opening balances - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

stephen72 · Senior Member

opening balances

kjmcculloch · Guru

Hi Stephen,

I would try to get a trial balance as there are obviously items that don't show on a balance sheet.

You would then just use a journal entry to setup opening balances. Don't worry about other sides as if the trial balance balances then for every debit there is already a credit. If you post them all to the nominal accounts via a journal you should end up all balancing.

Kris

-- Edited by kjmcculloch on Monday 26th of October 2009 10:27:01 PM

stephen72 · Senior Member

Hi Kris,

I was going to use journals to post the opening balances but the thing i am unsure of is which nominal code to use for the other side for example if i were to post £4500 to the motor vehicle fixed asset nominal code what would be the best nominal code to use to balance this .

i know which codes i need to post the opening balances to it is the other part i am unsure of

i know this should be straight forward but i have not done it before and want to make sure i get it right

BackOfficeGroup · Guru

Stephen

If you have the balance sheet, then you create your own trial balance from the figures and the DR and CR sides will balance.

You will have an entry as you have said above but there will not be a specific CR entry for that - you need to enter them all at the same time.

btw if you only have the balance sheet, then you will not know the indivdual debtors or creditors, which may cause a problem later on.

Hope that makes sense.

P

Wella · Expert

Hi Stephen

If you have a balance sheet (that presumably balances) it will be a case of identifying which account on the balance sheet you assign to an appropriate nominal code in Sage.

There isn't any need to be concerned with posting between accounts when entering opening balances.

If all is well, as long as you have entered the amounts to the correct side of the accounts (DR/CR) it should work out OK.

You can do it either by journal or use the OB button on the account detail in the nominal ledger (which makes a journal entry). If you have made an error it will show as a 9998 suspense account entry if you run a trial balance in Sage.

If you plan to enter individual creditor and debtor transaction details later, and you have creditor/ debtor control accounts on your balance sheet, you will need to make adjustments to creditor/ debtor control accounts, otherwise they double up.

Bill

stephen72 · Senior Member

Hi

I would just like to thank you all for your help with this i think i have got it sorted out now apart from one thing.
on the balance sheet there is a figure brought forward at april 07 of £3171.what should i do with this figure for the next year which i am trying to set up .
any help would be appreciated.

Wella · Expert

May need a bit more information.

Have you run a trial balance?, if so, did it balance? ie no suspense account amount.

Whats the b/f amount for?

It may be an adjustment amount that has to be reversed for the following year.

Bill

stephen72 · Senior Member

HI Bill,
i done the opening balances using the opening balances button as you suggested and at the end there was £5119 in the suspense account.
the balance sheet i am using for the opening figures has for the capital account the following.
b/f at 6/4/07 3171
profit 11211
drawings 16599
(2217)
i only have a balance sheet to go off for the opening figures

stephen

Wella · Expert

Stephen

It looks like your client has withdrawn more money from the business they he had in it, so he will have a DR capital balance of 2271. There is still other errors in there somewhere otherwise you would not have a suspense account amount.

Have you manually checked the balance sheet you have been given is correct? I assume that the bits above the Financed By section are also (2271)

Bill

-- Edited by Wella on Wednesday 28th of October 2009 09:32:58 AM

stephen72 · Senior Member

Hi Bill,

Looking at the balance sheet it does add up the figures above the financed by are 2271 i will keep looking to see what i can do .Thanks for the help it is very much appreciated

stephen

stephen72 · Senior Member

Hi ,
I have this sorted now and i would just like to thank everyone for their help which was greatly appreciated as i have not done this before as it was my first client and i wanted to make sure that i got it right.

thanks again
stephen