I use Sage Accounting and I have somehow been left with a very old negative balance on one of my creditors accounts. I have tried to get rid of it via the bank account but it will not process a negative payment (understandably). Does anyone know how I can get rid of this balance as part of my year end accounting process but have already done the VAT return for the last quarter of this year and don't want to cause more problems for myself. Does anyone know how I can write off this balance?
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The negative baalnce
As this is in Credit, you cannot make a payment from the bank "as it's in credit".
I would look in to this is seems like a overpayment if the balance is too old to chase and it's not large enough to worry about then rise a invoice to off set the amount and use T0 (No vat).
But I would look into how the balance come about first and document it, do for Audit use.
I hope this helps have to tired using the demo data comes in handy when you ahve a issue like this you can post the same in there and thwn post your correction if see if it works!
Depending on version ...
... in the Supplier/Tasks you should have SupplierWrite Off/Refund and Supplier Refund. One of these options should clear the amount. You may have to make apank payment to an expense account to re-balance the bank as depending what option you use you may have a "notional" banking.
One method people use is to have a dummy bank account for this type of transaction, say set up a bank account as 1299 and call it Error Correction Account or similar.
@ vista - Bank account?
Why would you try to get rid of it via the bank account? Even if it was an old positive amount you wouldn't want to clear it via the bank account because it would screw up your bank reconciliation.
I would guess that a payment was made but whoever did it forgot to enter the supplier invoice. If you know what that supplier would have been used for I would post a dummy invoice to balance the account, but don't claim any VAT unless you can track down the invoice or get a copy from the supplier.
Correct do not make a bank payment it will make things worse via purchase ledger using T0 as it ill not give a VAT amount.
Common
It's a common thing for Sage users to clear such stuff via the bank.
Of course they then make a balancing bank entry but somehwere OUTSIDE the P/L os S/L so it's then more easily cleared down.
That's strange
Sage users like to enter two transactions when one will suffice?It's a common thing for Sage users to clear such stuff via the bank.
Of course they then make a balancing bank entry but somehwere OUTSIDE the P/L os S/L so it's then more easily cleared down.
Dummy invoice
As has been said, the easiest way is to raise a dummy invoice to clear (personally I would post as T9 to keep it off the VAT return), two things to watch out for though;
1. Date. Assuming the payment was made in a prior financial yr, I would post dated the first day of the current year to make sure your brought forward TB isn't affected.
2. Cash accounting. Whilst I would suggest posting the invoice as a T9 transaction, if you use cash accounting the invoice and payment must use the same tax code to allow the transactions to be matched.
Hope it helps
It is less faffing around...
... to write them all off via the suppplier tasks using a dummy bank account and then do a single journal to write the accumulated adjustment off, than to have to go in each account and raise an invoice to clear - believe me, I am the world's laziest accountant so always use the shortest cut possible!
bank rec
make sure the payments have all cleared - REVIEW if there is an outstanding cheque on the bank rec for this supplier [ maybe the reason for the balance - ]