Enter General Ledger Account Beginning 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 when you select the Beginning Balances button. 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 necessary accounts and then create one cumulative beginning-balance entry.

1. From the Maintain menu, select Chart of Accounts. Sage 50 displays the Maintain Chart of Accounts window.
2. Select the Beginning Balances button. Sage 50 displays the Select Period window.

   If you are operating with a new chart of accounts and no transactions have been posted to an account, you can enter a beginning balance for the account for a previous accounting period, the current accounting period, or a future accounting period. Select the period in which you want to start your beginning balances by highlighting the period and click OK.

3. Select the period in which you want to enter beginning balances. You can select from previous, current, or future periods.
4. Click OK. Sage 50 displays the Chart of Accounts Beginning Balances window.
5. Click or tab to any of the white cells in the grid to add an amount. (The gray cells are for viewing purposes only.)
6. Enter all the beginning balances for the accounts. Scroll the list box to make sure the account amounts are correct. If necessary, you can enter a negative amount; just type a minus sign before the number.

   Note: 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

7. Click OK when you're finished.