Enter Prior-Period Adjustments

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In addition to general ledger account beginning balances, Sage 50 allows you to adjust existing account balances. If you are just starting out with your company and have not posted any transactions, Sage 50 assumes that you are entering beginning balances for your accounts. If you have posted transactions, Sage 50 assumes that you are entering adjustments to your accounts for a period in a prior year. If you enter a new account, Sage 50 assumes that this account has a zero balance. You may find it easier to add all accounts and then create beginning-balance entries.

From the Maintain menu, select Chart of Accounts. Sage 50 displays the Maintain Chart of Accounts window.
Click Beginning Balances to enter prior-period adjustments. Sage 50 displays the Select Period to Adjust window. If you need to adjust a beginning balance in a prior period, select the period from this dialog box by highlighting it and clicking OK.
Tip: To change beginning balances prior to Period 1 after entering transactions, change accounting periods to Period 1, and unpost all journals. (If you are using real-time posting, you will need to switch to batch posting to unpost all journals.) You will then be able to access account beginning balances.
Select the accounting period in which you want to enter or adjust balances. For prior-period adjustments, you can select from previous periods.
Click OK. Sage 50 displays the Chart of Accounts Prior Year Adjustments window.
Click or tab to any of the white cells in the grid to change or add an amount. (The gray cells are disabled.) If necessary, you can enter a negative amount; just type a minus sign before the number. Note that for each period, a running beginning balance is kept. Thus, if you change an amount in Period 1, the amounts for subsequent periods are also changed. However, if you change an amount in Period 2, the same account balance in Period 1 is unchanged.

Examples of when to enter a negative balance
Click OK when you are finished.