Closing the year end on SAGE

Cordie

Hi

The company I am working for has installed SAGE instants and they have come to their year end.

Before clicking the "close year end " button - what do I have to think about. I am a bit nervous I will click it and irreversebly mess it up :crying:

The year end is 31/03/08 - I need to post payments made in April for March invoices and do a VAT return etc, when should you cloe the year down.

Also the previous accountant has left alot of things in the wrong nominals that I will have to edit to get right before I close the year down I assume.

Hope I don't sound too stupid - but I have never been responsible for this role before and I am scared I am going to miss something.

sheelagh

Sage Year End

Hi Cordie
I'm not sure how much detail you need here, so I hope I haven't waffled too much.

You can continue to post in the new year until you are ready to close the year. The year end warning message that pops up every time you enter a date in the new year is a bit of a nuisance but you can just click OK and carry on. I usually reckon on waiting 4 to 8 weeks after the year end to make sure I have everything posted and reconciled.
Best not to close the year until you have reviewed all the ledgers and made any adjustments or corrections.
Post journals to correct the transactions in the wrong nominal accounts, or use the maintenance window to change nominal codes. I prefer to use journals.
Review the sales and purchase ledger - post any missing invoices and allocate any Payments on Account so the supplier and customer accounts are as tidy as possible. BUT - don't allocate exisitng PAs or SAs to invoices where one is before the year end and the other is after - this would mess up your rec of the debtors/creditors control accounts.
Have a look at the main control accounts and reconcile - net wages, PAYE liability, VAT accounts.
Run a summary aged debtor and aged creditor report and make sure it agrees to the debtors and creditors control accounts. You have to tick the box "exclude later payments" when you run this report otherwise it won't match the Trial balance at 31/3/08.
Bank Reconcilliation - reconcile all bank accounts and credit card statements to 31st March. If the credit card statements end mid-month, reconcile to the end of the mid- march statement and make sure the remaining March entries are dated correctly. Make sure you print a the bank reconcilliation reports to prove your bank rec as at 31/3/08 as soon as you have reached that point - you can't go back and run this report after you have continued to reconcile into the new year.
If your VAT return is for the quarter ended 31/3/08, run this, reconcile it and post the journal.
Lastly, when you are sure everything is as correct as you can make it, take some backups, print a TB, P&L and Balance Sheet and change the program date to 31/3/08 before closing the year.
If you are forwarding the data to someone else to do final accounts and tax returns, they will want a copy of the backup you take before you close the year.
Good luck

Cordie

Brilliant Sheelagh thank you so much, that is a really helpful answer and I feel a bit more confident now.

Thanks again

Poodle

I would add to sheelagh;

Reconclie the fixed asset register, to the nominals, Instants does not have a fixed assets module and so you are probably running a separate register in excel and post depreciation for the year.

Review the drawings and capitail introduced if you are running sole trader or partnership with the owners or directors loan accounts with directors. Its amazing what gets popped into these accounts by mistake.

Also, before I actually run year end I just sit back and have a look at the TB to see if it just looks right, and review any income or expense lines that look odd, you could compare to last year to see if there are any large variances for this if you are unfamiliar to the business,

Poodle

Cordie

Just to clarify - I am okay to post april payments of March invoices and also post April invoices onto system as well as do the VAT return?

sheelagh

Yes, you can do all those things before you close the year.
When you run the year end aged debtor and creditor reports, ticking the "exclude later payments" box and entering the date range ending 31/3/08, will ensure you get a report that shows the situation as it was on 31/3/08.
When you reconcile the VAT, run a TB as at 31/3/08 and reconcile to the balance on that report - the balance on the nominal ledger screen and on any activity report will not reconcile because they will both include your April transactions.