Understanding and posting to system accounts.

These accounts are calculated at points in time based on the transactions that have occurred in the date range specified. These are not like normal accounts and cannot be posted to via journal entries. 

Below we will explain how each of the Sage Accounting system account work and how you go about affecting them. 

Opening Balance and VAT Adjustments 

This account is used when you capture an opening balance transaction or a VAT adjustment.  

The Opening Balance and VAT Adjustment System account will be affected with the following contra accounts: 

Retained Income 

This is a calculated system account, which is the sum of all profits and losses up to the beginning of the financial year.  

The only way to affect this account is to post an entry to a profit and loss account in a previous year – you can achieve this with opening balance entries in prior years as well. 

Trade Payables and Trade Receivables 

These system accounts work in the same way, one for Customers and one for Suppliers. They record all transactions related to individual customers and suppliers: 

The following documents have the below effects on Trade Receivables / Payables: 

These system accounts work in the same way, one for Customers and one for Suppliers. They record all Item Sales or Item Purchases, in other words each time you buy or sell an inventory item one of these two system accounts are affected: 

The following documents have the below effects on Sales / Purchases: 

VAT Payable 

There are numerous ways of affecting the VAT system account. All normal transactions with a VAT type used will result in an entry to the VAT system account 

VAT Adjustments 

There are various VAT adjustments that are available that can affect different areas of the application: