How to clear the suspense account.

[Chelhel]

I have changed from a do it yourself book keeping book to sage line 50 and I have entered my bank, credit card and stock opening balances but it has also posted them to the suspense account. I have searched endlessly on here and think I need to do journals but not sure what nominal code I need to journal them to.

Please can someone give me some advice.

Thanks

 

[johndon68]

All opening balances that you enter in Sage have the opposite side posted to the Suspense account. By definition, your opening trial balance must balance so, once all your opening balances have been entered, the suspense account naturally clears back down to zero.

So, if there is a balance on their at the moment then you haven't entered one or more opening balances...

John

 

[Chelhel]

Oh right maybe I should have got someone with a bit of experience to do it then as I havnt got a trial balance and havnt got anymore balances to enter, I though it was straight forward.

Thanks for your reply though.

 

[Gary Hornby]

Hi,

1) Have you omitted a balance altogether?

2) Divide the balance on the suspense account by 2. Is the resulting figure one of your opening balances? If so you may have entered it as a debit when it should be a credit or vice versa.

3) Is the balance on the suspense account divisible by 9? If so you may have transposed two figures (i.e. 450 rather than 540).

Regards,
Gary

 

[mr. mischief]

My guess is that the opposite entries should either be to:

Capital
Profit and Loss Account

or a combination of the two.

If you have a balance sheet which balanced and you are keying it in, just print off the Sage balance sheet and find the bits which don't agree to the one you started with. If you never had a balance sheet then Capital should be the missing link, and hopefully it is not negative!!!

 

[Chelhel]

I buy and sell items and didnt have any opening balances for customers and suppliers so what opening balances is there normally? Sorry for the stupid questions, definately took to much on.

 

[johndon68]

As an example, if you have money in the bank then that money came from somewhere.

Very simply, if you start a business as a sole trader with £100 and that money goes into the bank you'd have 2 opening balances:

£100 debit to the bank account
£100 credit to the capital introduced account

Both these opening balances would result in entries to suspense but, as one is a debit and the other a credit, suspense would be zero.

John

 

[aluncollins]

All opening balances that you enter in Sage have the opposite side posted to the Suspense account. By definition, your opening trial balance must balance so, once all your opening balances have been entered, the suspense account naturally clears back down to zero.

So, if there is a balance on their at the moment then you haven't entered one or more opening balances...

John

well ive entered all my opening balances and the suspence account keeps going up ive also done 1 months bookeeping can i get the suspence account back down by now doing a journal please help

 

[Scalloway]

As an example, if you have money in the bank then that money came from somewhere.

Very simply, if you start a business as a sole trader with £100 and that money goes into the bank you'd have 2 opening balances:

£100 debit to the bank account
£100 credit to the capital introduced account

Both these opening balances would result in entries to suspense but, as one is a debit and the other a credit, suspense would be zero.

John

I suspect,if you have entered all other balances, the difference in your Suspense Account is your capital account

 

[johndon68]

Assuming you've posted no other transactions to suspense and there is still a balance then you haven't entered the full opening trial balance...

The only way to clear suspense would be to post a journal but the opposite side of that journal would have to go somewhere...

John

 

[aluncollins]

All opening balances that you enter in Sage have the opposite side posted to the Suspense account. By definition, your opening trial balance must balance so, once all your opening balances have been entered, the suspense account naturally clears back down to zero.

So, if there is a balance on their at the moment then you haven't entered one or more opening balances...

John

hi thnks john but i have obviously put the opening balances into the wrong place i entered them into the nominal account records and then started entering week by week didnt notice the suspence account until i came to look at journals and by the looks of it i should of put them into a journal ? can i now put that right or have i to start all over again thought i was doing well thanks

 

[johndon68]

There is no need to enter the opening balances as journals as that is what the opening balance button does anyway. You need to review the opening balances as you will have missed one or more nominal codes.

John

 

[aluncollins]

thanks John amoungst others for all of your advice on here made me realise where i was going wrong i enterered balances but not all the balances i was given in a trial balance sheet by the now redundant accountant and there astronomical fees some advice said i had to do opening balances in a journal but as you said i never and you were right thanks again