Sage Business Cloud Accounting: a first month end that holds

Set the file up before you capture history

Company name as it trades and as it is registered. Year-end. VAT vendor status, category and period, matching what SARS has, not what someone hoped. Invoice numbering that will not collide with the paper book you used last year. A chart of accounts with codes you will actually post to.

Resist the sample chart. A workshop, a professional practice and a seasonal shop do not share a useful set of headings. Fewer codes, named in your language, beat a template you are afraid to touch.

Bank feeds are a convenience, not a reconciliation

Connect the feed. Then reconcile. The feed can duplicate a transaction, miss a cash deposit, or arrive a day late. The reconciliation screen, agreed to the bank statement balance, is the control. Until that ticks, every other report is a rumour.

Rudolf Etsebeth is an accredited FNB Instant Accountant as well as a Sage Business Cloud Accounting adviser. If you bank with FNB, say so at the start. The feed is still reconciled. Accreditation does not replace the tick.

Customers, suppliers and documents

Load the people you will trade with in the next year. Attach the tax invoice to the bill. A VAT input without a document is a preference, not a claim. Decide who is allowed to create a supplier. The person who can add a bank account on a supplier masterfile should not be the only person who releases the payment, once you are big enough for two people.

The first close, in order

Do this once, slowly. The second month should be the same list with fewer questions. If month three still feels like an implementation, something in the setup is wrong and should be changed, not endured.

• Finish capturing, including the cash tin and the card
• Reconcile every bank, card and loan
• Clear the suspense and “ask client” accounts to zero or to a named list
• Tie the VAT control to the workings of the VAT 201
• Tie the payroll control to the payslips
• Print the aged debtors and creditors and cross out the ghosts
• Read the profit and loss from the top, once, with the owner
• Lock the month so later capture lands in the next period

When to start a new file

A file with years of unreconciled banks and a VAT control nobody can explain is sometimes cheaper to leave behind at a clean date, with opening balances you are willing to defend. We will show the two options before we delete anything. Taking over someone else’s Sage company is ordinary work for this practice. So is recommending a fresh start.