I am working for a new client and am sorting bank recs. The previous bookkeeper never did bank recs on Sage though they were meticulous in making sure that everything was entered. Rather than going back to the beginning of time (well years and years of accounts) I agreed with their accountant to do a rec to the end of the last tax year, and if there were any adjustments (up to about £200) then to post to suspense and he would sort it out.
On the bank info it says no recs have been done, however on the bank rec page it has an last reconciled balance of £15XXX in the bottom box. When I try to do the bank rec, this figure is the difference. Its basically the opening balance from when they started using Sage, so how do I account for this difference and reconcile? Bearing in mind there are thousands of transactions in the top box to match - should this figure be one of those transactions - I've searched through and can't find it.
-- Edited by Sammy76 on Friday 11th of November 2016 01:05:39 PM
I won't have it for another two weeks and was hoping to have a solution to the problem by the next time I visit.
-- Edited by Sammy76 on Friday 11th of November 2016 04:55:46 PM
Im trying very hard not to get annoyed by this on two levels. Perhaps Im just at the end of my tether after a very frustrating week and have possibly just mis- understood how this has been phrased.
BUT, had this question been aimed at Sage, their first question would be - what type of sage and what version/year are you using. I think as well Ive made a few points of asking this before whenever I have a sage or indeed often other software query (unless I know the poster only has one sage or quickbooks or whatever and I can remember which one they have give the many many conversations we have).
In addition I ask, not merely to be nosey, but because I am suspecting you have a sage'y issue with this one, based on your line about the previous bookkeeper being meticulous in her work, plus the Bank rec balance you have showing at the bottom of the screen, and will possibly know whether my idea is right or completely off the plot once I know what the answer to that question is.
Can I politely suggest that you contact someone at this particular business to login and go to the about screen and tell you the information or take a picture and sent it to you.
Or if you really want the answer within the next two weeks, if they are close to where you live perhaps you could pop in for the information and let me know.
Or - just get it next time you are in, and sort it the following visit if neither of those suggestions is appropriate. On the basis this is a new client and the rec hasnt been done for ''years and years'' then I dont think anyone would criticise you for waiting another couple of weeks.
Although it might need to wait anyway as I have another question - was there a date against the entry in the bottom screen, is their a narrative against it and is that the only entry?
Im assuming that you have treble checked what you have done so far, given that just because you have a £15xxx difference doesnt mean necessarily it relates to that. You could have compensating/other errors.
Your other option of course is just to shove the whole difference to suspense and let the Accountant sort it 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
I'm coming to this a bit late - but first of all, what Joanne said!
Whenever you are asking a question relating to a piece of software - not just Sage, but ANY piece of software, and no matter if it seems to be a problem with the software, or simply needing to know how to do something with it; whatever - ALWAYS make sure you have the specific version number etc to hand. As soon as the problem crops up, if you aren't going to be able to access it when you post the query here, note that information down to refer to it when you do.
Now, on to the question:
"On the bank info it says no recs have been done, however on the bank rec page it has an last reconciled balance of £15XXX in the bottom box. When I try to do the bank rec, this figure is the difference. Its basically the opening balance from when they started using Sage, so how do I account for this difference and reconcile? Bearing in mind there are thousands of transactions in the top box to match - should this figure be one of those transactions - I've searched through and can't find it. "
If it's the opening balance, what you might find is that when it was all originally set up, the opening balance was keyed as the individual transactions that make it up (or some thereof) - so if the reconciled balance at that point was (say) £25xxx with £10xxx worth of outstanding cheques, you might find the £15xxxx is broken down that way.
What you could try doing is simply searching the raw data for transactions marked as bank reconciled - this is one of the many fields available for the search. If no bank reconciliation has ever been done (but, presumably, the opening transactions were marked as reconciled), doing so might produce a list of transactions that net off to the £15xxx.
(I'm guessing - having never used any wizard for inputting opening balances - that such a wizard may have been used, and when the bank bit is input there is an option to say whether or not the transactions are reconciled; if there's a an opening reconciled balance and no reconciliations have been done, that would make sense. I think*.)
* Unfortunately, my new(ish) set up means I mostly see the forum on a computer on which I don't actually run Sage - and, in fact, that I don't even see posts as often as I perhaps should. This means I'm likely to use vague terms, and speak from sometimes vague recollections of what's what in the software. This may not be the best approach. :/
__________________
Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Sorry I've not been online all week as been busy.
Version is Sage 50 Accounts Essentials 22.1.10.394
Searching through transactions the o/bal was, as Vince said, done with a wizard when set up. Other than the transactions on other bank accounts that I have reconciled, there are no other transactions reconciled.
I've backed everything up and gone into the transaction to see if I can untick the rec box but it won't allow that.
I'm trying to go through all the transactions dated prior to the o/bal date - is there a quicker way of doing this.
Sorry I've not been online all week as been busy.
Version is Sage 50 Accounts Essentials 22.1.10.394
Searching through transactions the o/bal was, as Vince said, done with a wizard when set up. Other than the transactions on other bank accounts that I have reconciled, there are no other transactions reconciled.
I've backed everything up and gone into the transaction to see if I can untick the rec box but it won't allow that.
I'm trying to go through all the transactions dated prior to the o/bal date - is there a quicker way of doing this.
I don't know anyone who isn't mega busy at the mo, me included. Some of us on here are just mad though, clearly . But more questions I'm afraid as it wasn't the issue I suspected. Now I'm thinking they have used the cash till default As a bank account. To check....so now you are saying that sage will it allow you to Rec this particular account and you cannot untick the box saying a Rec isn't required? Just need to understand what you have in front of you. If I've understood it correctly....then what is this particular sage nominal number? If you go into bank defaults, which sage nominal number is set up as the cash till?
-- Edited by Cheshire on Wednesday 23rd of November 2016 11:59:46 AM
__________________
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
They haven't touched the Cash Till account at all, ever, which is 1235.
I was on my phone trying to post earlier and in a bit of a rush so not sure if I explained anything very well at all.
The opening balance of the bank account was entered and automatically reconciled when they moved from bookkeeping software they used through their bank on 31/03/2010. There are transactions (payments and receipts) dated before this which I would assume add up to the opening balance amount (as Vince mentioned) but they don't. However the difference preventing me from reconciling the entire Current account is this opening balance amount, which I'm thinking is now down to the transactions dated before the opening balance date. Is there a way to export the transactions to excel to add them up rather than manually having to add up each transaction? Or am I barking up the wrong tree.
I cannot go onto the opening balance transaction and un-tick the Bank rec box, as it won't let me. If I could do this, it would actually all completely reconcile.
ETA: I have no idea why my previous post is there twice
-- Edited by Sammy76 on Wednesday 23rd of November 2016 05:11:02 PM
Unfortunately, v22 is newer than what I have, which doesn't help anyway - and I'm not on a computer with Sage installed anyway, now, but speaking more generally...
"Is there a way to export the transactions to excel to add them up rather than manually having to add up each transaction?"
Any report that can be produced in Sage can be exported in a number of formats, including CSV for importing into spreadsheets like Excel. (And it might even include Excel as an export option).
Therefore, if a search can find these transactions, it should be possible to get a report on them - and export that report for loading into Excel.
__________________
Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Hi I'm away at mo, so no sage in front of me. Yes you can export to csv as Vince says, but also the newer sage software allows you to export direct to excel.
Go to bank concerned and click on activity and the excel option is probably at the top of the page, near far right icon (you are testing my memory).
But probably better to get an unreconciled report. Click on bank concerned then reports and you will see unreconciled and Rec option plus option to dump into excel. I would order both to be on the safe side.
If after that you are convinced it is still this opening balance, which you indicate was an auto rec situation (I've seen that happen on a sage one garbage upgrade from basic to full package when the system did a rec'd with sage INSISTING it was all bank keyed items but I proved it was a random 60 odd out of thousands!!), so suggest you do a reversal of the entry, manually.
So depending on balance in debit or credit, do a bank payment or bank receipt, T9 it, keep the date the same ancient date as already keyed and post it to suspense. Then reverse it back again. You can include one half on your Rec, to get the bloomin thing to balance, but note you will always then have one item that will lurk at the top. So , best option, once rec is done, open up another Bank and move your balance and take it from there. Mark the other s 'do not use'.
Back it up before you try it, in case I'm losing the plot. More likely than usual, this week!
HTH
__________________
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. I will send everything to excel as it will def be easier to add everything, and find the right combinations as to what it could be on there, and if it is def this Opening Balance then I will do as you suggest.
You've suggested what I thought I would need to do anyway, but it's just reassuring to get other opinions.
-- Edited by Sammy76 on Thursday 24th of November 2016 03:52:13 PM
. But more questions I'm afraid as it wasn't the issue I suspected. Now I'm thinking they have used the cash till default As a bank account. To check....so now you are saying that sage will it allow you to Rec this particular account and you cannot untick the box saying a Rec isn't required? Just need to understand what you have in front of you. If I've understood it correctly....then what is this particular sage nominal number? If you go into bank defaults, which sage nominal number is set up as the cash till?
