Running a year end routine

Running a year end involves many processes including producing and reconciling your reports and posting adjustments to your accounts. After running a year end routine these effect take place.

Profit and loss balances are cleared

When the Year End option is run, Sage Accounts checks all of the Chart of Accounts to establish which nominal codes are profit and loss codes. The balances, up to the end of the current financial year, on these profit and loss nominal codes are transferred to the Profit and Loss Account nominal code. This is 3200 by default and is in the Capital and Reserves section of the Chart of Accounts.

Any balances remaining on profit and loss nominal codes relate to transactions posted for the new financial year. The balance on the Profit and Loss Account nominal code is adjusted by the profit or loss from the financial year you have just closed.

Balance sheet balances are brought forward to the new financial year

The balance sheet nominal code balances are carried forward into the new financial year. These balances are transferred to the brought forward boxes on the Nominal Records, and are included in the Year To Date values on the Balance Sheet report when calculated for a date in the new financial year.

Audit trail updated

The journals posted to clear the balances from the profit and loss nominal codes are added to the audit trail. The Year End option creates a report that lists these journals and can be printed or output to file to be printed later.

Nominal Records updated

On the Nominal Record Details tab, the value of any future dated transactions is transferred from the future bucket to the relevant month on the Actual column. The Actual monthly balances for the financial year that you are closing are transferred to the Prior Year columns on the Nominal Record. This enables you to print comparison reports in the new financial year. If you select, in the Year End window, to Transfer / Copy Actuals to Budgets, the Actual monthly balances are also transferred as the Budget values for your profit and loss nominal codes for the new financial year. If specified, a percentage increase is applied. This is an optional feature of the year end.

Product Records

Sage 50 Accounts, Sage Instant Accounts Plus v8.2 and above - The Actual Sales Value and Actual Quantity Sold values in each Product Record are transferred to the Prior Year columns. Any future dated transactions are transferred to the relevant monthly field in each Product Record.

Customer and Supplier Records

The values in the YTD (Year To Date) turnover box in all Customer and Supplier Records are transferred to the Prior YTD field. Any future dated transactions are transferred to the relevant monthly field in each Customer / Supplier Record.

Financial Year Start Date

The financial year start date is incremented by one year. To check the financial year start date, open the Settings menu then choose Financial Year.

To prepare to run the Year End option- Mandatory Procedures

Run Check Data

The Year End option calculates balances based on your transactions and the information held in your software records. It is therefore essential that your data is error free. Before running the Year End option, you should use the Check Data option to check the validity of your data files and, if necessary, correct any data corruption.

Check your Chart of Accounts

During the Year End procedure Sage Accounts uses all layouts in the Chart of Accounts to establish which are the profit and loss nominal codes. The balances from the profit and loss nominal codes are then transferred to the Profit and Loss nominal code which is by default 3200.

Take two backups

Before running the Year End option, you should take two backups of your data and keep these in a safe place. Once the year end is run, the only way to go back to a pre year end position is to restore from one of these backups. You may need to do this to run reports, check accounts, or even run the Year End option again. We advise taking two backups as a precaution against loss or damage to your pre year end backup. Make sure you must test one of the backup if it has been backuped correctly.

To prepare to run the Year End option - Optional Procedures

Run the Month End
If you usually run the Month End option, before running the Year End option, you should run the month 12 month end.

Change Program Date

The Year End option posts journals to clear the balances on your profit and loss nominal codes. These journals must be dated on the last day of your financial year. Sage Accounts stores this date and automatically enters it in the Year End window. You can run either the Year End option with your program date set to the current date, or change the program date to be the last day of the financial year.
If you run the Year End option with the program date set to a date beyond the year end, the following message appears:
'The current program date is outside your financial year. If you continue it may cause discrepancies in your accounts. Do you want to continue?'
To run the Year End option, click Yes, or to exit without running the Year End option, click No.
This message is a warning against running certain year end routines to the wrong date, for example running the clear audit trail into the new year or running the month end for month 12 with the wrong date.
If you run the Year End option with the program date set to be the last day of the financial year the following message appears:
'You are about to process a Year End whilst in your current financial year.Are you sure you wish to continue?'
To run the Year End option, click Yes, or to exit without running the Year End option, click No.This message is aimed at preventing you from running your Year End before you are ready.

Print Reports

If required, print the following reports:
Trial Balance
Profit and Loss
Balance Sheet
Aged analysis reports for debtors and creditors
Statements for customers and banks
Bank Report, unreconciled
Day Books for customers, suppliers, banks and nominal
Activity reports on all ledgers
Audit trail
Budget Analysis report
Prior Year Analysis report
Sage 50 Accounts Plus/Sage Line 50 Accountant Plus and Sage 50 Accounts Professional/Financial Controller - Stock Valuation
Sage 50 Accounts Plus/Sage Line 50 Accountant Plus and Sage 50 Accounts Professional/Financial Controller - Product Profit Reports

Opening and closing stock journals

To ensure that the correct stock value is recorded on your Profit and Loss report, you must post opening and closing stock journals.

To run the Year End option

Open the Tools menu, choose Period End then choose Year End.
The Year End window appears.
Complete the Year End window as follows:
Year End Date - Displays the last day in the current financial year.
Current Date - Displays the current program date.
Transfer Actuals to Budgets / Copy Current Actuals - To automatically set budgets based on income and expenditure during the year for profit and loss nominal codes, select this option. These values are transferred as monthly figures.
Percentage Increase - If you want to set a target for the following year, enter the percentage increase you want to apply to your budgets here.
Year End Journals - Automatically displays the year end date. This is the date Sage Accounts uses to post the journals which clear your profit and loss nominal codes.
Output to - Displays the output options for the Year End report. This report details the journals automatically posted at the year end. You can choose one of the following:
Print - Select this option to output the report direct to your printer.File - Select this option to file the report to print later.
Sage Line 50 v9.xx and above, including Sage 50 Accounts - Archive Company Data before Year End - This option allows you to take a copy of your data at the pre year end point. You can then refer back to the archived data, either to run reports or analyse your previous year's data.
To run the Year End option, click OK.
When the year end postings have been made, the software desktop appears.
The Year End option is now complete and you are ready to prepare for your new financial year.

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Posted in: year end

How to print a bank statement

Select Bank > Statement.
The Print Output window appears.
Choose the type of print out you require and then click Run.
The Criteria window appears.
Enter a date range.
This has a default of a 'From' date of 01/01/80 and a 'To' date which is the program date.
If you accept these defaults, all reconciled transactions up to today's date are included in the report. You can change these dates so that only transactions within a specific date range are included, for example, a week or a month. To change the dates, click on the 'From' and 'To' boxes, and edit the date as required.

If required, enter a range in the 'Bank Ref' boxes to select the banks that you want to produce statements for.

Note: If a bank account is highlighted on the bank list, transactions for that account will be displayed.

Click OK to accept the settings and print the statement. Click Cancel to exit without
running the bank statement.

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Posted in: printing

Reconciling Your Bank Account

Bank reconciliation is the process of matching your computer bank records with the statement
from your bank.
We recommend that you reconcile your bank accounts when you receive your statement from the bank. By reconciling regularly, you will not have too many transactions to check and you will
not have to make as many adjustments for possible interest charges or overdraft payments.
There are two ways to reconcile your bank accounts. You can use e-Banking Or, as described in this section, you can manually reconcile your bank accounts. Regardless of which method you choose, bank reconciliation is a formal check of the bank records you keep against the bank statement(s) you receive from the financial organisation(s) you deal with.

You don’t have to reconcile any of your bank accounts if you don’t want to. However, it is good
practise to do so ensuring:
Your bank records are accurate and complete.
Charges and/or interest applied to your account are identified and adjustments made to account for these.
Erroneous transactions are identified which can then be disputed with the financial organisation you deal with.
Missing transactions can be added to your bank records to bring them up to date.

To reconcile your bank statement

Select Bank > Reconcile Account.
The Statement Summary window appears.

Select the bank you want to reconcile from the drop-down list.
Use the Statement Summary window to record information shown on your bank
statement. You can enter the following statement information:
Statement Reference If you want to maintain a history of bank reconciliations, enter a statement reference. To associate the reconciliation to your bank statement, enter the reference shown on your bank statement.
Statement (End) Date The current system date appears. You can change this date to the date on your bank statement so that only those transactions up to and including the date are available for reconciliation. The date cannot be blank.
Ending Balance If this is the first time the bank account is to be reconciled the
account’s opening balance is displayed, otherwise the reconciled balance from the previous reconciliation is displayed. Enter the balance shown on your bank statement.
If your account is overdrawn, to record a negative amount place a minus (-) at the beginning of the value.

Interest Earned Amount Amount: If your bank statement shows interest earned, enter the amount. The amount is committed to the bank account when transactions are reconciled and appears as a bank receipt. Enter the date the interest was applied to your account. NC: From the drop-down list, select a nominal account you want to post the interest to.

Account Charges: If any bank charges appear on your statement, enter an amount for charges. The amount is committed to the bank account when reconciliation is reconciled and
appears as a bank payment. This amount is added to the reconciliation as a fixed amount, which cannot be split into separate charges. If you have several charges you want to record separately,
add them using an adjustment (explained later). Enter the date the charges were applied to your account. From the drop-down list, select a nominal account you want to post the charge to. When you have entered your statement information, click OK. The Bank Reconciliation window appears.

Transactions up to and including the 'Statement (End) Date' are displayed. An opening balance appears in the 'Matched Against Statement' area of the window. If this is the first time the bank account is to be reconciled the account’s opening balance appears, otherwise the reconciled balance from the previous reconciliation appears. It is displayed for information purposes only, it cannot be removed or changed. Any account charges or interest earned that have been recorded using the Statement Summary window appear in the 'Matched Against Statement' area of the window. They cannot be moved into the 'Unmatched items' area. To remove them click Edit, then set the charge/interest amount to zero on the displayed Statement Summary window and click OK. Confirm this action by clicking OK when prompted. Depending on your Sage 50 Accounts settings, transactions may be grouped and displayed as one transaction. Grouped transactions are indicated by the letter 'Y' in the 'Grouped' column. See hints and tips at the end of this section that explain how to view this column.

Work through your bank statement one line at a time. Match a transaction on your bank statement to a transaction in the 'Unmatched items' area. Select the item to be matched (left-click mouse button - the line becomes highlighted) then click Match Transaction. As you move transactions the 'Matched Balance' and 'Difference' values change automatically.

Transactions are positioned in the 'Matched Against Statement' area in the order in which they are moved into the area. Any transaction within this area that is associated with a negative bank balance appears red.
To move a transaction from 'Matched Against Statement' to 'Unmatched items', select the transaction (left-click mouse button) then click Unmatch Transaction.

To add a transaction to your bank records (bank charge, interest earned, payment or
receipt) click Add Adjustment.
Do not use an adjustment to add transactions that affect your customer or supplier accounts, for example, BACS receipts from customers, Direct Debit or Standing Orders to suppliers. You must use the Customer Receipt or Supplier Payment facilities to record such transactions. Caution: You cannot delete adjustments from the reconciliation.

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Posted in: bank

Recording a Bank Receipt

Use Bank > New Receipt to record any money you receive that does not go to pay invoices you have sent. For example, you can record;
Bank interest.
Dividends received.
Money received for an insurance claim.
Money received from a grant.

The Bank Receipts facility is often used by cash businesses, for example, newsagents, bars and restaurants, where customers pay at the time of purchasing and no invoice is raised.

You can record details of this money received in one or more of the different nominal accounts. By allocating your income to different accounts you can see at a glance the different sources of your money and how much you are receiving from each source. For example, you would record money you received from an insurance claim to the nominal code 4903 (Insurance Claims). The window that appears for you to enter your receipts is the same, whatever the type of bank account that you select; Cheque Account, Cash Account, or Credit Card Account. However, each type of account records a different transaction type onto the audit trail. Make sure when you are dealing with credit card receipts that you have selected the correct credit card bank account.

Select Bank > New Receipt.
The Bank Receipts window appears.
For each receipt, enter the relative details one line at a time.

If you calculated the batch totals manually before you started entering them in Sage 50 Accounts, check your totals against those shown on the Bank Receipts window.

If you are using Foreign Trader and have set up foreign bank accounts, the Currency and the Exchange Rate are displayed as well as the standard information listed in this procedure.

To accept your entries, click Save. The details are 'posted' instantly to update the appropriate nominal and bank accounts, and the Bank Receipts window clears. If you don't want to save this batch, click Discard to clear the data and start again. The Discard button does not however cancel any batch entries you have already saved. To exit the Bank Receipts window, click Close.

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How to Post Direct Debit and standing orders

The best way to record regular standing orders or Direct debits is to post them as a Recurring Entries.
Go to Bank> Highlight the bank account they are paid from and click the recurring tab> Click Add and you can enter the details of the regular payment. When these payments are due to be posted Sage will ask you if you wish to post these entries, by clicking yes Sage will automaticallly post them. However If you are VAT registered and not using cash accounting rules then you are best entering any invoices received which are subject to VAT in to the purchase ledger and then post the payment as a Supplier payment.

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Posted in: bank

Sage Line 50 and Instant Accounts Add-ons

Are you looking for all your useful information in one place?

This dashboard will give you up-to-date realtime information on your data. Key features are;

• Works with any version of Line 50/Instant from version 7 upto version 2008 (with support for future versions easily maintained)
• Supports multi-company
• Doesn’t require a user licence! (can have unlimited additional seats viewing the data)
• Completely FREE - this includes all future releases!

How does it work?

You simply launch the application, then if you are running a single company you are asked for your username and password just as you would when starting Sage normally. If you are running multi-company then you are asked to select the company. Multiple users can run off of one sign-in.

You can download it from here:

http://www.domorewithsage.com/sage-50instant-add-ons/

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Posted in: add-ons

How to use Sage VAT Codes

Sage suggests the following attributions for VAT tax code to use:

T0 zero rated transactions
T1 standard rate
T2 exempt transactions
T4 sales to customers in EC*
T5 lower rate
T7 zero-rated purchases from suppliers in EC**
T8 standard-rated purchases from suppliers in EC**
T9 transactions not involving VAT***

* This tax code can be used for VAT-registered customers outside of the UK but within the EC. You must have the customer's VAT registration number entered on the customer record if you want to use the T4 tax code. If your customer is not VAT-registered, then you should use one of the standard UK VAT rates.

** These tax codes can be used for suppliers outside of the UK but within the EC. In accordance with VAT regulations, EC VAT rate codes used for purchases are given a 'notional' rate that is linked to a UK VAT Rate. For example, Instant Accounts's T8 rate for standard rated purchases from suppliers in the EC is linked to T1, which is the standard rate of VAT in the UK.

*** These transactions are not included on the VAT Return. Instant Accounts also uses T9 as the default tax code for all the routines that are non-vatable, e.g. journal entries and error corrections. If you want to change the function of T9, you will need to set up another tax code that is non-vatable, for Instant Accounts to use for these routines.

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Posted in: VAT