Opening balances
When you move to Fiscal, enter what the business had on the day before you started: bank and cash balances, what customers owe, what you owe vendors, and the stock on hand.
Pick one start date, usually the first day of a month or of your financial year, and enter every opening balance as of the day before. Take the figures from your old system's trial balance, customer and vendor balances, and stock list on that date.
How it balances
Each opening balance is posted against the Opening Balance Equity account (see Default accounts). When everything has been entered, Opening Balance Equity should equal the capital and retained earnings in your old balance sheet. If it doesn't, something is missing or entered twice.
Customers and vendors
For one customer or vendor, use the Opening Balance tab on their record (see Customers › Opening balance). Enter the total they owed on that date.
For many at once, use Import Opening Balances in the customer or vendor center:
- Prepare an Excel file (.xlsx) with one row per customer or vendor: their code or name, and the amount. A negative amount is an advance (a credit balance).
- Upload it and match the columns. Each row is matched to an existing customer by code, or by name when the code is empty or not found.
- Choose the Opening balance branch and date: the same for all rows, or from a column of the file.
- Import, and check the result. Click Export Result to keep a copy.
- A customer without an opening balance gets one, posted to the journal.
- An existing opening balance with no payments against it is overwritten and re-posted.
- An opening balance that already has payments (including pending post-dated cheques) is left unchanged and listed in the result.
Amounts are in each customer's or vendor's own currency.
Account balances
For bank, cash, loans, fixed assets and the other balance sheet accounts, enter a journal entry dated the day before your start date. Put each account's balance on its debit or credit side, and the difference on Opening Balance Equity. Don't include receivables, payables or stock here: they come from the steps above and below.
Opening stock
- Open Inventory›Adjustments and create an adjustment for each warehouse.
- Set the Date to the day before your start date and the Reason to Opening Balance.
- Choose Opening Balance Equity as the Adjustment Account.
- Add each item with its quantity and unit cost. For batch items, enter the batches with their expiry dates.
- Click Post Adjustment. You can Save as Draft first and post when the count is complete.
The item's details then show it as Opening Stock.
When everything is entered, compare Fiscal's trial balance on the day before your start date with the old system's. Then close the books up to that date (see Closing the books), so the opening figures can't be changed by accident.