The first time you post opening and closing stock journals, you need to create the following nominal codes if you don't have them already:
| N/C | Name | Section | Category | Information |
|---|
| 5200 | Opening Stock | Profit and Loss | Purchases | Holds the opening stock value at the start of the year. |
| 5201 | Closing Stock | Profit and Loss | Purchases | Holds the monthly opening and closing stock figures. |
| 1001 | Stock | Balance Sheet | Current Assets | Holds your stock value for the balance sheet. |
- Click Nominal codes then click New.
- Complete the Nominal record window as follows:
| N/C | Enter the nominal code number you want to use, for example, 5200. |
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| Name | Enter the name of the account, for example, Opening Stock. |
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- Click Save then click Close.
Now you've created your nominal codes, you're ready to post the journals either manually or using the wizard.
Post stock journals using the wizard
- Click Modules then click Wizards and click Opening and Closing Stock.
- Complete the window as follows:
| Date | Enter a date within the required month. All four journals are posted on the same date. |
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| Reference | Enter your reference. |
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| Details | Enter a description, for example, Opening Stock. |
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| Stock nominal code (Balance sheet) | From the drop-down list, choose the required nominal code. By default, this is 1001. |
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| Closing stock nominal code (Profit & Loss) | From the drop-down list, choose the required nominal code. By default, this is 5201. |
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| Closing stock value | Enter your closing stock value, or to automatically calculate this value, click Calculate. It calculates by multiplying the quantity in stock by the average cost price for every product and is not date specific. In Sage 50 Accounts Professional, you can check this by running the Product Valuation by Stock Category report. |
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| Previous closing stock value | Enter the previous closing stock value, this is also your opening stock value for the period. |
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- Click Post transactions then click Close.
That's it, the wizard posts the relevant journals automatically.
Post stock journals manually
If you prefer to post your journals manually, let's go through the postings for the first month and then subsequent months.
Start of month 1 or Financial year - Opening stock journal
NOTE: If you have no opening stock value on the balance sheet, you can skip the opening stock journal and go to the next section, End of month 1 - Closing stock journal.
First we journal your opening stock value from the balance sheet, 1001, to the profit and loss, 5200.
- Click Nominal codes then click Journal entry.
- Enter a reference then enter a date at the start of month 1.
- Enter the journal details as follows:
| Nominal code | Name | Details | T/C | Debit | Credit |
|---|
| 1001 | Stock | Opening Stock | T9 |
| Value |
| 5200 | Opening Stock | Opening Stock | T9 | Value |
|
When you start using opening and closing stock, the opening stock value at the start of the year is posted to the Opening Stock nominal code, 5200. After this posting, 5200 is not affected again. The Closing Stock nominal code, 5201, is used to post the monthly opening and closing stock figures.
- Click Save and click Close.
To check the value shows in your opening stock you can run the Profit & loss report from the Nominal codes window.
End of month 1 - Closing stock journal
Next we journal the value of your closing stock from the profit and loss, 5201, to the balance sheet, 1001.
- Click Nominal codes then click Journal entry.
- Enter a reference then enter a date at the end of month 1.
- Enter the journal details as follows:
| Nominal code | Name | Details | T/C | Debit | Credit |
|---|
| 5201 | Closing Stock | Closing stock | T9 |
| Value |
| 1001 | Stock | Closing stock | T9 | Value |
|
- Click Save and click Close.
To check the values you can run the Profit & loss report from the Nominal codes window.
Start of subsequent months - Opening stock journal
From month 2 onwards, at the start of each month we journal the opening stock value from the balance sheet, 1001, to the profit and loss, 5201. The opening stock value is the closing stock value from the previous month.
- Click Nominal codes then click Journal entry.
- Enter the reference then enter a date at the start of the relevant month.
- Enter the journal details as follows:
| Nominal code | Name | Details | T/C | Debit | Credit |
|---|
| 1001 | Stock | Opening Stock | T9 |
| Value |
| 5201 | Closing Stock | Opening Stock | T9 | Value |
|
- Click Save then click Close.
To check the values you can run the Profit & loss report from the Nominal codes window.
End of subsequent months or the financial year - Closing stock journal
From month 2 onwards, at the end of the month we journal the closing stock value profit and loss, 5201, to the balance sheet, 1001.
- Click Nominal codes then click Journal entry.
- Enter the reference then enter a date at the end of the relevant month.
- Enter the journal details as follows:
| Nominal code | Name | Details | T/C | Debit | Credit |
|---|
| 5201 | Closing Stock | Closing stock | T9 |
| Value |
| 1001 | Stock | Closing Stock | T9 | Value |
|
- Click Save then click Close.
To check the values you can run the Profit & loss report from the Nominal codes window.
When the Year end option is run, the balance on the profit and loss Opening Stock and Closing Stock nominal codes are cleared down to the retained earnings nominal code. This leaves the closing stock as an asset for the year on the Balance sheet report.