Uk help

[diane young]

Does any one know of any help in the UK for new users. I am really struggling with what I suspect are "simple" things to amend - but am feeling a complete idiot!

Diane

[esentziak]

Hi, I am based in Ireland and use the UK version.
I have been using QB pro 2002 for about a year now so if you have any specific problems, I'll try to help
regards
esentziak

[diane young]

Thank you for you email. I am not accounts minded at all but thought I had cracked QB (for what we use it for).

Every month my reconciliation has been bang - on until this month ( sods law - happens to be the end of our financial year!)

I noticed I had some invoices in "pay bills" that had already been paid etc. Thinking I must have entered them twice for some reason in the early days of using QB deleted them.

When I came reconcile this month my "opening balance" was down £60 which I could not find.

Previous "QB forum helps" suggested unreconciling the previous months and seeing if it turns up. I unreconciled back four months. Then odd things started to happen....................!

I found I was now £66 out. I re-entered a standing order of £60 which I thought was the culprit - I added the £6 ( Goodness knows what this was) as a balance discrepancy and reconiled each month again.

The following month it was out again by £366 ( although I had reconciled each entry against the bank statement.)

I started to panic - added this as another balance discrepancy and hoped I could reconcile up to date.

Bingo - it worked - spot on.

However, now when I look in my pay bills window there are all sorts of unreconciled invoices going back to Nov.
Some are single bills, some multiple payments and some memorised monthly payments.
THey do not appear on my chart of accounts but my statments are still right..................how?

Are they held in the ethea somewhere .
Am I going completely mad??
What the heck have I done??? ANy ideas?
Thank you
Diane

[PaulGD]

Diane

Your problems started when you deleted those bills that you thought had been entered twice.
I can't deduce from your post why they had mysteriously re-appeared in the Pay Bills Window, but it looks as if you have made changes to a previous period's transactions which had already been reconciled.
Quickbooks is great in many respects but most accountants are horrified at the lack of "control" over old transactions. It's possible to inadvertantly screw the whole audit trail by changing transactions which are months or even years old. One way of helping to prevent this is to close periods down and password protect changes, once all the transactions are in. This process insn't highlighted in QB, but is detailed in the help system.....
Anyway, back to the problem.
Ideally you need to pin down the transactions you deleted and decide if they should be re-instated. Do you have any monthly reports you ran at the time, so that you can compare them with what's there now? If so, it should be possible to put the system back the way it was, then chase the reconciliation through.
If not then you have to accept an adjustment to your Bank Balance so that you can carry on reconciling.
I would always AVOID accepting a balance correction in the reconciliation screen. This simply posts that amount to the Equity Account on the Balance Sheet, which is not the place for it in my view. Better to set up an Audit Adjustment Account in the P&L and post the difference there for the time being. Then your Auditors can advise on how to treat the discrepancy at your year end. Make this adjustment with a General Journal Posting, posting to the Bank Account on one side and the Adjustment Account on the other, then go back to the Reconciliation and clear the transaction. Once you get the Reconciliation right for one month you should be OK - but always be very wary of deleting ANY transaction in QB unless you fully understand the implications.
Hope this helps.

[diane young]

Thank you for your help - I tried but failed to find the deleted invoices.

I have reconciled to date with 2 adjustments.

Problem

I now have lots of invoices in "pay bills" and "reconcile" windows . These were previously reconciled and cleared.

HOWEVER my opening balance and my reconciliation is still correct

How can this be?

If I re- reconcile these invoices it throws my opening balance out.

I am now of the opinion I will delete the whole year and start again.

What do you think?

[PaulGD]

I'm a bit puzzled.
You shouldn't see Supplier Invoices in your Bank Reconciliation routine - only Bank transactions, like Cheques, Deposits and Customer Payments. Can you clarify?
Regarding the unpaid bills in the Pay Bills Screen - choose a Supplier Bill (Invoice) which you think is paid, and find the cheque which you think cleared it. Call the cheque up on screen and see which (if any) bills are ticked. If there are none, then you've generated the supplier cheque without clearing any invoices. You need to put this right, otherwise the Bills will remain "unpaid" on your system for ever.
It sounds as if the Supplier Balance is correct, but that the cheques haven't been used to clear any Bills. (Tip - always enter purchases through the Enter Bills screen, and always clear them through the Pay Bill screen - which then generates a cheque for the appropriate amount. Personally I'd suggest following this routine even when you don't have a "Bill" as such - eg Car Tax Cheque to the Post Office. It also makes allocating expenses to the correct P&L or B/S account easier.)

[diane young]

Dear Paul - thanks for your email - I am sure you are on the right track.

As you suggested I always have entered each invoice seperately in the enter bills. And I pay them via the pay bills ...except the memorised bills which get entered automaticaly under Memorised transactions list.


Both the memorised bills ( ie my bosses salary) and one off invoices have re - appeared in the "pay bills"window.

If I tick them it upsets my reconciled figure ( opening balance)

I understand what you say about suppliers cheques not clearing the invoice but how do I go to the cheque (as you suggested?) and clear it?

Diane

[PaulGD]

Diane

From the supplier list screen, generate a Quick Report for the supplier in question and select "All" for the period. This will show you all transactions ever, for that supplier. Scroll through these (they should be in date order) and you will be able to identify the cheques pretty easily. Double click any of these and you will see the cheque brought onto the screen, with a list below of the invoices it cleared. This is where the ticks need to be - ie what invoices did that cheque clear?
You need to be very careful what amendments you make in the cheque window - especially being careful not to alter the cheque amount or date - that really would screw your reconcilaition!
In deciding whether each cheque is correct, you should be able to identify what invoices each cheque SHOULD be clearing, from your paper records (supplier statements, cheque counterfoils etc). The cheque you are now seeing on screen must match that.

Good luck.

[RobJoy]

I'm based near Northampton. I am a QuickBooks PAP, a computer nerd and have more years' bookkeeping experience than I care to admit. Depends where you are in Herts., but maybe you could use a site visit?

[diane young]

How terribly kind of you - after a few months of headaches we ditched Quickbooks for Quicken - its baby brother - I think we were using a sledge hammer to crack a nut and Quicken is much more suitable for us, our needs and our level of understanding re accounts!! - I very much appreciate your reply however.