My accountant sent me this trial balance from my previous year's accounts so I want to add them to my new Sage instant accounts program as opening balances:
I have put them into sage practise mode journal entry as this:
My question is: do these nominal codes match up? I'm particularly concerened by the 0031 / 8004 codes being wrong. Also the last two or three lines were slightly guessed!
Also: should I post them as the first day of this financial year or the last day of the previous year?
First of all if you are entering Opening Balances in Sage for the first time (from previous year's accounts which have already been done) you should only be entering the Balance Sheet figures. All last year's P & L figures should have been cleared down to the P & L account. I would query with the accountants as to why they have given you Sales, Purchases and Expenses figures as well, unless it was just for reference.
Your Stock figure should be in the Asset range (think from memory 1001?) This will be your Opening stock figure. (Closing stock from last year), but do check with the accountants first.
Looks alright, 0031 and 8004 are fine, the first is charge for the year in Balance Sheet, the second the charge in the P&L. Enter it up as 31.03.13 in Sage as it works by month endings rather than exact dates. You can then run a year end procedure and the P & L figures will clear down as Pauline says and you can start entering the April 2013 onwards data.
I think the accountant has given you the closing trial balance as at the year end - you need the opening trial balance, which essentially seems to me to be the bottom half of the spread sheet. Therefore all you need to enter in to Sage as at 31.03.20xx is as follows - check this with your accountant of course - but I think that's correct. This is your opening position as at the start of your new financial year before any sales or expenses have been incurred. I have used the nominal codes that would be used on the latest versions of Sage, so they may differ if you have an older version.
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Cheers for the responses guys! I've tried emailing my accountant but I think due to the fact it's tax deadline time of year he's dropped of the radar!
I've already started entering some invoices for this year. I could enter the above journal entries to 31/3/2013 but can I run a year end for last year even though I've started on this year already?
Yes if the accounts have been done and the trial balance entered as you said then you can run the year end procedure. Make sure all dates are 31.3.13 and then when it is complete, run a b/f TB to make sure the figures are correct. Take a backup before you run the year end, just in case it goes pear shaped.
I've put all the Journal Entries in now but I can't run a year end for 12/13 - it only comes up with the option to year end 13/14. Any ideas what's going on? I'm a bit lost now!
Probably due to the date you entered when you set up Sage in the first place. When you went through the set-up wizard, did it ask you for the date your Company financial year starts? If so, you probably put April 2013? In which case you don't need to run the year end for 12/13 as you are currently in 13/14. If you go to the Financials screen - TB and run the b/f option, it should bring up your TB that you have entered. If it is correct you can just start entering data for your current year
