Sage 50 Setup Guide - Chart of Accounts

Setting up your company's chart of accounts involves three basic tasks: setting up the chart of accounts, setting General Ledger defaults, and entering account beginning balances. After you've set up your chart of accounts, Sage 50 lets you easily add new accounts to the chart. These tasks are all available from the Chart of Accounts pages of the Sage 50Setup Guide.

If you've copied the chart of accounts of an existing Sage 50 company or set up your company using one of Sage 50's sample charts of accounts, some important groundwork has already been done for you. But if you're converting from a manual to an automated accounting system and setting up your company from scratch, you'll need to have a list of all your account names and numbers on hand so you can enter them into Sage 50.

Whether you're setting up from scratch or not, we recommend you review the topics listed below. They will familiarize you with some of the choices you need to make and the data you should collect before proceeding.

The Chart of Accounts

• What is the chart of accounts?
• What account types can I set up in Sage 50, and how do I use them?
• What accounts are necessary to run Sage 50 on a daily basis?
• What is account masking, and how do I use it?
• How do I set up the chart of accounts for the first time?
• How do I add new General Ledger accounts once my chart of accounts is set up?
• How do I set up a budget for my company?

General Ledger Defaults

• What are General Ledger defaults?

General Ledger Beginning Balances

• What are beginning balances?
• When do I enter a negative balance in General Ledger Beginning Balances?
• What are prior-period adjustments, and how do I enter them?
• Can I add a new account in General Ledger Beginning Balances?