i am trying out solar accounts the only thing i am not clear on is
entering the opening balances from last years books
i have created all my customers and suppliers accounts and have
entered all of this years data to date i have just got the opening balances for last year from accountant ie creditors debtors
can i put them into the assets and liability accounts as opening balances or do have to input each opening balance for each supplier.customer,phone, as i have been given one for dedtors
and four for creditors.

Hi Graeme,

The simplest approach is to create an invoice dated in the previous financial year for each customer or supplier that has an outstanding balance at the start of the current financial year. For example, say your financial year begins on 1 July and a customer owes you £400 from the previous financial year. You would then create an invoice for £400 dated 30 June for that customer to represent the outstanding balance. When the customer pays off the balance, record this as an invoice payment.

Do a similar thing for creditors - create a purchase invoice from the previous year to represent the opening balance, then record invoice payments when you pay off these balances.

Regards,

Hi, I am new to this and have just gone thru the same thing, What i did though was to create a new invoice for the last day of the previous financial year with the outstanding balance. I Entered "Bfwd from end of Yr" in the description, and used the "accounts recievable" nominal account. I also put Opening balance from prev yr in the memo box and also made the VAT out of the scope of vat as this should be accounted for already. Hope this helps.... But alsoo can you guys at Solar confirm this is ok as it does not show these balances in the "accounts Recievable" reports. which i guess it would not, as it is before the financial yr start date???

Thanks

Hi Mike,

You should not use 'accounts receivable' in the Account column of invoice lines (Invoices will automatically affect Accounts Receivable). For opening balances, use 'Retained Earnings' instead. In this way, the Accounts Receivable opening balance will be the total of all outstanding invoices (and the Customer reports will be correct).

If you use the 'cash method' when producing your VAT return (ie. a sale doesn't affect the VAT return until you receive the money) then you should set the VAT Treatment to 'Sale of Goods or Services to UK Customer'. In this way the VAT return will be affected when the customer pays the opening balance invoice.

Cheers,

Hi
Thanks for that, yes correct, i changed to retained earnings and the balance now shows only outstanding invoices. Thanks.

One thing i think would be useful is if the purchase orders can have
a seperate screen and be taken away from the purchase invoice screens but
still be allowed to be converted to invoice if required.

I must say we are looking to migrate over to Solar from Sage and i find it much simply although a few work arounds may be needed it seems much easier and a lot easier to teach somone how to use Solar than Sage.

Rgds Mike. Wetdec Uk Ltd

Hi Mike,

I'm glad to hear you've sorted the problem.

Regarding a separate screen for purchase orders, you can change the filter at the top of the 'Purchase Invoices' list to only show purchase orders. You can then convert a purchase order by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Copy to Invoice'

Cheers,

I have created accounts for my financial year beginning 1st May 2010. All was going well, i.e. everything balanced, until I got the VAT bill for the last quarter of the previous financial year. This will affect my cheque account balance when I pay it, so it should be entered somewhere.

I tried to enter it as a general expense against the VAT liability account however this had the effect of reducing the amount off my next VAT bill which is obviously not what was intended.

How should I enter this transaction so that the books balance? I presume I need to enter the VAT amount as a starting credit so that it balances with the payment, but how can I do this? I also don't want to enter HMRC as a supplier!

Hi Tom,

Just set the VAT Liability opening balance to be the amount of VAT you owed to HMRC on 1st May 2010. When you make a payment, create a General Transaction from the Cheque Account to the VAT Liability account.

Cheers,

I had 2 invoices from last financial year which were not paid until this financial year. i think i set the customers with opening balances ok but did list the invoices and eventual payments as 'sales income'. Reading these forum chats, should I have set the invoice or the payment, or bot,h to 'retained earnings'? what I am eventually trying to do is show on my vat liability account that hmrc owed me an amount at the begining of the year but these 2 invoices are showing as my vat liability opening balance. How do i enter the amount they owed me? do i enter a - figure?

Hi Popsey,

I assume you did not use Solar Accounts in the previous financial year. In that case, set the Amount column on the invoice to 'Retained Earnings'. This will prevent the invoices from affecting the profit and loss accounts.

Regarding the VAT Liability, yes set the opening balance to be the amount that you are owed as a negative figure. When you receive money record a payment from the VAT Liability account to the Cheque Account.

Cheers,

Hi

I'm really enjoying getting to grips with the programme and the help is excellent. However there are always one or two things that raise queries.

In respect of opening balances I have done as suggested and set up invoices from the previous year and set the payments/receipts against them. However will this not give a false reading in the reports when looking at the annual expenditure unless I set the opening balance to compensate for these? Does that make sense?

Janice

Hi Janice,

Glad to hear you like the software!

You have a good point. The Profit and Loss report will be correct because it only uses transactions dated in the period you specify (eg. the current financial year). However, sales and expenses shown on the Trial Balance will be incorrect - you will need to either change the opening balance as you describe, or set the Account on the previous year's invoices to 'Retained Earnings'.

Regards,