Tips & Tricks: Establish Opening Balances for a Company that is Already in Use in Sage 300

    
Tips & Tricks Establish Opening Balances for a Company that is Already in Use in Sage 300
Problem Details:

Need to establish opening balances in bank reconciliation before first time use for a company that is already in use in Sage 300 ERP.

Solution:

Before the first time use of the bank reconciliation function, the bank module needs all outstanding transactions and the opening balance from the last bank reconciliation to be entered into Sage 300. That means that all outstanding cheques must be marked as Outstanding in bank services and all reconciled cheques are marked as Cleared in bank services.  

Open the bank reconciliation window (Common Services -> Bank Services -> Bank Transactions -> Bank Reconciliation) and enter the Bank Code, the dates of the last manual reconciliation, and the bank statement balance at that time. If Sage has been used for some time but the bank reconciliation module has not been in use, there may be a large number of cheques waiting to be cleared in the system. If this is the case it is recommended that all transactions get marked as cleared using the Quick Clearing button in bank reconciliation.On the Reconciliation Tab press the Quick Clearing button and clear all encompassing ranges of Withdrawals and Deposits. Once all transactions in the bank are marked as cleared, only the unreconciled cheques can easily be marked as Outstanding. Press Save.

Go to the Summary Tab. The outstanding deposits and withdrawals that have been previously cleared will show up here and the adjusted statement balance should be your reconciled balance and be equal to the Bank account balance in the GL. To establish the correct opening balance for the Bank Module (the Book Balance), create a Bank Entry for the amount that shows in the 'Out of Balance' field. This will be the value of the Bank Statement Balance.  If the bank has a debit balance then enter a deposit transaction, if the bank has a credit balance enter a withdrawal transaction. In the detail grid of the Bank Entry, specify the GL account for the bank and enter the Out of Balance value into the Amount field.  The transaction will only effect bank services and will debit and credit the same account when the entry gets to the GL, and therefore will not have any effect in the GL.

The opening balance entry will need to be cleared on the Reconciliation tab of the Bank Reconciliation, and then the Summary tab will show an Out of Balance Amount of zero.  The Adjusted Statement Balance and the Adjusted Book Balance will now be equal to each other and the account balance in the GL. Post the reconciliation.

The bank reconciliation module is now ready to be used. Newly entered transactions will automatically flow into bank from accounts payable and accounts receivable for reconciliation. 

To setup bank reconciliation for a brand new company, click here

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BAASS Business Solutions customer-centric, collaborative approach has enabled us to expand our team and office locations throughout the years. BAASS has over 20 locations throughout Canada, the US and Caribbean. Our success has been built on a simple formula - deliver what we promise and build long-term win-win relationships.