Just looking at my Profit and Loss account it shows a figure in green of about £300. This was the opening balance at the start of the current financial year. Should this figure be here? just checking as I thought the Suspense Account should be zero, unless there are unaccounted for items.
Here are a few things that would result in a suspense account that is not zero:
- Untagged bank entries
- Opening balances set on bank accounts that have not be subsequently journalled. Whenever you enter an OB on a bank account the corresponding double entry is dropped into suspense (9998).
- Any journals or opening balances specifically attributed to the suspense account.
Thanks Glenn. It is probably "Opening balances set on bank accounts that have not be subsequently journalled. " As this is the first time I have used QF I simply entered the opening balances from all my accounts. Can you explain what journalling is please and what I need to do to get this zeroed. Thanks.
Ideally you should enter your opening balance sheet, if you dont have it and entered banks opening balances then counter crdeit should go into director account or capital account
Journal entry would be
Dr Suspense a/c
Cr Director or capital a/c
How do I actually do this now? How do I do a Journal entry for this? Sorry to sound dumb, but I just don’t know where to look.
Is the credit into the “Proprietor Drawings Account” ??
Go to reports> Journals> New Journal
Dr Suspense a/c
Cr 3300Capital Introduced for Sole Traders
I can’t find anything under 3300. Doesn’t exist, at least on my accounts. Is this a nominal that I need to create myself?
If you type capital on journal screen, it should show you
In terms of sole trader capital introduced, according to the knowledgebase, it should just be tagged as a transfer:
Recording an initial investment
Let’s say you open a new business bank account and deposit £500 into the
account as start-up capital. Recording this is quite straightforward,
you can first either import your bank statement or enter the transaction
manually on the bank.
Click the ref “Tag me” button and select the option “Transfer between
accounts”. On the drop-down list you can now select the option
“Proprietor Drawings Account”. This will transfer the funds into the
proprietor drawings account and mark the entry as tagged…all done!
For Reference: http://help.quickfile.co.uk/main/1/sole_trader_bookkeeping_-_the_basics.htm#04
There’s a general guide on journals here:
If you go to the chart of accounts area (Reports >> Chart of Accounts) you can see a list of nominal codes. 3300 (capital introduced) is right at the bottom.
@Glenn - it may be worth noting that as a sole trader, this doesn’t appear in my chart of accounts.
I only have 3100, 3101, 3200
Ah ok, to be honest from an accounting perspective I’m a little unsure which is the appropriate code that @jeremygadd will need to post this balance to?
The corresponding entry to an opening bank balance really would depend on how the funds were introduced into the business, e.g. capital introduced, proceeds from sales, bank loans etc. There’s rarely a definitive answer here… Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Ok. I’m really lost now! In my Chart of Accounts there is no 3300. The money is the balance of the bank account as per the bank statement on the 1st day of the financial year, ie. 6th April 2014. To be exact, the opening balance was £234.90, so I simply entered this and ticked “I have an opening balance for this account” when I created the bank account in QF. I did this assuming that this is the correct way of doing it and was not aware that I need to journal it.
If you cannot find 3300 you can use 3100
Ok, I used 3100 and it worked, as in the suspense acc is 0 now.