To enter opening balances in a simplified way, select Finance ➔ Entries ➔ Opening balance. Alternatively, you can enter the balance sheet opening balances for bank or cash, assets, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and neutral accounts through Finance ➔ Entries ➔ General journal. For the second method, you need to know the double entries and accounts involved.
You can choose to enter the opening balances by Reporting Group, Type or Balance / PL. This should be done if you need to enter the specific opening balances entries or avoid incorrect entries to the general accounts.
This displays the total amount of debit entries defined at the Debit (EUR) column.
This displays the total amount of credit entries defined at the Credit (EUR) column.
The balance displayed is the difference between the total debit amount and total credit amount entered. When there is a negative balance, it means that the total Credit amount is more than the Debit amount.
Select a Reporting Group to display the general ledger accounts by Primary, Secondary or G/L Number.
Select Type to filter the different types of general ledger accounts and to enter opening balances by the specific account type. Leave this option blank to view all accounts type.
Select B/S to view general ledger accounts that are of balance sheet type or select Profit & Loss to view general ledger accounts that belongs to profit and loss. Leave this option blank to view all general ledger accounts.
Type or select a journal numberto create opening balance entries for that journal.
Type or select a general ledger account number that is used as a suspense account for the opening balance entries.
Type or select the opening balance date. The general ledger transactions entered for the opening balance are created with a date that is 1 day earlier. For example, when an opening balance is created on 1 January 2005, the dates for the openings balance entries will display as 31 December 2004.
The following are the descriptions for the column and buttons found in the Opening balance sheet.
This displays the general ledger accounts number and its description.
Type a debit amount in this column. The currency displayed is the default currency defined at System ➔ General ➔ Settings ➔ General settings.
Type a credit amount in this column. The currency displayed is the default currency defined at System ➔ General ➔ Settings ➔ General settings.
This displays the number of entries created in the respective general ledger account.
Click this to define the details of the opening balances for the assets.
Click this to define the details of the opening balances for the accounts receivable. You can allocate the opening balance amount for each debtor.
Click this to define the details of the opening balances for the accounts payable. You can allocate the opening balance amount for each creditor.
Click this to define the bank allocation opening balances details through the bank account in default currency and foreign currency. Direct entry in the opening balance screen is not allowed when the Bank button is displayed.
Note: This button is enabled only when the general ledger account is in foreign currency.
Click this to define the cash allocation opening balances details through the cash account in default currency and foreign currency. Direct entry in the opening balance screen is not allowed when the Cash button is displayed.
Click this to define the details of the opening balances for the cost center or cost unit.
Note: For accounts payable and accounts receivable opening balances, the original invoice date should be defined. This is to ensure that the correct aging of the accounts payable and accounts receivable is used. More details of the opening balance for the accounts receivable will be displayed when you click Accounts receivable on the right of the Opening balance sheet.
Before splitting the amount to the different cost units or cost centers, you have to save the opening balance. When saving the opening balance, a general journal entry is created, for the specified amount and G/L that is selected in the entry section. After this, you can use the CC/CU button to split this amount.
When splitting the amount for CC/CU, the following logic is applied:
This function is intended to split the amount that was entered in the opening balance to the different cost centers or cost units and not for allocating costs. For more information about allocating costs, see Defining cost allocation.
For example, when entering the opening balance, you have defined an amount of 500 euro in G/L 0020. This means that there is 1 line in this general ledger with the default cost center. Now you want to split this amount of 500 euro to the different cost centers, for instance, 10 euro to cost center A, 20 euro to cost center B, and the remaining amount to cost center C. You can do this by creating a general journal entry manually, or via the opening balance application.
For this, click the CC/CU button next to G/L 0020.
On the top left of the screen at Amount, the amount that is in this general ledger is displayed. At Allocated and To be allocated, the portion of this amount that has been allocated to the cost centers and the portion that still has to be allocated will be displayed.
For every cost center, you will need to enter a line.
Click this to save the opening balances.
Click this to exit.