Necessary Accounts (Getting Started)

Some accounts are used by the system in daily transactions. In all Task windows except the General Journal Entry, Sage 50 performs some of the accounting distribution for you, based on accounts you establish in the Default Information (accessed through the Maintain menu or the Setup Guide).

The accounts you will need to use each feature of the program are listed below:

Accounts Receivable	Accounts Receivable (Accrual)
	Cash Received
	Discounts Allowed
	Sales Tax Payable
	Interest Income (for Finance Charges)
	Freight
Accounts Payable	Accounts Payable (Accrual)
	Cash Disbursed
	Discounts Taken
General Ledger	Retained Earnings rounding account (for Customized Financial statements)
Inventory	Sales Revenue
	Inventory
	Cost of Goods Sold
Payroll	Cash Account
	Salaries and Wages
	All Deductions (Payable)
	All Allowances (Expense)

Sage 50 will create defaults for these accounts when you copy information. Be sure to check the accuracy of the Default information accounts before you begin entering transactions.

Remember that, even though everything is integrated in Sage 50, you do not have to set up everything at first. If you can, it would be best to get everything set up at once, and these instructions assume that you do. However, if you want, you can set up just one or two functions now and others later or never. Reconciling the General Ledger to the other functions is easier if you start at the same time, but it is certainly still possible later, using means similar to those for setting up a new company.

If you need to use Sage 50 immediately—to print checks or invoices for example—you could set up just one account, and have everything post to the account temporarily. Then you could add the general ledger and financial statements information later. You would have to enter this account number in all the account fields in Default Information for each module that you need to use. By doing this, you would, of course, sacrifice many of the benefits of Sage 50.