Hi, I've decided to move accounting system from Sage to Solar. Would it be best to start with Solar at the start of our new accounting period ie 1st January rather than now to prevent confusion when doing vat calculation etc?
Also how do I get rid of sample business on Solar when I buy it as it confuses me seeing transactions relating to a business other than ours.

Thanks in advance to your help.t

Hi Gill,

It's a little easier to switch accounting programs at the start of your financial year.

However, with Solar Accounts it's not particularly difficult to switch programs part-way through the year. In this case you pick a 'conversion date' and enter older transactions into Sage and newer transactions into Solar Accounts. The opening balance figures you enter into Solar Accounts would be the balance of the accounts as at the conversion date. To prepare your annual Profit and Loss report you would create a P&L report in Sage for the period up to the conversion date, and a P&L report in Solar Accounts after the conversion date, then add the figures together. The same approach applies if your VAT period spans the conversion date.

You cannot remove the sample business file in Solar Accounts - you just need to avoid clicking 'View the Sample Business'!

Regards,

I'm sure you won't regret moving from Sage to Solar. In fact you'll be asking yourself how you managed to suffer for so long before changing.

I would suggest though that you don't rush into doing the change, as you can do much preparation work before.

If you do change without putting in any history, you will lose the ability to see trends and Solar allows you to see previous years P&L figures going back at least five years. The ability to look back was important to me, so I set the financial year back and just input the headline end year figures from my printouts of the P&L and balance sheet. Once I was happy I then did the end year routine, and started on the next (backing up BEFORE doing the end year though - just in case!).

It is really worth the time and effort, as Solar allows multiple dated P& L reports and I now have historical figures to see my trends.