I often get asked for advice about how I prepare for my year-end in Sage 50 software, and although your year-end can be at any month in the year, March is a common time to tie your accounts in with the tax year ...
If you are new to running a Sage 50 year-end or you think your bookkeeping is in a bit of a mess, give me a call!
So, it seems like a good time to go through some common questions I get asked:
Can I continue to process into the new financial year before running a year-end?
Yes. I don't know many people who are so up to date with their accounts that they can finish all of one year before needing to start raising invoices or processing the next year. Sage, for a long time, has allowed you to keep on processing and do your year-end later when you have sorted all your figures out for the previous year.
One word of warning though is if you use Sage 50 to manage your inventory then you might want to have a cut off for processing stock transactions as working out the stock retrospectively can be a real pain!
Do I need to worry about the warning 'Date entered is outside current financial year'?
This is a message to stop those sausage finger moments when you key in the wrong year. It is triggered each year as you move into processing the new year if you have not run a year-end.
You are quite able to remove this warning so it doesn't slow down your processing for the next year, but you will still be warned if you key in a date further forward than just the next year or a long time in the past, so it should still catch those miskeys you may type.
Can I create an aged debtors/creditors report at the year-end?
Yes, you can. When you run the aged debtors or creditors after you have done your year-end and carried on processing, just make sure you choose the last day of the year as the date when you run the report and tick the exclude later payments box in order to get a debtors or creditors report that will match the balance sheet at the year-end.
If the report does not match, even if you have ticked the box, it might be you have matched a credit note or overpayment to an invoice on a date that crosses the year-end and there are reports you can produce which help you identify these.
Do I have to reconcile my bank account before running the year-end?
It is not required, but as a bookkeeper, I would always suggest that you do.
If you are new to running a Sage 50 year-end or you think your bookkeeping is in a bit of a mess and you would like some hand-holding to get everything shipshape, then before starting a new financial year it is a great time to do this so you can start the new year with clear accounts.
Why not arrange a review or handholding session so we can get your Sage 50 accounts organised for next year.
Until next time ...
ALISON MEAD
Would you like to know more?
If anything I've written in this blog post resonates with you and you'd like to discover more about running your year-end in Sage 50, it may be a great idea to give me a call on 01604 217365 and let's see how I can help you.
Alison loves bookkeeping and supporting bookkeepers. She has been helping clients to be better bookkeepers in Sage 50 for over 24 years and has been Xero Accredited in accounts and payroll for a number of years too.
She specialises in a very unique hand-holding method of training, helping bookkeepers and business owners to use their accounts software as and when they need support in setting up and producing their invoices, reports and financial information.
Alison combines her role at Silicon Bullet with her Forever Living network marketing businesses and is often to be seen at business networking meetings as she likes to keep busy.
You know what they say: if you want something done well ask a busy person!
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