Have you gone to Receipts, selected the Receiver General and attempted to post the Receipt to the bank?

If your file is setup based on the way it is programmed, the 1200 account will be linked to the sales module.  Your receive any money to come in, in Receipts.  This will increase the balance of the bank account and reduce the balance of the Accounts Receivable account.

You would only send the money to GST/HST Paid on purchases if you are posting a refund for the last period to Accounts Receivable and then you would be posting an amount to the GST/HST Charged on sales account as well so both go to zero as of the period end.

Going by the information you have given it seems that you have CRA set up as a customer and entered the amounts to show GST Charged and GST Paid for the year.as of Dec31/12. if so then go into Sales module and select Receipts. Select CRA as your customer and it should show an 'amount owing' of 1000.00 in there. Select that amount and tab over to the 'Amount Received' column which will automatically put in the 1000.00 in that column. The date will be the date you deposited the refund into the bank. Now you can post it and your 1200 AR balance will be 1000.00 less than it was before.

Thank you Richard and smithco! I tried to post using Receipts but will not let me introduce any amount and no amount is showing there. When I started Sage I took all balances and there is no record history for last year except the accounts balances, respectively account receivable balance in 1200. I am looking to post this in General Journal but I do not know which accounts I should use. Can you help with these accounts? Thanks!  

If you show a balance in your G/L 1200 account receivable then you need to know what makes up those balances. There are customers (CRA or Rec Gen could be one of those customers) that have not paid yet as of Dec31/12 for what they owe. Do you have a list of outstanding customer invoices? They need to be in history mode but am guessing you are no longer in history mode.

I know exactly what shows in 1200 - it is HST return from last year 2012 from Rec Gen and this cheque went to my bank account on April 2013. I do not know how to post this into my accounting. Receipts will not work!

lct

You have already told us you know you need to adjust the balance of 1200 Accounts Receivable.  So can you do a journal entry and post to account 1200?  My guess is no.

If my guess is correct, then from the Home Screen, select Maintenance, Check Data Integrity and tell us where the problems are.  My guess again would be an asterisk between the A/R Balance amount on the left and Unpaid invoices on the right at the very least.

If this is the case, then you are probably still in history mode and have not completed the setup of your books yet.

Hi Richard, it is exactly as you said! What do you mean by "have not completed the setup of your books yet" ? I only took last year accounts balances and introduced the first 3 months of this year. No data for last year - only accounts balances. What I have to do then?

That Data Integrity screen is useful when setting up your books.  The line at the top probably matches so that debits = credits.

However, the rest of the lines indicate how the modules match the balance sheet.  The concept of double-entry bookkeeping is in play here.

The amounts on the left are the balances of the linked accounts on the balance sheet.  For your A/R account it is $1000.

But if you work out the logic, who owes that money?  Some one must.  But it could theoretically be 10 customers who owe that money.  To track it better, there must be a away to track which customers owe money.

You need to add the Receiver General - HST as a customer (use GST if you are in a GST province).  Then go to the Historical Transactions tab and enter an invoice for the amount owing.

If done correctly, then the data integrity check should now balance for your sales module.

Then do the same thing for the other modules if there is still Data Inconsistencies.

If you are not able to finish the setup, you can hire a consultant to help you.  To find one, you can use the Services menu from the Home Screen and look for one in your area.  But it doesn't sound like you would have much left to do. 

Richard,

yes, debits=credits. I have two  * at Data Integrity - one at A/P and another to A/R and both has asterisk at Unpaid invoices. A/R I know that is the HST return. Same window from Data Integrity says Historical Information: Vendors - Not Balanced, Customers - Not Balanced and Inventory - Not Balanced.

I already added the Gov of Canada - HST as customer. Then you said to go at Historical Transactions tab - I see one tab History next to Reports on the main menu) but when I click on it it has only "Finish Entering History"  and if I click on this will give me a list with the above inconsistencies.... ?!

First, backup your file.  Never use the same name for backups all the time, add the date in the filename.  This way if you do something completely wrong and want to start over, you can restore the file and continue as you were before you started doing this.

My instructions were based on the fact that you did not finish setting up your customers, so I assumed there were no customers.  When you add a customer, you enter the name, address, phone numbers, etc as applicable.  In that same ledger, there are several tabs called Ship-to Address, Options, TAxes, etc. and you have a tab for Historical Transactions.  It's not on the main Home Screen menu or any menu for that matter.  It's a tab just like the Address tab when you entered the customer name and address.

Historical Transactions are those transactions that occurred before creating a file in Sage 50.  So from your posts, it looks like you are setting up the 2013 calandar year as your fiscal year so make sure you date that entry Dec 31/12 as the end of the period that it covered.  If it covers a three month period, I would usually use Oct-Dec/12 as the invoice number.

Once you have recorded the invoice and amount owing to you, then go back to the Data Integrity check.  At this point, Customers should be balanced the the asterisk between A/R Balance and Unpaid Invoices should be gone because the amounts match.

Now do the same thing for your vendor(s) that you owe money to.

If you think about the logic (not the mechanics) of bookkeeping, you have set up a new file.  You know someone owes you money, and you know you owe one or more people/companies money.  How are you going to cut a cheque to a vendor if you don't have anything listed under a vendor name to pay?  If you only have that money as a lump some number on your balance sheet (which you should have as well), you will not be able to cut a cheque from the Payments module.  So you must have some method of identifying each invoice and each invoice amount that is owing.  Same logic for customers but that is money coming in, not money going out.

I should mention also, that once you have your Data Integrity check indicating Data OK, then you can backup the file again and Finish History.

You will also have to go through all the inventory items you have and record the opening balances in terms of quantity for each item and the cost for each.  You will have to do the check yourself because the program does not adequately validate the integrity of the inventory.  However, you can run the Inventory Summary report for each applicable asset account as of the start of the year and confirm it matches the accounts on the balance sheet.

Again, the logic here is if you only have a number on the balance sheet for all your inventory, you don't know what you can sell or what you have in stock.  You have an inconsistency in the inventory based on the data integrity check so you must have started setting up inventory.  This can get more complicated to some degree so this is why I suggested talking with a consultant.  And now that I know you have inventory issues, you might want to confirm the consultant has inventory experience before you get them to look at your file.

Hope this helps

Thank you, Richard! Your answer was very helpful! I was able to clear the A/R by entering Historical Transactions for the HST Refund 2012. That cleared the 1200 balance and I used Receipts to post the cheque to the bank account.

In the Data Integrity I still have the other 2 problems: the A/P and Inventory and these I do not know from where they come. I just took the accounts balances at 01/01/2013 and there was a balance in 1520 Inventory A and nothing in 5020 Inventory A Cost.

Can I continue register the next months of this year, without resolving these 2 issues? Will this affect negatively the income tax return at the end of the year?  Thanks again for helping!

I'm going to read between the lines and assume you actually did the correct thing with your A/R account and not what you said you did.  Entering an historical invoice should not clear the A/R account to zero, it should only make the total of the invoices match the balance on the balance sheet.  The Receipt posted would clear it to zero.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you which vendor you owe money to or if the accountant used Accounts Payable for what are really Accrued Liabilities.  Same for inventory.  You will have to talk with the accountant.

I would try to get this sorted out as soon as possible.  I can't say if it will affect the income tax return.  I can only say that with the books set up the way they are, your accountant will have to do extra work to redo last year's work again to get you sorted out.  Better to do it now.  Technically you can continue to post live entries for this year but you will not be able to move to 2014 until you get it sorted out.

Richard, just let you know that I fix the first 2 problems, A/R and A/P, with your help. I still have the inventory problem... have no clue about this one... I will try to find professional help with this as per your advice... hopefully I will be able to find somebody to fix this!... I suppose am doing something wrong when posting transactions because the difference between ''Current Balance of 1520 Inventory A'' and ''Total value of inventory items'' (that I receive with Finish Entering History) is the balance of the 1520 at 01/01/2013.

Thanks again for your help!

Because I can't see your file and don't know how your company operates, it is difficult to tell you exactly what to do with the inventory.  However, I have suggested that you see if you have any items in your list.  If you don't have any items in inventory and you are not going to use the inventory module, it might be as simple as changing the Class Options for the 1520 account in the Ledger in Chart of Accounts, from Inventory to Asset.  I haven't played with that in a setup before but I don't know enough about how your company works to give you accurate advice on exactly what to do.

I need the inventory module. I have 2 products on inventory and few others set as service because I do not need inventory for those. What I can see is that there is a small increase on the balance of 1520 from posting transactions this year...

So I would assume you looked at your inventory at year end, said I have this many of product 1 and this many of product 2.  Therefore, because product 1 cost this much each and product 2 cost that much each, my total cost of inventory must be $xxxxx.  So you told the accountant that's what your inventory was and that's why you have that much money in account 1520.

Now tell the program using the Historical Transactions tab on each item's Inventory & Services ledger, just like we already covered above with customers and vendors, what the total units you have at year end and the total cost.  The two amounts should add up to the amount in account 1520 and the discrepancies in your data integrity should go away.

Hi Richard,

I post on hold the issue with data integrity for 1520... will try what you said in the previous post a little later, and I will let you know.

I would like now to ask you how I register in Sage a deposit for a coming order in my inventory? I sent a deposit of $1000 last month and this month I will send the difference, for an order that will arrive next year.

Which accounts I should use when registering each operation? Thank you!

When your questions are not related to the subject, people will tend to ignore them, especially if they are already marked as answered.  You should post new threads for new questions.

In Payments, there is a Prepayment feature on the Payment menu.  This will open two new fields at the bottom.  Enter what you want to see in the Vendor Aged report in the Prepayment Reference No. field and the amount of the cheque in the Prepayment Amount field.  Then print the cheque if applicable.

When you get the final invoice, post it and then you can use Payments to pay anything left owing or to pay the invoice against the prepayments.

Hi Richard,

regarding this post, with the data integrity for 1520... the msg received is this:

Checking Inventory & Services...

The total value of inventory items linked to asset account 1520 Inventory A does not equal the current balance of account 1520 Inventory A.

$72.30 Total value of inventory items

$11,761.93 Current Balance of 1520 Inventory A

_______________

-$11,689.63 Difference

Either your inventory item historical information or the opening balance of account 1520 Inventory A, or both, is incorrect.

To understand what is here, the $11,689.63 is the balance of the 1520 Inventory A account at 01/01/2013.

In the Inventory, an inventory item is linked to the 1520 account and to 5020 Inventory A Cost. When I purchase an inventory item, the post will be 1060(bk account) - 1520 ... is this OK?

If I list all the transaction with 1520 I see inventory purchases on DB and with every sale an amount on CR and the difference between DB-CR is $72.30 at this point (it changes with every sale).

What is wrong here?

Thank you!

lct said:

What is wrong here?

My best guess is that one of the numbers is wrong.

You have indicated in previous messages that you have two items in stock at the beginning of the year.  I believe you mentioned you put in the historical opening balances.

The program is now telling you the total all your inventory is $72.30.

It is also telling you that you think you have $11,761.93 in inventory because that is the balance on the account on the balance sheet.

One is wrong.

If you really have $72.30 in stock, then check the Opening Balance field of the account 1520 in the chart of accounts and make it match what your original opening balance should be, if it does not match now.  That is where I would start.  This means you will have to figure out where to put the rest of the money that is currently in that field because you have not got your books balanced to the financials from the end of the previous year.

If you don't understand this and if I haven't mentioned it already, I highly recommend you speak with a consultant if your accountant cannot help you set up your books.  Getting the file started properly should be a priority.  I cannot see your trial balance from the end of last year, nor the amounts you put into the opening balance fields, so I cannot help any further.  I have no idea why you have over $11K in the account when it should be $72.30.  But my guess is that your opening balances are wrong.