How can I change my accounts start date in Sage Accounting

You may find yourself in a situation where you realize you've recorded the wrong start date for your accounts and need to amend it.
You'll have to follow different steps depending on the scenario you are in, we've explained them just below.

Scenario 1:  You have transactions already recorded and need to amend your start date to an earlier date than your very first transaction recorded.

Resolution:  

• If you have no opening balance recorded, you just need to amend your start date in your Settings -Date settings FAQ - Accounting
• If you have some opening balances, you will need to delete them first before you'll be able to amend your start date:
  1. If your opening balances aren't paid, you can delete them by going to
     1. Settings
     2. Opening Balances
     3. Select the type of Opening balance you need to delete, click on the Bin icon just in front of each of your opening balances transactions to delete them.
  2. If your opening balances are paid, you'll need to delete the payments link to them: How to delete a bank transaction in Accounting. Once the payment is deleted, you can go back to your Opening balance screen and delete your Opening balance transaction (see point 1).
  3. If your opening balances are included on a vat return or are paid and payments are reconciled, you won't be able to delete those opening balances/payments allocated to it, so you won't be able to amend your start date. Your only option to amend your start date would be to reset your account - Resetting or restoring your Accounting data

Scenario 2: You have transactions already recorded and need to amend your start date to a later date than your very first transaction recorded.

Resolution:

In this case, you need to delete absolutely all the opening balances and any other transactions recorded before the new start date you want to change to :

• To delete your Opening balances, just follow the steps indicated above in Scenario 1
• To delete any other transactions, please check our correction index according to the type of transaction you need to delete;

NOTE: If any of your transactions are reconciled or included on a vat return, you won't be able to delete them so your only option to amend your start date would be to reset your account