Next steps after conversion to Sage Accounting

We try to make your conversion as comprehensive as possible, aiming to save you as much time as we can. However, there are some things that we are not able to do because of limitations in the software process we use.

This means that there will be some post-conversion tasks that you will need to perform after importing your file to Sage Accounting, and this document is provided as a guide to completing these tasks. The post-conversion tasks should be done as soon as possible after the conversion. If you encounter problems or think something might not be right please refer to our troubleshooting page.

Overview

These are the tasks you will need to perform post-conversion:

Clean up taxes | Tidy foreign currency | Miscellaneous changes

Clean up taxes

We do not set your tax number(s) and return periods. This is something that you will want to correct before completing your next tax return.

Go to Settings > Financial Settings > Sales Taxes

You can now set your tax details as required.

Sage Accounting will display if there’s any transactions prior to the calculated VAT Return that haven’t already been included in a VAT Return. Choose “Now – Include them on this return.”.

Now, choose Next then Mark as Filed.

If the payment for this return period has already been made within the conversion period, then it will already have been converted. You will then need to leave this tax return unpaid in Sage Accounting so as not to duplicate payments.

If the return has not already been paid in the conversion period, you will be able to apply the payment without creating any duplicate. You may need to leave the return partially unpaid or enter a separate transaction to record any payment over the return amount.

Note also that when preparing your first Tax Return in Sage Accounting, it won’t include any unfiled “late” claims relating to prior periods and may be incorrect if we’d had to use some workarounds. We recommend you carefully check the figures in this first Tax Return. If the figures provided by Sage Accounting are different to those you need to file with CRA, you may need to submit an adjusted Tax Return direct to CRA. This should only affect the first Tax Return to be submitted to CRA. Subsequent Tax Returns should not require any manual adjustments. To read more about why Tax Returns may be different for the same period in the old and new software please click here.

Miscellaneous changes

• Change first and last name
• Change business address and telephone number
• Enter/amend Record and Transactions Settings
• Chart of Accounts changes
• Assign an appropriate new name and nominal code to control accounts 10000001 – 10000011
• Edit the category for bank account in the chart of accounts

Tidy foreign currency (if applicable)

The recommendations below may not always be required or optimal for your user case. Please read them carefully and consider if they are relevant to you before attempting to apply them.

All bank accounts will be in base currency so create new foreign currency bank accounts. You’ll need to have setup Multicurrency from the Advanced Settings. Once the currencies are added, add the bank account.

If you have any outstanding foreign currency invoices or bills at your convert to date, then these will also have been converted at their CAD equivalent value. You may wish to edit (or void / delete then re-enter) these to correctly reflect the foreign currency values owed or owing. To edit them you’ll first need to create a new contact and whilst doing so choose the appropriate currency in the payment and billing tab. You can then edit the invoice or bill contact and amount to be the newly created foreign currency contact and foreign currency amount. For further details on doing this click here.