Sage Instant Accounts Version 10

Sage Instant Accounts Version 10

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I just started to do the accounts for a new company using Sage Instant Accounts which I'm not familiar with.

I entered all the transactions for the first month (March 2005)and everything looked OK. I performed the period end and then entered all April transactions.
Again everything looked OK.

But I noticed that the date showing at the bottom right of the screen did not increment from March to April as I expected.

One Sage user told me this was normal as it was recirding the year end date. Another said their system did update.

Should I be worried?
Tony Stelfox

Replies (11)

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By User deleted
16th Jun 2005 18:21

Sorry Clare, but..
... Sage is explicit.

If there is a relevant (for VAT purposes) transaction dated before the current VAT quarter a screen comes up that asks you if you want to include the transaction in the VAT calculation. You click 'YES' for yes OR 'NO' for no. You can not avoid having to do something, so it is not a question of training but common sense.

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By User deleted
16th Jun 2005 15:21

Not the case
Hi Clare

What you have said about Sage and VAT 'that back-dated transactions would be lost in a "black hole" is not actually the case. Sage will pick up transactions prior to the current VAT quarter date-range and include them. You just have to click the correct button.

I recall that you couldn't do this with Quickbooks and that the VAT on such transactions did indeed disappear into a black hole.

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By AnonymousUser
16th Jun 2005 18:12

Yes Graham, you & I know that, but there are other reasons & input errors that can result in VAT transactions being "lost" into earlier completed periods. You & I are probably good detectives & can understand the difference. However, many "layman" users or even accountants who don't know their software too well, just ignore the "there are transactions from previous periods. Do you want to include them" banner, & their VAT returns are wrong.

Therefore I train my clients the way I said, so nothing goes wrong! But I agree, Sage is very clever that way.

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By Chris Smail
17th Jun 2005 12:26

Your OK but...
The date down there is just 'Year begining March 2005'.

The month end just updates the accumulators for the sales purchases etc management info, it has no accounting effect

Now you have got the hang check that your VAT is or is not set to Cash Acccounting as you want, as it is not easy to change.

Use the right VAT codes for transactions and the reports just fall out.

Do not worry about back dating stuff, Sage copes

Use the bank rec daily or weekly, its much better to nail the problems early. Keep prints of the month end bank recs.

Make sure you flag the transactions once you have settled your VAT return, so you can use the include prior items function next quarter.

If you use the sage payroll do integrate it properly.

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By AnonymousUser
16th Jun 2005 14:40

But not always!
I train all my clients who use Sage themselves, NEVER to go back once they have completed an account reporting period. No. 1-it creates the old month-end disciplines.
No.2-If you've produced month-end reports, you have to do them all again if you go back & enter with transaction dates from previous periods.
No.3-It would be totally incorrect to do so if you've produced a VAT return at the last perios. That back-dated transaction would be lost in a "black hole".
Same goes for year-ends.

If you tell everyone they can go back at any time & input transactions with prior reporting dates, goodness knows how far they'll go back & where are the financial & balance sheet controls then? Far better to enter any "stragglers" with a date of the 1st day of the next accounting period. I had a VAT Inspector in here yesterday. The 1st question they asked was "what did I do with late dated received transactions". They agreed they were looking for the way I'm doing things.
Clare

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By User deleted
17th Jun 2005 11:07

Sage period-end
By carrying a period end procedure, you are effectively "pigeon-holing" the period's transactions for management reporting purposes. The details will still be carried across, unless you have cleared the transactions as well, in which case only the balances of all the nominal accounts will be c/f.

Your VAT report will show whatever transactions that have NOT been flagged, period-end and even year-end procedures have no effect on the transactions reported.

The date will default to system date - it will not roll over to the first day of the new period, as is the case with some other packages. However, if a YEAREND procedure is carried, it will warn you if you are trying to post a prior period transaction posting but you can still override the warning and post it.

Graham is materially correct in what he says.

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By User deleted
16th Jun 2005 12:57

You are OK
The date is simply month 1 of the current year. There is no proper period-end closure with Sage, ie. if you find invoices etc. relating to the period you have just 'closed' you can still input them with their true dates.

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By listerramjet
17th Jun 2005 13:30

my two penny worth
Users and common sense only go together in a sentence if you add the word no.

Doesn't matter how well the application flags things up, users ignore messages, to the extent that they will deny ever seeing them (and probably even believe that themselves). And most people claim to not understand the arcane workings of anything financial. And, finally, they will blame anything and everything apart from themselves.

And in any case, a message that offers an option that the user does not read, and even if read then does not understand, is not a solution at all.

Go for the robust procedures every time.

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By jacp400
17th Jun 2005 15:03

My two pennies too
Hi All

I was thinking exactly the same as Alistair when I saw the earlier post. As an example, Sage Line 100 used to have (and may still do), an option when posting stock adjustments to "update nominal" or "exit". If anything, users would be scared to hit the "update nominal" button as committing to something is generally seen as a riskier option than not, if you dont understand the implications of the question.

It's easy for all involved to make assumptions that because we understand the software and mechanics behind it that everyone else does but invariably most people dont. Bomb proof is definitely the way to go!

Regards

John Clough
BDO Stoy Hayward

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By User deleted
17th Jun 2005 18:19

confused !!
Typical, isn't it?? Poor chap looking for some straighfoward answers and ended up with the forum ranting and raving about matters that do not have a direct bearing on the question.

We run a sage-based book-keeping service in our practice and can assure my earlier post works. As ever, always backup your data which you should always do prior to a perid/yearend procedure anyway, and you won't go wrong.

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By listerramjet
20th Jun 2005 08:39

hi paul
i thought that Graham and Clare's exchange was an interesting discussion around the problem implicit in Tony's question. Graham may be correct about how Sage works, but I felt that Clare's views on how to use Sage were spot on, and I also felt that Graham missed the point with his last post.

Don't think any of this is confusing.

Tony - for a definitive answer you should ask Sage!

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