I am now closing off my 1st EOY on Sage Instant, Could someone please in brief let me know what adjustments are required before I print my financial reports for the off site accountant.
I am new to bookkeeping and need to be directed in the right way, my main worries are accruals and adjustments for the uncashed cheques?
I am working on Sage Instant and been Reconciling each month, If I complete December 2012 and print a Trial Balance this should be enough for the accountant to make all his adjustments.
I would usually send over all the financials pnl & bs along with aged debtors/creditors to 31stDecember 2012. 2 print outs one including future payments and one without.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
Slightly unrelated to the actual question, but something I'd like to mention... warning, this may turn into a mini-rant.
After the year end is done, and the figures have gone off to the accountant to produce final accounts... when they've done their bit and provided a closing trial balance (which they might refer to as opening balances), always post any journals necessary to correct the opening balances as the last day of the closed year, and NOT the first day of the current year.
I've seen too many instances where the adjustments have been posted as day one of the new financial year (because they're "opening balance" adjustments) and where a mistake has been made in those postings. And what's worse, that includes where they've been done by the accountants themselves! GRRRR!
If they're posted as the last day of the closed year (ie as closing balance adjustments, rather than opening balance adjustments) then in Sage at least - dunno about other software - you can run a trial balance showing the brought forward balances; and the figures on that report should match a closing trial balance.
But if they're posted - stupidly - as the first day of the new year, then that report doesn't include them, and to compare it with a closing trial balance to make sure the adjustments have been posted correctly, those adjustments have to be added to the Sage trial balance. And it's possible to make a mistake doing that, and so not notice a mistake made in posting them. Which is why silly accountants don't realise they've made a mistake in the first place.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
GAH! It's "Vince" or "VinceH" (because I use that a lot on teh intertubes) - but not "Vincent". Ever. Officially. :(
*mutters*
I think what Donna meant by reports with future payments are the Aged Debtor / Creditor reports - when you run these, there's a tick box to take future payments into account.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
I wouldn't recommend posting the year end journals with the last day of the year. The following year we check the opening balances agree to the TB on the prior year file, to make sure nothing's changed.. And we confirm the adjustments have gone in correctly. If there are any mistakes, it's there to see when you send us the following years nominal activity. Plus you have normally run the year end by the time the you get the journals, so it keeps things tidy.
I also tell clients that if they find something wrong in the year I am working on, they should tell me and not fix it. This saves the adjustment being duplicated.
If you find something is out of balance after running the journal, dated the first day of the year, just send the accountant a current year nominal activity, ticking to include the opening balance
Not all accountants do if the same, of course. Just do it the way you are told. That way they can't blame you if something goes wrong, then :)
Why not ask the accountant?They may be happy to have a backup and extract their own reports.
Also some accountants may want different formats i.e. I like the TB and nominal ledger report in a csv formt as it means i can import tb to my software and use filtering/ searchjng of nominal ledger.
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Phil Hendy, The Accountancy Mentor
Are you thinking of setting up your own practice or have you set up and need some help?
If so a mentor may be the way forward - feel free to get in touch and see how I can assist you.
hi all - this query is more to the auditors than the accountants amongst you !!!!
A very similar question to above, but expanding slightly. I am the accountant for the company, and using the above I have all the necessary reports and have all my workings/notes to support the TB. I have a question with regards to the auditors. I am trying to get into their heads (scary I know !!) and trying to see what things they will look at.
I am trying to reduce costs (and time costs / preparation cost time in particular) and so wondered if you could advise what sorts of things accountants do not usually do within their year end accounts hand over to yourselves and then consequently what you have to adjust for....in order to get the accounts ready for companies house submission (i.e. the pitfalls !)
I know I won't get the accounts 100% correct and know they do have to be reviewed by a 3rd party....but if I can reduce the bill then that would keep myself (and my bosses) happy !!!
Hoping the above makes sense.
Matt
PS...reason why I ask is that in my old company, the old auditors invoiced us nearly £20k bill for "accounting duties" i.e. geting the accounts ready, in order so they could be audited by them - to which they also invoiced us for their auditing costs too !!
-- Edited by Mattyb on Friday 19th of July 2013 04:12:28 PM
If the auditors are also preparing the final accounts for submission, they will have duties that need fulfilling that are not necessarily because you have made mistakes/not provided information - and there will be tax work on top of that.
If you are providing asset registers and control accounts for all your balance sheet items, this should help some. You would need to build a file, just like they would.
The best thing you can do is speak to them... find out what it is they are doing, that you can take over.
Chances are, you could also have a very expensive accountant.
It is reassuring to know that it may not be due to mistakes/info not provided for. The thing is I did provide an audit/year end file each year showing what items constituted the BS balances for each nominal code but could not understand why they charged so much....but your latter point may well answer somewhat.
I will definitely speak to them and raise any queries I have with them at the time. Basically then, other than the year end file there is nothing else I can do then to try and reduce their bill ?
Its difficult to say without having worked on your records. You may be providing a perfect file, and being overcharged,... or you may not realise that the information you are providing isn't quite as its needed.. it can work both ways, to be honest. You will probably get email queries from a particular person at your accounts office? They are most likely the one doing "sh*t detail" to get it ready for partner review... so they are the best person to ask.
It might be worth also asking the partner who looks after you, for a breakdown of the hours and cost per hour, for each member of staff that has worked on the job.. that way you can determine whether the charge holds any weight.
