Closing Stock

[bjt]

I’m using Sage Line 50 2007.
After spending almost the whole of everyday of the last two weeks trying to solve this problem and laying awake at night turning it over in my head, I am appealing to you to help me out of my agony.

Fundamentally, I want to be able to work out the formula Stock+Purchases – Sales to give me my Closing Stock figure.

Starting from a clean sheet i.e. rebuild Sage to leave only Customer and Supplier details and Chart of accounts, I enter a couple of purchases say, to the value of 10000 and a few Sales to the value of say, 8000 leaving me, in this case, with a closing stock figure of 2000. I have tried this by including a fictitious Opening Stock figure – using 5200, as well as starting a new financial year with no stock to bring forward, the results are always, frustratingly, the same.

Having completed the above transactions, the figures in the Purchases section of the P&L report is/are correct and the figure in the Sales section of the BS is correct. So the figures for the formula are easy to find.

The problem comes when some, or all of the above transactions – and I know this is unlikely - are paid and other transactions – insurance company paying a claim and such like - are put into the mix. The figures that at are shown in the P&L and BS now bear no resemblance to the original.

I’m a wrong to believe that the closing stock figure should always be the difference between Purchases+Opening Stock – Sales and other transactions would be irrelevant to this?

Except for flies in the ointment such as returned goods, credit notes and so on, surely the actual closing stock figure remains the same notwithstanding other bank transactions?

The sales and purchase figures appear the Trial Balance, so it would be a simple matter to use those for closing stock whilst only two or three purchases and sales have been made but at the end of a period – a month or a year – when probably hundreds of such transactions would have been made, it would be a major job to lift those out.

I thought the Closing stock wizard might help me on this but that requires the user to enter the correct figures or it comes up with totally erroneous figures once all the extra transactions have been made. So please, how can I find/calculate the figures to use in the above formula once all the goods have been paid for and other transactions have been made?

Sorry this is so long but I’ve read lots of books and spent hours on the Internet trying to find the answer and it is driving me made.

JohnT

[bjt]

Do not bother to reply to this. The penny dropped about twenty minutes after I posted the question - it only took me two weeks to fathom it out!! If anybody else has the same problem I should be happy to give details.

John

[ray]

Im just going through what you've been through and I would really appreciate any help regarding closing stock

Regards
Ray

[bjt]

Ray

The secret to finding the Closing Stock figure is "hidden" in the Wizard (Modules/Wizards/Open Closing Stock). The Wizard obtains the figure from the actual stock that you have recorded as in hand. This means that any stock movements have to be recorded acurately so that when the time comes for you to post your Closing Stock the wizard can extract the correct figure.

Be aware that Batch Invoicing does not update your stock figures; to record stock movements you need to Create the Purchase orders using the Purchase Order module and the New/Edit button ensuring that you follow the procedure through to Complete. Likewise, with sales orders you should use the Sales Order Processing module and again clicking the New/Edit button and following the procedure through to complete. If you don't then your stock levels will not be update (unless you do it manually Products/Record) and the wizard will not give you the correct figures.

If that info doesn't help let me have your email address and I will send you a document that I have written on the subject (I teach IT so I'm used to producing such documents.) I spent hours on the Internet and reading books - I even bought the Sage Line 50 self study books - but I couldn't find a decent explanation of this procedure. Everybody talks about Opening Stock+Purchases - Sales which is fine but it doesn't help much in Sage.

Good luck

John

[brucedenney]

"I’m a wrong to believe that the closing stock figure should always be the difference between Purchases+Opening Stock – Sales "

The closing stock figure is an adjustment to bring the balance sheet stock figure to match the stock valuation from the stock module.

The movements have to happen in the stock module, incorrectly recorded purchase costs will muck up the stock valuations, stock adjustments also alter it.