Opening Balances for Suppliers

If you are transferring accounting information from a manual bookkeeping system, or you are
changing accounting software, you will already have some suppliers. You may owe money to
these suppliers (or vice versa). You must enter these amounts as opening balances.

You should only enter your suppliers’ opening balances once you have entered the details of
your nominal accounts (including bank accounts). Post the opening balances for your suppliers
using the O/B button on each supplier record. You can either enter your opening balance as a
lump sum or you can enter separate transactions.

The method of entering the opening balances for your suppliers is different depending on
whether you are using the Standard VAT scheme, or the VAT Cash Accounting scheme.
If you are using the Standard VAT scheme, you can either enter supplier opening balances as a
lump sum, or you can enter each outstanding invoice and credit note separately. This makes it
easier for you to match payments later. We recommend that you enter your opening balances
as separate transactions.

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

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

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

2. Select the suppliers you have opening balances for.
3. Click Record from the Suppliers window toolbar.

The Supplier Record window appears, showing the details of the first supplier you
selected.
4. Choose the O/B button, which appears alongside '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 either the program date (entered automatically by default) or
the date of the original invoice or credit note.
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
supplier 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 your suppliers owe you money, select ‘Credit’ from the drop-down box.
This creates a negative value when you enter the opening balance in the

‘Gross’
box. If you owe money for invoices, select ‘Invoice’.
'Gross' Enter the gross amount of the original invoice or credit note.
If you want to enter a single opening balance for this supplier, enter the total
gross amount of all the invoices.

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

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

7. To return to the Suppliers window, click Close.
Once you have entered all the opening balances for your suppliers, you are now ready to
check your customers’ and suppliers’ opening balances.

To enter a supplier’s opening balance using the VAT Cash Accounting
scheme

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

2. Select the supplier records that you have opening balances for.

3. Click Record from the Suppliers window toolbar.
The Supplier Record window appears, showing the details of the first supplier 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:

'Ref'
Enter the reference for this opening balance, for example, O/BAL.
This reference appears on the audit trail and will help you to identify this
transaction.

'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 properly
from that date. This gives you an accurate picture of the overdue debts on
all your supplier 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 suppliers money, select ‘Invoice’ from the drop-down box.
This creates a negative value when you enter their opening balance in the

‘Gross’ box. If the supplier owes you money, select ‘Credit’.
'Net'
Enter the net amount of the original invoice or credit note.

'Tc'
The default tax code for this supplier appears here automatically, but you
can change it if necessary.

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

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

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

7. To return to the Suppliers window, click Close.
Once you have entered all the opening balances for your suppliers, you are now ready to
check and clear your customers’ and suppliers’ opening balances.

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