert

I am pretty sure that in later versions you can also suppress the message, so that it doesnot keep popping up every time an input is made

VinceH · Expert

@Amanda Honestly, you don't have to. It might suppress the silly message**, but you don't actually have to do this. Speaking with my computer programming hat on, if Sage *didn't* do the correct thing when closed down with the current date, rather than the year end date, I'd be utterly, utterly appalled out how poor their programming practices are.

Oh, wait, I already am for other reasons... ;)

** I've a vague recollection that it gives you another variation of the message, but it's such a long time that I bothered to change the date, I can't remember for certain.

@Wella That's a different message - that's the one that tells you you're entering something with a date that's not in the current (for Sage) year. But, yes, for the last few years it's included a tick box that says "Don't show me this message again" or words to that effect.