Rollover financial year

Hi Tam.  With Reckon there is no such thing as a rollover into a new financial year.  You can just keep on using the old file.  This saves you all the time in having to bring everything forward from the old ledger and all of the hassles that this brings you.  Other accounting programs do involve a rollover, but not Reckon.  The problem with rolling over in Reckon, is that you lose all of you history because the previous transactions are in a different file and that in itself if a very big time loser, is you want to look at previous transactions.  To preserve the "integrity" of old data, you should set a closing date, with a password, at least each time you complete your Business Activity Statement.  You do this by going to "Company" and "Set Closing Date".  This then requires a password to be used if somebody wants to make a change to old data.  The only major reason that I know of to change to a new file is if the old file is so big in size that you feel that starting a new file would benefit speed.  John G

Hi Tam,  what version was the old company file in?  You have have to upgrade it through 2007 first.
Then you will be able to upgrade to 2015 with all the data intack.  I think there are some installation guides on this on the reckon site.  Cheers Wilma

Hi Tam

When you try to open the old file (which used the 2014 version of the PROGRAM) under the new PROGRAM for the 2015 version, you will be told that you need to upgrade your file, so that it can work with the 2015 version of the PROGRAM).  There are a series of steps which you need to follow in order to upgrade the file.  Once you have done this, your file will only work under the 2015 version of the PROGRAM.  There is absolutely no need to go through the prolonged and difficult road that you are trying to negotiate, when there is a far simpler alternative which, I imagine, probably 99.9% of all other users follow.  The upgraded file will contain all of your previous data - it is not destroyed and nothing else should need to be copied into, as a general rule. Always keep a backup of your old file, as part of the upgrade process, in case something goes wrong with the upgrade process - then, if this is the case, you can go back to the original file and start again (an extremely very rare event in my experience).  You should have received documentation regarding the steps to take to upgrade your file, when you received the new 2015 version of the PROGRAM.  John G

Hi Tan.  Window Server 2008 should not provide any problems.  Before I moved to Hosted 12 months ago, we were still using Server 2003 without any problems and I still go back there occasionally to look at some old companies.  Part of the process to upgrade the file will require you to take a backup.  I also like to actually copy the old file to a "safe" and separate directory, in case I have to get to it in an emergency, as it takes less time to use that copy rather than to have to use the backup copy.  What you are going to do now should be a "dream" compared to the "nightmare" that you were facing.  John G

Hi Tam.  For Question 1.  If you are balancing the takings for the day, ultimately, in order to balance, you will have EFTPOS transactions as one deposit and a separate deposit to your bank account which will comprise the rest of the takings in the form of cash and cheques.  If everything is being balanced, when you go to make the cash deposit, it will be short $200 because cash has been taken out of the takings to provide for the Cash Out.  It really depends on what system you are using to account for the cash transactions.  If you are balancing against the till totals, then you will be out by $200, but if you are just counting up the cash and saying that this amount represents all of your cash sales, then you have a problem, because you haven't accounted properly for all of your cash transactions.  If you really are balancing against the till totals, then the following would apply.

In order to balance the EFTPOS transactions, you are going to need to account for that $200 as a form of receipt.  So this is what I would be doing:
1.  Set up an Other Current Asset Account called CASH OUT
2.  On your Items List, set up a new item for "Other Charge" called "Cash Out".  You will not use a Tax Code and the General Ledger account to be used will be the one that you set up in step 1.
3.  When you record the EFPTOS receipt, use the Cash Out item to record the Cash Out.
4.  At the end of the day you should find that the CASH OUT Asset account has a balance of $200 in it.
5.  When you go to do your Bank Deposit (Banking/Make Deposits) for your cash takings, you should find that the amount in Undeposited Funds is $200 more than the actual cash that you have to deposit.  So, in order to make the deposit agree with Undeposited Funds, you will find on the bottom fight hand corner of the banking module, something called "Cash Back Goes to".  In the first box you will record the name of that Asset Account called "CASH OUT".  Then in the next box input a brief memo such as "Cash out using EFTPOS" and record the $200 amount.  When you do this, your banking will balance and after you fully record your transaction, you will find that the CASH OUT account goes back to zero.

If you are not following the above procedure to cater for your cash sales, that is using the till takings total, then a slightly different approach will need to be taken.

For Question 2.  Are the expenses that the boss is covering personal expenses which have been initially been paid by the entity and then is he reimbursing the entity?  

John G