Reconciliation Notes for Sage 200

1.         Ensure when comparing reports you are comparing like for like.  For example, don’t always compare the Trial Balance (TB) to an Aged or a Transaction Report.  The TB uses the Period Number a transaction was posted to where as the Aged or Transaction reports are all based on the transaction date.

Scenario;

·         You have closed Period 1 (July 2018) and have opened Period 2 (August 2019). 

·         You have not switched on the setting to block users from posting into a closed period.

·         User posts a Supplier Invoice for £100 dated 31/07/2018.

·         This will post into the Purchase and Nominal Ledgers using this date, but as Period 1 is closed, it will be marked as Period 2.

·         If you run a TB for Period 1 this transaction will not be represented.  It also won’t appear in the P&L or Balance Sheet for Period 1.

·         If you run an Aged Creditors report for July 2018, this transaction will be represented.

·         Due to the timing issue your TB and Aged Creditors will not agree by £100.

2.         Always ensure the correct Allocation Date is used when allocating Payments or Receipts to Invoices as this could also affect the balance of an Aged Report.

Scenario;

·         You have an Invoice dated 01/08/2018.

·         You have a Payment dated 30/08/2018.

·         You enter the Payment a few days late on 03/09/2018 but still give it the correct transaction date of 30/08/2018.

·         The allocation date wasn’t changed and so will be the date you entered the transaction 03/09/2018.

·         Running an Aged Creditors Report for the end of August should show this Invoice is no longer outstanding, however as it wasn’t allocated until September it will show as outstanding.

·         The allocation date in this case should have been changed to the transaction date 30/08/2018.  This is not always the case, each transaction should be assessed.

3.         To prevent users from backdating change the settings in Accounting System Manager to reflect the settings in the image;

4.         You do not need to hold a Financial Year open indefinitely waiting for the Audit Adjustments.  You can run the Year End and use Previous Year Journal Entry. DO NOT USE the normal JOURNAL ENTRY for posting adjustments into a closed Financial Year.  A Financial Year is only considered to be Closed when the Year End has been run. If all periods are closed and Year End has NOT been run, then the Year is still open.

5. Using the AUDIT TRAIL in Accounting System Manager can help you identify transactions that have been posted out of sequence.

·         Right Click the audit Trail List and add the Column “POSTED DATE”.  This is the date the user entered the transaction. 

·         We have seen instances of users entering transactions over 5 years old without realising the consequences.  Adding the POSTED DATE will highlight this as you will see a transaction with Transaction Date (for example) of 20/11/2009 but with a Posted Date of 19/08/2018 and your TB just happens to be out by the same amount. 

·         Remember this transaction will not appear on a transaction report filtered to show transactions dated 01/08/2018 – 31/08/2018.

·         However, it will appear on a TB for August. Remember August 2018 is the current open period (in our example).

·         You can also use the URN to identify transactions entered out of sequence.  As URNs are sequential, a URN out of Sequence will stand out.