I started using Sage Instant Accounts 2011 in August & have been parellel running sage along with manual bookkeeping but have just switched fully onto Sage & have a quick question regarding preparing supplier payments.
I have run an Aged Creditors Analysis report in Sage and checked this against my manuals books which match so I'm happy with who I need to pay and how much.
I've written cheques for each supplier as we aren't using BACS yet, although that's the next step. I wanted to print a remittance for those suppliers that haven't sent Statements & can see that is possible by clicking on Supplier - Make a payment window however, I don't want to record the cheque details yet as the date of payment will change based on the date the cheque appears on the bank statement as I'll use the statement date when reconciling.
So my question concerns whether there is a way in Sage to record that the cheque payment has been prepared & sent without showing it as a payment made?
Currently I'm recording in a book the date I've prepared & sent the cheque to the supplier so that I don't write a duplicate cheque as some of our smaller suppliers have been known to wait weeks before banking cheques. I don't want to lose track but wondered if I'm missing a step in Sage?
I started using Sage Instant Accounts 2011 in August & have been parellel running sage along with manual bookkeeping but have just switched fully onto Sage & have a quick question regarding preparing supplier payments.
I have run an Aged Creditors Analysis report in Sage and checked this against my manuals books which match so I'm happy with who I need to pay and how much.
I've written cheques for each supplier as we aren't using BACS yet, although that's the next step. I wanted to print a remittance for those suppliers that haven't sent Statements & can see that is possible by clicking on Supplier - Make a payment window however, I don't want to record the cheque details yet as the date of payment will change based on the date the cheque appears on the bank statement as I'll use the statement date when reconciling.
So my question concerns whether there is a way in Sage to record that the cheque payment has been prepared & sent without showing it as a payment made?
Currently I'm recording in a book the date I've prepared & sent the cheque to the supplier so that I don't write a duplicate cheque as some of our smaller suppliers have been known to wait weeks before banking cheques. I don't want to lose track but wondered if I'm missing a step in Sage?
Many thanks
Mrs MacP
The only way i've seen in sage instant is to send remittance is immediately after you have payed the supplier and before you save and therefore close the window.
Thanks for the response. This confirms my findings so I guess I'll just have to do that & record manually the cheques prepared & sent out until we start using Bacs.
I have a client with a similar situation, where I issue the cheque payments for them.
The way I do it is to post the cheque against the supplier on the day it is written and issued. You then use your monthly bank reconciliation to match off your payments (and receipts). Cheques not banked by the supplier are left as outstanding entries.
Export the balanced reconciliation to Excel, then print and you have a record of outstanding cheques. For good measure I also place a small tick in the bottom right corner of the cheque book once they appear in the bank statement.
When I enter an invoice, I write E for enter on the invoice, and when the time comes to wright cheques out, I then go back to the invoice and right the cheque no. on it and P for paid on the invoice. When I send a cheque out, I then send with it a remittance slip, which tells you what you are paying.When I check my bank statement and see that payment has cleared, I then draw a line on the cheque stub, then later on I'll reconcile and save at first until everything has clear through the bank, then click on the reconcile button.
If you have a lot of cheques to pay out, then I would probably use Excel to help out.
Thanks to everyone for your responses on this. Its great to see how everyone tackles this issue & has confirmed that what I'm doing is generally good but its also make me realise that there's always room for improvement...sometimes difficult to see when you work from home!
Ken - I'll need to look into exporting to Excel & have a play with this method, thanks!
Luther - Just wanted to thank you for your response, what a simple but effective way of keeping track! I've been wondering about the best way of coding invoices and your response answers that for me :) I haven't been writing the cheque number on the invoice but your process makes perfect sense so I'll definitely be adopting this ;)
