Get set up and ready to work

Summary

Some quick and easy steps for getting ready to use Sage Accounting.

Description

Some steps on how to get the most from Sage Accounting straight away.

Resolution

This explains how to:

Check your business details
Set up your financial year and VAT
Check your Chart of Accounts

Check your business details

The very first time you sign in, you'll need to enter some basic details about your business. This includes your business name and whether you're registered for VAT. Your Business Name is the one you entered when you first signed up. If you need to change the business name, please email us from the owner's email address for your Sage account.
Check your business details:

From the Summary page, hover over your business name and select Manage business account.
Check your address is correct. This is the address we print on any sales documents that you send to your customers. If you are a limited company and your registered address is different, enter this further down the page.
Check your Business type is correct.
If your business is a limited company or limited liability partnership (LLP) and your business trading address is different to the address registered with the Companies Registration Office:

Clear the Registered Address check box
Enter your registered address

Set up your financial year and VAT

Set your financial year

This makes sure you can run reports and view transactions that reflect your business year.

From Settings, select Business Settings.
From the Financial settings section, select Accounting dates and VAT.
Enter the last day of your financial year as the Year End Date. If you're not sure you can come back and change this later, even after entering transactions.

Set your lockdown date

Setting a lockdown date prevents accidental changes to the previous financial year accounts. This is a helpful step as you approach the year end by ensuring that no new transactions are being processed after generating your year-end reports.

For example, if your financial year ends on 31 December, enter 31 December as the Year End Lockdown date. You can then only enter new transactions from 1 January onwards.

Set your start date

This is the date you want to start entering transactions from. Once set, you can't enter transactions, apart from opening balances before this date.

Once set, we automatically set opening balances for the day before this date.

For example, if the start date is 1 April, your opening balances must have a date of 31 March or earlier.

Set up VAT

If you are registered for VAT, make sure you enter your VAT registration number and select the correct VAT scheme.

From Settings, Business Settings, then Accounting Dates & VAT.
In the VAT Details section, check the following:

VAT scheme - Check you have selected the correct scheme
Submission frequency - Choose how often you submit a VAT Return to HMRC. This depends on how you registered with HMRC
VAT number - Your VAT registration number

Want to know more about VAT, read VAT in Sage Accounting.

When completing any of the above actions, ensure you select Save to save your changes.

Check your chart of accounts

When handling business transactions, categorise expenses for clarity. For instance, classify office paper under Office Supplies to track spending.

In Sage Accounting, these categories are ledger accounts, forming the chart of accounts.

We set up a standard chart of accounts at the start, but you can customise it to fit your business.

Already have a chart of accounts?

To save time, you can import a chart of accounts. You can only do this with a new business, before entering any transactions.

If you want to import your chart of accounts, read how to import your chart of accounts.

Check the chart of accounts

From Settings, choose Business Settings.
From the Financial Settings section, choose Chart of Accounts.

If you want to know more about the Chart of accounts, read Chart of Accounts introduction.

TIP: You may see ledger accounts referred to as nominal codes, category codes, or ledger codes instead of ledger accounts. Don't worry, they all mean the same thing.