How to Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50?

To Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50

In Sage 50, opening balances refer to the account balances that exist at the beginning of a financial period, typically a fiscal year. These balances represent the cumulative amounts of all financial transactions that have occurred in the accounts up until the end of the previous financial period.

There are three main ways through which you can make changes in the enter opening balance in Sage 50. These changes are typically dependent upon the type of changes your system needs in itself. Here is the list of all the three ways:

Ways to Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50

When you set up a new company in Sage 50 or start a new fiscal year in Sage 50, you will need to enter the opening balances for all accounts, including bank accounts, accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, and other balance sheet and income statement accounts. This is important to ensure that your financial statements accurately reflect your company’s financial position and performance.

  • You can make corrections in the opening balance
  • Separation of Opening Balance and Reconciled Items
  • You can reverse the incorrect opening balance.

Read More : What is and How to Run Trial Balance Report in Sage 50

How to Enter Opening Balances in Sage 50?

Most of the businesses are likely to have opening balances, whether they’re just starting or are changing from another accounting system to a Sage application. Without accurate opening balances, the reports that you generate can’t give you a clear picture of the financial position. So, these are pretty important to get it correct. Before digging in deep and finding out the ways for how to enter opening balances in Sage 50, it is suggested that you must get aware of the term opening balances. This article is going to discuss everything about Opening Balances in Sage 50.

What do you Require to Enter Opening Balances?

You need to enter opening balances for your bank accounts, any outstanding supplier or customer transactions, as well as for the nominal ledger accounts that you are using. You can manually enter these details or import them if you have been using a different system.

Precautions Need to be taken before Entering Opening Balances

  • Make sure you confirm the start date for accounting transactions before you enter opening balances in Sage 50.
  • A VAT scheme setup should be done accurately. You can adjust this information within the Settings >> Accounting Dates & VAT and then enter the Accounts Start Date in the relevant field.
  • You also need to generate a record for your supplier, customer, and bank account including credit cards and loan accounts.
  • Once done with the above then you can start entering opening balances for the following:
    • Outstanding supplier transactions
    • Nominal ledger trial balance
    • Outstanding customer transactions
    • Bank accounts.

Separation of Opening Balance and Reconciled Items

Follow the given steps :

Step 1: In the Opening Balance, you Will Find Uncleared Items, you Need to Reverse all the Values

  • Select the Bank Account, click on the account you want to make changes in. Now, select Edit/New or Edit.
  • Select the Current Balance Option.
  • Now, select Sage 50 Version, Select the Bank and then Click on the account. You will find the current opening balance option in the Bank Record Option.
  • Now, Enter the Credentials (Date and Reference) in the opening balance (opening). Now, enter uncleared payments in the Receipts options and then click on Save.
  • Now, once again you need to select the Current Balance and then enter the credentials (Date and Ref) in the Opening Balance. Enter Uncleared Receipts Value.
  • Now, select Save and then select Close.

Step 2: Take Receipts or Bank Payments for Entering Uncleared Items

Bank Payments:

Take Receipts or Bank Payments
  • Select the Bank Accounts and then click on the bank account you want to process in. Now, click on the Bank Payment (S).
  • Enter the Credentials (Date and Reference). Now, enter the SAN Code 9998 (Suspense Account Nominal Code). The number is by default.
  • Now, enter all important credentials (Tax, T9 and Net column)
  • Now, repeat the steps 2 and 3 for all individual payments and then select Save and Close

Step 3: Correcting the Opening Balance

  • There are two basic reasons we have found to correct the bank opening balance:
  • If the wrong entry is made in the opening balance, at first, you need to reverse the opening balance and then enter the opening balance with the right
  • If there is incorrect entry of reconciled items which covers Lump sum reconciled opening balance, rectify and correct the error in the right sequence of the transaction in the Bank Reconciliation Window.

Here is the list of informative steps that will help you in correcting the bank opening balance.

Step 4: Reversing Incorrect Opening Balance

A reconciled opening balance can be reversed if you enter opposite transaction to the original transaction. Don’t forget to use the same date and reference.

  • Select the Bank Account and click on the Required Account. Now, select Edit/New or Edit.
  • Now, select Sage 50 Latest Version – Select Bank and then click on the required account. Now, select the Bank Record.
  • Now, select the current balance option and then enter the credentials (Date and Reference) of the original opening balance.
  • If Receipt (Debit) is your original entry, enter required credentials in the payment box.
  • If Payment (Credit) is your original entry, enter required credentials in the Receipt box.
  • Now, Select Save and then Close.

Also Read : How to Add, Delete or Restore Company File in Sage 50

Conclusion

Hopefully, the above information helps you to understand how to enter opening balances in Sage 50. But sometimes, you struggle with other issues while performing the same steps. In case, you are not able to understand any terms in this particular article then easily reach out to Sage 50 Experts by dialing a Help Line number. For more information, You need to connect with our Sage 50 Technical Support Team to get assistance as soon as possible.

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Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)

Can I Import My Opening Balances?

Opening balances are totals of the outstanding invoices and credit notes you have before you start using Sage accounting. Most of the time, we import an opening balance file instead you go with a manual process and it saves our valuable time. To import an opening balances file, make sure:
1. You already have entered suppliers or customers
2. You set an accounts start date as well as a VAT scheme
3. Confirm that the file contains only suppliers and customers’ opening balances.
4. To import both, you need to have 2 separate files:
5. Save your file in a CSV format
6. Verify that the file uses the same column heading and formatting as in the suppliers or customers opening balances template file.

How do I Enter the Bank Opening Balances through the Bank Record?

Initially, open the Bank Module and then select the bank account for which you have to enter an opening balance. Then click Record and then the Bank Record appears. Click O/B from the Bank Record and then enter the opening balance information into the Opening Balance Setup window. Click the Save button to save the Opening Balance. Once it is saved then a Bank Record window appears. Go back to the Bank Accounts window in order to close the Bank Record. Close it by clicking the Close tab. Again you have to repeat the same process until you have entered all the bank opening balances.

Is it Possible to Edit or Delete an Entered Opening Balances in Sage 50?

At any point of time, you require to edit or delete because of some changes then you can simply make it possible (to Edit or delete an entered opening balance in Sage 50) by following the below steps:
1. Initially, go to the Settings
2. Next, scroll down the section called “Opening Balances” and choose any from the mentioned list:
3. Customer
4. Supplier
5. Bank
6. Nominal Ledger
7. Now, proceed with the further steps:
8. Do the necessary changes to the required entry line in order to edit an opening Balance
9. Click Delete which is next to the relevant entry
10. At last, click on the Save button.

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