Sage 50's Inventory ledger is a perpetual system.  

If you don't want use the Sage 50 inventory system to keep track of items, you can still use 'service' items to record purchases and sales.  Posting to the Asset and COGS accounts is the same as in a manual system - you put in the starting value, and record a manual count value into the G/L and COGS accounts.  (It's clearest if you record a line for each of a credit of the old inventory balance, debit of the new balance, and debit / credit COGS for the difference.)

When setting up Sage 50 inventory as a Perpetual system, on a new data file, you enter the Beginning individual values of each line item, and put the beginning total into the G/L.   No transactions are created for individual inventory beginning balances during setup.

Once the total of Inventory and the G/L are in balance, you can take inventory out of 'historical entry' mode.  From that point on, you have to use invoice transactions or inventory item adjustments to change the value.

Not sure what you mean by 'historical entry'.

I'm not using the Inventory module and the business inventory is done at years end.

Cora

HI Cora,

Historical entry mode or history mode means you can enter historical transactions in the record.  During history mode, you can:

• Chart of accounts - Opening Balance can be added to accounts
• Customers/Vendors - Historical Transactions Tab is available in the Record
• Employee & Payroll - Historical Amount can be entered in Taxes Tab
• Inventory & Services - Opening Quantity and Value can be added in the History tab (not possible if Inventory Costing Method is FIFO)

If you still see the option "History" shows up in the menu bar of the home window, your data file is still in history mode.

Since you mentioned in your post that you use periodic inventory method, after you key in the opening balance to your asset accounts, at the end of the year after finishing the stock take and get the closing value, you only need to follow Randy's suggestion.  It will then update both the balances of inventory and COGS as of the end day of the year.

Hope this helps.  

Keith

Yes, I see that I am still on 'History' mode but I have already posted a few months worth of entries.

At this point is it safe to click 'Finish Entering History' ?

Cory

Hi Cory,

As long as you are on history mode, you can adjust the opening balance of the your account.  You can keep yourself in History mode for the first fiscal year, but you will have to go to History and select Finish Entering History before you can advance to the new fiscal year.

Logically speaking, after you have setup your Sage 50 account, customers, vendors, etc, you will exit history mode and continue to work on your data file in daily or weekly basis.

For your information, Sage University offers a variety of convenient and professional training options to help you achieve your business goals.  If you are interested, to learn more about Sage 50, you can visit www.sageu.com

Hope this helps.