Hello, a new day, and more clarification please. I have taken on a client whose year end has been finalised on Sage. The accountant has sent back adjustments to be made to the accounts but upon entering them I have noticed that the client has made some entries relating to the year that has just been closed off (year end was 31st July), and input these at the dates of the invoices (12th July). Now, this means that the adjustments are out by these amounts. What is the best way to correct the clients entries? Could I put in an accrual for the amounts posted after year end and alter the adjustments to balance?
Also, the same client has handed me mileage for an employee for the whole year. When calculating the Fuel Advisory Rate, which rate would I use? Would it be the most current as the rates change every quarter and I only have one lot of mileage for this individual?
I'm sorry if these questions seem trivial, I am suffering from a slight case of baby brain at the moment and as this will be my first year end for this client, I would like reassurance that I have acted correctly.
Hi Emily As the Accountant has now finished the prior year end then I would suggest you do not alter his figures otherwise all you are amending is sage and the items would not be reflected in the year end accounts, which they wouldnt need to be unless of course they are considered material. Assuming the latter is not the case then amend the items via the maintenance screen (assuming sage 50 - if its different let me know) so that the date is the first day of the next period ie 1 August and add a note to the narrative to show the actual invoice date. If it is considered material - speak to the Accountant. You may wish to lock down the year end so items cannot be keyed prior to 31 July in error.
Re the mileage - ask the client for the calculations and explain you need them more often. Im sure he will have them in a format that can allow a breakdown to enable you to do your calculations. Also - sounds like some of this relates to prior year so thats a message that needs to be clear to him as well.
No questions are trivial on here - we all get stuck with things and you will find that someone else has had the exact same issues and either the question is buried away in the thousands of others asked on here, or someone else has not dared ask it and by you asking you could be helping a few others out!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Thank you so much for your response, that makes perfect sense. My issue with changing the date of the transactions would be the affect it will have on the VAT as I assume it will have shown as a non reconciled July item on the following VAT return and included in those figures? (Sorry, until I see the client on Tuesday, I can't be sure how that was dealt with as it was done by the previous bookkeeper). Will the fact the VAT portion will show as July, but the expense be amended to 1st August cause problems? I'm sorry to sound so useless, I've just manage to confuse the issue in my head.
As for the mileage rates, I have had the conversation with the client as I have just been given the figure for the year and this is the first time they have declared this. I will ask if she can be more specific though so thank you once again. It's good to know there is a support network out there.
