Hopefully a simple one! I've been happily using VT Transactions for work bookkeeping and now want to use it on my own home finances. They have a set of ledgers for this but I've become stuck straight away! There is no creditors- -opening balances in this set of ledgers so how do enter my starting figures for the bank, house and savings etc.?
I'm sure I'm just being stupid. Any help is much appreciated!
So hows about an intro before we gpo any further. We always ask newbies!
Usual stuff - what prof body do you belong to, do you work for yourself or in a practice/ firm, are you a bookkeeper or accountant, what qualifications, how long in role, where up to in your studies-what exams passed/with what body/in midst of doing, where based, what you did before this role? That sort of thing. Helps get to know you but also how best to pitch answers.
I take it you have your personal TB ready to go.
__________________
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
Thanks for the reply. I had a look at the help documents but they don't seem to have an example of opening balances for their home ledgers...perhaps I'll just export what I've done and put it in to a business template!
No idea where to pitch. That said info is indeed in the link I gave. But Im not wasting any more time on it, especially when time is so precious in mad January.
__________________
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
Apologies, I didn't see the intro request before my other response only the first comment saying it was overkill. I'm not a regular forum user so I'll try and be a bit more vigilant from now on.
Don't worry if this forum is more for professional/qualification related queries as I don't like to use peoples time and probably won't understand the answer if using too many official terms. I was hoping more for 'the equivalent of opening balances contra is...', but maybe a page number if the info is in the help manual? Rather than trying to explain it to me.
As far as an introduction, I'm not a professional bookkeeper, so the default answer is none! All my qualifications/membership of professional bodies are/were engineering based. I've worked for myself for almost twenty years and always completed the bookkeeping/VAT. I started using an accountant about 15 years ago when I started using ltd companies. My books have always been embarrassingly simple, hence me doing them, and VT transactions works very well for me. Now I'm trying to tidy up the home finances and figure out how much we're spending and where!
I've entered transactions already, hoping I could figure out the equivalent of Opening balances contra for the home finance ledgers later. I have all the opening balances for bank accounts/investments/credit cards but no trial balance as this is the first time I've started some books for the home.
Again, please don't use your time, especially during this month, if a lengthy explanation is required.
All the best
-- Edited by Awray on Saturday 1st of February 2020 12:17:27 PM
well, it's now Feb. Hope everyone survived another crazy season. I got all of mine done but whether they paid HMRC in time or not is another matter entirely.
Awray, was about the same time a few years ago that someone else wanted help with VT. You may find this link helpful for opening balance contra's :
The thing with VT though is that it very much expects you to be a bookkeeper in order to use it. I think that your bookkeeping is better than you think it is or you would not be happy using VT.
I hope that the above link proves beneficial but if not, there are others oput there that I marked VT-STM to help people find them. There's some good reading amongst them.
Good luck with the software, I personally really like the freedom that it gives you over other packages.
Kindest regards,
Shaun.
p.s. you say that you are an accountant? who with? I'm with the ACCA.
__________________
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.
I hope that the above link proves beneficial but if not, there are others oput there that I marked VT-STM to help people find them. There's some good reading amongst them. Nobody ever mentioned those when I've asked for VT info.
p.s. you say that you are an accountant? he didn't/isn't
__________________
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 hope that the above link proves beneficial but if not, there are others oput there that I marked VT-STM to help people find them. There's some good reading amongst them. Nobody ever mentioned those when I've asked for VT info.
p.s. you say that you are an accountant? he didn't/isn't
Lol, I really need my eyesight checked again! I read "I started using an accountant about 15 years ago" as "I started out as an accountant 15 years ago" Doh! I'll go get my cone of shame again.
ok, wrong one but whilst looking for the right one I saw it and thought, soooo funny... And relatable.
Sorry, thought that you knew about them. Generally your questions are more specific and about advanced subjects where most of the early VT questions were quite generic and largely how to transfer balances to VT (which is why I remembered when I read this one) so not sure how much use they would have been for your specific queries.
I'm not seeing very many of them (just five VT-STM's) I'm sure that there used to be more than that? When I get chance I'll have another looksie as pertty sure that there were at least a dozen??? Maybe Steve had a clean up? Who knows.
I think from next year they are stopping the current licensing and moving to VT Transaction+ only during your licence period. I can see the logic as a lot of people bbought it once then never renewed but could keep it forever if they didn't use VT Accounts (which of course did need annual licensing).
well, might motivate me to renew on time in the future as every year I just continue using VTT+ but don't renew util I need the accounts production... Which of course runs from thee end of the last licensing period so the following year end up doing exactly the same again.
__________________
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.
No, dont stay in the hole. But come out more often and play with the regulars.
Ive not heard that about licensing! Probably wont impact me. Well, it wont cos I just pay their bill - its not much compared to other software and its bloody good software. Or by then I will have taken my 2nd early retirement which is now a 90/10 chance, just need to sort the pension thing out (which is the bit Im burying my head about as I hate dealing with such stuff)
__________________
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 think from next year they are stopping the current licensing and moving to VT Transaction+ only during your licence period. I can see the logic as a lot of people bought it once then never renewed but could keep it forever if they didn't use VT Accounts (which of course did need annual licensing).
I think you only need a licence for VTT+ if you're using the MTD feature in which case it's £75 + VAT a year I'm still using the free version from 2017, but will likely upgrade to VT accounts sometime this year, as I plan to get a few Ltd's on board all being well. Taxfiler is OK but is limited to what it can do.
__________________
John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
Thank you Shaun for the great reply and links for more information when I might need it. It turns out I'd simply made a mistake with the ledgers and the mistake snow balled when looking at the balance sheet...it should have twigged there and then but I rushed/panicked when I thought I was in huge debt after so many years of work! So apologies for using your's and Cheshire's time! I'll take a deep breath first and look at your links next time! I only know the bits I need to as far as bookkeeping, so far from the breadth of knowledge required for different businesses, but thank you anyway. VT works for me because you can see the nuts and bolts; I hate software trying to be clever and hiding everything in the background!
Just on the VT Transactions front, if you're a new user I think it's £75 per year now. Not sure how this fits in when you're using VT Accounts anyway. The change seemed to be prompted during the will they, won't they with the MTD.
All the best!
-- Edited by Awray on Sunday 2nd of February 2020 03:12:56 PM
-- Edited by Awray on Sunday 2nd of February 2020 03:27:44 PM
As a work round, set up a start date for your accounts and then post an item calling it opening balance using the day before the start. Doesn't really matter what you allocate it against.
If you use VT accounts it's £150 + VAT a year with VTT+ thrown in.
__________________
John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
