Hi, I am not a book-keeper so really hoping someone can help me. I started using Sage at the start of our new accounting year (last year), our accountant gave me the opening balances to use. Since setting Sage up an overstatement on the opening balances for our CT and VAT control account has become apparent, the total overstated amount isn't huge - £51.25. I journalled the amounts from their respective nominal codes to the suspense account and have asked our accountant - where do I go from here, where do I now move these amounts to? Alas, I am still waiting for a reply and have not done my year end on Sage as I was unsure whether or not I should be doing a further journal entry from the suspense account and whether or not I should do this after I have run year end or before????
I would very much appreciate any guidance so that I tidy things up and run year end.
The suspense account is in the P&L so when you close the year the balance will be cleared to Nil and posted into the retained profit figure in the Balance Sheet and you will start the new year in the correct position. So the answer is run the year end and it will be fine. However it is always best to clear the suspense account first by investigating the differences and writing them off/back to a relevant account, something more relevant than "suspense", although in your case it might only be "unexplained opening balance differences".
Many thanks for that I will run the year end. I am unsure why there was a difference in our CT (£10) and on the VAT control I worked out where the discrepancy lay so I am happy that we have paid the correct amount - I think in this case we were using a free version of quickbooks and got into a bit of a muddle. Will run the year end now, wish I had posted on here earlier!!
Quick question, have the accountants done the accounts for your year end yet? If not, I wouldn't be running the year end routine on Sage yet as they may need you to do some journal adjustments beforehand.
Hi Pauline,
The accounts have not yet been done. We received last years accounts two weeks before the statutory deadline for filing so I am reluctant to hold off running Sage - I really can't think if there would be any other journals to do???
Also, my bank opening balance was 2pence out (OB figure inserted was rounded up) - how do I correct this? I know it's only 2p but it really annoys me - getting fussy in my old age!
Same principle, write the difference off to a P&L account, probably just "Sundry". As it is a difference in the bank I would do a bank payment or bank receipt ie CR or DR the Bank and then post the entry to "Sundry" in the P&L, that way you can pick up the entry in you bank rec to correct that, use the narrative to say "write off opening balance difference" - or the like.
If the difference is truly a rounding error then you can do as cp says and write if off to a P & L account. I usually create a code somewhere in the 8xxx range for small differences.
You can still make postings in Sage if you haven't run the year end yet. Depending on your version of Sage you will just get an annoying message informing you of the fact (in later versions you can turn this message off).
