Beginning Balances for Vendors

To enter beginning balances for vendor records, select the Beginning Balances button on the History tab of the Maintain Vendors window. Vendor beginning balances consist of invoices that were outstanding as of the time you started to use Sage 50 and that you have not entered anywhere else in Sage 50.

A few important things to know:

• You can enter a beginning balance for a vendor at any time.
• These beginning balance amounts are not transferred to your A/P account in the general ledger.
• Be sure that the total amount of your vendor beginning balances is equal to the amount you entered as a beginning balance in your chart of accounts for your A/P accounts.
• If a payment has been made against a beginning balance invoice, it will appear as gray and be disabled. To modify or delete this paid transaction, you must delete the payment you made against it.

Vendor Balances tab

Use this tab to select a particular vendor for whom you want to enter beginning balances.

Purchases From tab

The Purchases from tab includes the following fields:

• Invoice Number: Enter the number of the outstanding invoice. This is required.
• Date: Enter the date the invoice was created.
• Purchase Order Number: Enter the purchase order number, if any.
• Amount: Enter the amount of the invoice.
• A/P Account: Enter the Accounts Payable account (accrual accounting only) you want to use for this vendor's beginning balance.

Handling beginning balance credit memos

You can enter a beginning balance credit memo using the Beginning Balances for Vendors window. Choose the Purchases from tab, and then enter the invoice as a negative invoice, with negative values. How do I enter a beginning balance invoice?

However, if you enter the credit memo as a beginning balance invoice, it will not be identified as a credit memo on vendor reports and statements. If you want a beginning balance credit memo to be credited as such on reports and statements, enter it instead in the Vendor Credit Memos window. The same is true for a prepayment. If you want it identified as a credit memo on reports and statements, enter it in the Vendor Credit Memos window.
To enter a beginning balance credit memo or prepayment and have it appear as a credit memo on reports and statements, follow the instructions under Entering a Credit Memo on a Purchase without Invoice.