Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger - Opening Balances
The process described below applies to the entering of opening balances both from the previous fiscal year and for the current year to date.
You are now ready to enter the first Invoice. Follow the described below. If you are entering a single opening balance figure per Customer, either for the previous fiscal year or for the current year to date, you will need to do this by entering it in an Invoice. If so, omit step 7 in the following procedure.
- If you are not already in the Sales Ledger module, move into it using the [Switch Module] button in the Navigation Centre.
- Click the [Registers] button in the Navigation Centre and then double-click 'Invoices' in the resulting list to open the Invoice register.
- When the 'Invoices: Browse' window opens, select 'New' from the Create menu in the Button Bar to open a new record.
If you don't need to open the 'Invoices: Browse' window, a shortcut that omits step 2 is to open the + drop-down menu from the Navigation Centre (in the top right-hand corner if you are using Windows or Linux, towards the top left if you are using Mac OS X) and select 'Invoices'.
- When the 'Invoice: New' window opens, the Invoice and Transaction Date fields will both contain the current date taken from the system clock. Depending on the Base Currency setting in the System module, the Currency field may also contain a default (your home Currency).
If you are entering a single opening balance figure for each Customer, you might like to use a separate numbering sequence for opening balances (use the Number Series - Invoices setting in the Sales Ledger to set up numbering sequences). If you are entering individual Invoices, you will need to use the Invoice Number and Date of the original Invoice. In multi-user systems, an Invoice Number will be allocated when you save the Invoice for the first time, but you can enter the Invoice Number yourself before saving to be sure that it is correct. When entering individual Invoices for the current year to date, it is recommended that you enter these Invoices in number order from a single client computer to ensure each Invoice retains the number with which it was originally issued.
- Place the insertion point in the Customer field and activate 'Paste Special' using the Ctrl-Enter (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-Enter (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut or by starting to type the Customer Name. The 'Paste Customer' window appears, showing a list of the Customers recorded in the Contact register. Select a Customer by clicking on its row and pressing the Return key twice. The first pressing causes the Customer Number to be transferred to the field in the Invoice, and the second will move information about the Customer (Name, Address etc.) to the Invoice.
- Use the Tab or Return key to move the insertion point to the Date field. In the case of Customer balances from the end of the previous fiscal year, ensure that this is set to a date that is earlier than the cut-off date you specified in the Sub Systems setting.
- If you are entering individual Invoices, move the insertion point to the Item field and press Ctrl-Enter or ⌘-Enter again or start to type the Item Name. Select the correct Item from the list and press Return twice. The insertion point is moved to the Qty field. Enter the number of items sold, and press Tab or Return. Check that the Unit Price is correct and repeat for each item on the Invoice.
- If you are entering single opening balances, do not enter an Item Number as described in step 7 and instead move the insertion point to the Qty field and enter a quantity of 1. Press Tab or Return and enter the text "Opening Balance" in the Description field. Enter an amount (excluding VAT) in the Unit Price field.
- Until you are familiar with the Invoice screen, it is a good idea to check that every field is correct. Clicking the named tabs marked 'Currency', 'Delivery', 'Identifiers', etc causes different information about the Invoice to be shown, while the tabs marked A-G display further information about the Invoice items. Pay particular attention to the Sales Account and VAT Code fields on flip B. These defaults are taken from the Item record or, if not specified there, from the Account Usage S/L setting. It will be the latter in the case of single opening balances as then you are not referring to the Item register.
- At the bottom of the Invoice the total is shown, together with the VAT amount and the total payable amount.
- Click [Save] to save the Invoice.
The window title changes to 'Invoice: Inspect'. You can now correct any mistakes before you click the OK check box in the top right-hand corner. With the OK box checked, clicking the [Save] button once again will commit the Invoice to your Sales Ledger. After this you will not be able to change many of the fields in the Invoice. You must mark Invoices as OK before you can allocate Receipts to them and for them to appear in the Periodic Customer Statement.
- Finish by selecting 'New' from the Create menu if you wish to enter another Invoice. Alternatively, you can select 'Duplicate' from the same menu to create a new Invoice that is a copy of the one you have just entered. This will save you having to enter Customer details, etc, again if they are the same.
- Finish with [Save] when you have entered the last Invoice, and close the window by clicking the close box.
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Entering Opening Balances
