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Sage 50 - Year End Guide


We are surprised at the number of users who have large data sets, poor performance and data issues that are not following the optimum year end procedure to minimise the size of their data sets and thereby get the best performance and reduce the chances of errors in Sage 50.

This guide is for users with large data sets*

Don't wait for the accountants to do the statutory accounts, you can post any adjustments they make to the opening balance sheet later on, just back date them**.

Preparation things to do in advance:-  (These could be part of your normal monthly routine)

  • Ensure the Bank reconciliation is up to date
  • Make sure that the "no bank reconciliation" flag is set on any bank accounts you do not reconcile
  • Ensure the VAT return is up to date and that transactions have been reconciled
  • Be sure that you have raised all the invoices that will be in the previous period, be sure that you have received all the invoices from suppliers for the previous period (it is not the end of the world if a few small ones turn up late, but best if they don't)
  • Make sure that invoices and credit notes are matched against each other
  • Write off any accounts that are never going to get paid (backdate these in the previous year so they can be cleared)
  • Write of any pennies or small amounts hanging around (backdate these in the previous year so they can be cleared)
  • Mark accounts that to plan to delete after year end (the inactive flag is good for this)
  • Complete all projects that are no longer active so they can be deleted later.
  • Check that the default chart of accounts is okay with no missing nominals by using the check option.
  • Verify the values in the balance sheet.
  • Check the Aged Debtors matches the Customer Ledger Balance**
  • Check the Aged Creditors matches the Supplier Ledger Balance**
  • Go through all warnings and comment in check data - if there are any errors, fix or get them fix by Sage/Us.

Final Processes:-

  • Print off reports for the accountants (many accountants will just ask for a sage backup and load that into their system)
    • Aged Debtors
    • Aged Creditors
    • TB
    • P&L
    • Balance Sheet
    • Account Histories for Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger and Nominal Ledger.

  • Run the year end Tools>Period End>Year End 
    • Make backups.
    • Check the COA.
    • Create an archive company in Sage when to doing the year end (tick box on year end option) follow the process and make the year end journals (If you need to reprint any reports for the Accountants then you can redo them form the Archive so do not skip this step, this is the snap shot of how things stood)
  • Check data to be sure there are no errors at this stage
  • Check the journal did not miss anything by running a TB for brought forward, there should be no values in the P&L part normally nominal codes 4000 - 9999
  • Clear the audit trail to the end of the previous financial year (good idea to check at this point that old transactions have been removed, transactions can be retained is they or their linked transactions have not been bank reconciled, vat reconciled or remain unpaid on the customer or supplier ledger, if needs be, resolve issues and rerun this until you are happy that there are few issues.
  • Clear the stock records to the end of the previous financial year*.
  • In each bank account delete/purge all the printed / old / no longer needed remittance advices and cheques.
  • Use a search to find all posted invoice prior to the year end* in the invoicing module and delete them.
  • Use a search to find all remaining invoices prior to the year end* in the invoicing module and verify that these are current.
  • Use a search to find completed sales orders prior to the year end* and delete them
  • Use a search to find all cancelled sales orders prior to the year end* and delete them
  • Use a search to find all remaining orders prior to the year end* and verify they are all active
  • Use a search to find completed and updated purchase orders prior to the year end* and delete them
  • Use a search to find all cancelled purchase orders prior to the year end* and delete them
  • Use a search to find all remaining purchase orders prior to the year end* and verify they are all active / unposted
  • Use searches to find all the customers you no longer need and delete them (flagging as inactive is a great way to find these and delete what can be deleted quickly)
  • Use searches to find all the suppliers you no longer need and delete them (flagging as inactive is a great way to find these and delete what can be deleted quickly)
  • Delete any unwanted nominal codes. (flagging as inactive is a great way to find these and delete what can be deleted quickly)
  • Delete any unwanted bank accounts. 
  • Delete any unwanted products. (flagging as inactive is a great way to find these and delete what can be deleted quickly)
  • Delete completed projects.
  • run the re-index option.
  • run the compress options.
  • Check Data
  • Make a new backup post year end.
 

Helpful bits and odd things.

* Where you clear to is up to you.  The more data you remove the more often you will need to use the archive, but the better your system will run. If your data set is small, you can happily leave years of data in the system, but if not you really want to do as much as you can.

**Accountants have an annoying habit of making journals into the Debtors and Creditors control accounts.  These mess things up in Sage.  I suggest that as a compromise you create an Accountants Creditors Adjustment account and an Accountants Debtors Adjustment account adjacent to your actual control accounts and put the journals in there, these can then be consolidated in the P&L.    
    

Chaining issues:- Old transactions may be retained if they are parts of chains that are not completed.  If you have customers who permanently top up accounts and never clear their accounts then this is a serious issue.  If you contact us we can help clear these by using some of our tools.

Deleted transactions:  If you have future dated deleted transactions these can not be removed until that future date, we can remove them with our tools to get you "tidy" if these bug you.

 

 


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