SageForum for UK versions of Sage 50- Help and support.

Hi,

I have a meeting with Director about not able to use sage line 50; I told him I need from the accountant (Auditor); the trial balance and the opening balances for last year and the COA.

As well the Debtors and Creditors balances I need them to post these as opening balances to the customer and supplier accounts; I explained to Director to get it from the Auditor, The Auditor said it is not important and he will do the adjustments; I said that will produce an incorrect Balance Sheet and without them the financial statemens will not be up to date and accurate.

Can any body back me up for this issue; for me I can not start without them the full trial balance & the opening balances for last year.

Any help much appreciated & I love to hear from you all for your comments.

There is nothing to stop you from getting on with things and sorting out the issues later.

I think in this case the Auditor is either
being very precious and is aware of the fact that he could loose work to you
or
doesn't want you to balls thing up only for him to fix it again later.

I suggest that you devise a COA that meets with the directors business needs rather than the one used by the accountant to suit the businesses tax needs.

If you get hold of a copy of the audited accounts (maybe later in the year) you will be able to see what the balance sheet was at the close of the year and adjust things then. Asking a lot of details questions about how figures are derived is always a good idea. If you don't understand a number, don't put it in.

I suggest (at least for now) you ignore any opening balances the auditor may have made and that you make your own provisions as you see fit.

From a tax point of view accounting is very different to that from a business point of view. Whilst for tax purposes you might be able to write something off over 3 years, for business purposes it may well be more representative to writ it off over 1 year or 10 years (in which case you may need to also provide for the tax loss/gain in your accounts) Yuo should be focusing your reporting not on the needs of the auditor but on the needs of the directors.