Opening Balances for Customers

If you are transferring accounting information from a manual bookkeeping system, or you are
changing accounting software, you will already have some customers (if you have no
customers, go to the next section). These customers may owe you money (or vice versa). You
must enter these amounts as opening balances.

You should only enter your customers’ opening balances once you have entered the details of
your nominal accounts (including bank accounts). Post the opening balances for your
customers using the O/B button on each customer record screen. You can either enter your
opening balance as a lump sum or as separate transactions.
You can enter opening balances as a negative or a positive value, depending on whether they
owe you money or you owe them money.

The method for entering the opening balances for your customers is different depending upon
whether you are using the Standard VAT scheme or VAT Cash Accounting scheme. In the
following sections, the procedure for entering balances for both schemes is explained.
Warning! It is very important that you check with your accountant which VAT scheme you
should be using, because once you have entered a transaction it is very difficult to change
VAT schemes.

If you are using the Standard VAT scheme, you can either enter customer opening balances as
lump sum balances, or you can enter each outstanding invoice and credit note separately. This
makes it easier for you to match receipts later. We recommend that you enter each outstanding
invoice/credit note separately.

If you are using the VAT Cash Accounting scheme, you should enter each invoice and credit
note for your customers individually with the correct tax code.

To enter a customer’s opening balance using the Standard VAT scheme

1. From the main toolbar, click Customers.
The Customers window appears.

2. Select the customers you have opening balances for.

3. Click Record from the Customers toolbar.
The Customer Record window appears, showing the details of the first customer you
selected.

4. Click the O/B button, which appears alongside the 'Balance' box.
The Opening Balance Setup window appears.
5. In the Opening Balance Setup window enter the following opening balance details:

'Ref'
Enter the reference for this opening balance.
This reference appears on the audit trail and will help you to identify this
transaction. If you are entering each outstanding invoice/credit note
separately, you can enter the invoice or credit note number here. Alternatively,
if you are just entering the total of outstanding invoices/credit notes as one
opening balance, you can enter O/BAL as the reference.

'Date'
You can enter the date of the original invoice or credit note (that is, the
opening balance).
If you assign the original date here, it ages the invoice/credit note from that
date. This gives you an accurate picture of the overdue debts on all your
customer accounts.

'Type'
From the drop-down list, select the type of opening balance you want to
enter. You can select either 'Invoice’ or 'Credit'.
If you owe your customers money you would select ‘credit’ from the
drop-down box. This would create a negative value when you enter their
opening balance in the ‘Gross’ box. If they owe you money you would select
‘Invoice’
.
'Gross'
If you want to enter a single opening balance for this customer, enter the total
gross amount of all the invoices minus credits.

Tip: Press ENTER after each entry to move to the next entry field.

6. To accept these details, click Save.
To return to the Customer Record window without saving, click Cancel.

7. To return to the Customers window, click Close.
Once you have entered the opening balances for your customers, you can enter your
supplier’s details and then their opening balances.


To enter a customer’s opening balance using VAT Cash Accounting
1. From the main toolbar, click Customers.
The Customers window appears.

2. Select the customers that you have opening balances for.

3. From the Customers toolbar, click Record.
The Customer Record window appears, showing the details of the first customer you
selected.

4. Click the O/B button, which appears alongside the 'Balance' box.

5. In the Opening Balance Setup window, enter the following opening balance details:
Tip: Press ENTER after each entry to move to the next entry field.

6. To accept these details, click Save.
To return to the Customer Record window without saving, click Cancel.

7. To return to the Customers window, click Close.

'Ref'
Enter the reference for this opening balance. For example,
type O/BAL.
This reference appears on the audit trail and will help you to
identify this transaction.
You can also enter the invoice or credit note number here.

'Date'
Enter the date of the original invoice or credit note (that is, the
opening balance).
If you assign the original date here, Line 50 ages the invoice or
credit note from that date. This gives you an accurate picture
of the overdue debts on all your customer accounts.

'Type'
From the drop-down list, select the type of opening balance
you want to enter. You can choose 'Invoice' or 'Credit'.
Note: If you owe your customers money you should select

'Credit'
from the drop-down list, creating a negative value on
the customer account when you save the opening balance. If
the customer owes you money, select 'Invoice' from the
drop-down list.

'Net'
Enter the net amount of the original invoice or credit note
here.

'T/C'
The default tax code for this customer appears here
automatically, but you can change it if you require.

'VAT'
Sage Line 50 enters the amount of VAT due. You can change
this if you require.

Tip: Press ENTER after each entry to move to the next entry field.

6. To accept these details, click Save.
To return to the Customer Record window without saving, click Cancel.

7. To return to the Customers window, click Close.

Posted in: book-keeping,bookeeping,bookkeeping,line 50,sage,sage line 50