Is it ok to input old (ouside the new financial year) ivoices on sage in order to reconcile bank statements? For example we have cheque cleared in a new FY that has been written to pay an invoice dated back in an old FY. Sage does allow to input old invoices on. My concern is will these oldies be picked up in finance reports?
I don't use Sage but surely the invoices should have been included as accruals at the previous period end and the receipts are simply reducing the accrual liability in the new period.
You do state that the invoice is on the system so I'm not seeing where the problem is?
At the period end the unpaid invoices will have been reported as a creditor (accrual) and in the new period the creditors are reduced by the receipt of the payment.
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
If the invoice hasnt been input in the old financial year would you not just include it in the current financial year in order it is picked up.
Technically should be included in the previous period when should have been recorded but whether accountant would go to the bother of a prior year adjustment will depend on the materiality and instead may just be happy to include in the current financial year.
New FY- 1 May 2012. I have 3 invoices from April that had cheques written for payment in April. Chq's had cleared on our bank account in May. Then I have 3 invoices dated April that had chq's written for payment in May and cleared in May. Now I believe that Invoices with chq's written in April would be deemed as paid even though payment had cleared in May. I will clarify that tomorrow. If this a is the case shell I just ignore this payment when reconciling bank statement for May In relation to April invoices that left unpaid till May they are on old system (Excel) as liability. I'd like to know if that's ok to input these April invoices on Sage now so that I can allocate May chq's against them.
Would you not need to enter the opening balances and given a liability on the old system would the cleared cheques not be matched against the outstanding liability? So no need to post the invoices.
It would be the case if my boss had listened to my albeit not very confident(I am in my fist year of AAt studies) plea to get a trial balance and the o/b's for creditors and debtors from the accountant. The truth is there's is no o/b's on a system aparrt from bank accounts. So we just assume there was an ideal situation when all balances were at zero.
I did enter old invoices and found a function on Sage that allows you to enter uncleared payments in order for them to be reconciled. Haven't tried yet will do tomorrow.
As we are on a topic of opening balances. i have the amount of all banks' o/b's on a credit side of suspense code. After reading numerous posts about this occurring (glad to know I am not alone in my darkness) I know the reason- no o/b from previous year on a system. If I were to persuade my boss to get o/b from accountant, can I still input them on sage now that I have got 7 months worth of transactions on?
Also after reading/studying/holding to my head SAge for dummies I am non the wiser as to: Why to enter o/b's for creditors and debtors, then reverse them just to enter o/b's from TB . Why not to start from entering TB straight on without a first step?
Yes you should get opening balances from accountant and enter them either using OB function in nominal ledger or post a journal and date before you period start date. Doesnt matter where you are with postings in the year. Provided you still have the year open.
The reason why you enter the OB for debtors and creditors is for aging purposes and so you have all the invoices on to match against receipts and payments. When you post the individual balances for debtors it
Dr Debtor Control ac 1100 X
Cr Suspense X
Opposite when posting creditor opening balances
Dr Suspense X
Cr Creditors Control ac 2100 x
So when you post the opening TBL because the the control account has already been "journalled" in you just Dr the debtors total balance to suspense and credit the creditors total balance to suspense so to clear the suspense balance to £nil. Some books talk about journalling out the control account to the suspense account and then post the debtors total to the control account when posting the TBL but i just prefer posting the control accounts to the suspense account when posting the opening TBL to clear it down. Either way has same effect. The important thing is having the control account agreeing to your list and having the individual invoices in the list.
Perhaps should take that up as a new career though then again teach bookkeeping course through business gateway, teach SAGE courses at a local enterprise company and also been asked if I can take a credit control class they want to run. As well as servicing my now 50 client portfolio.
