Bring forward opening balances

When a promoter company already kept accounts (in Tally or older books), its balances on the day NirmaanOne's books begin are entered as opening balances: one amount and side per ledger, for one fiscal year. The ledger report, trial balance and statements start from them. You do this once, when you move an entity across; after that, closing each year writes the next year's openings for you.

Before you start

• The books exist and hold every ledger you need a balance for. Add missing ones first, party ledgers included, with Add a ledger.
• Have the closing trial balance from the old system for the day before the year starts, and decide which NirmaanOne ledger each old ledger maps to.
• The year you enter into is not closed. A closed year's openings are fixed.
• Only the year after the last year listed can be opened. The first year of the books is the one that holds the books' begin date, chosen when the books were set up.
• Permissions, in the role editor's words:
  • the View permission on Books and on Chart of Accounts to see the tab;
  • the Edit permission on Chart of Accounts to save (the default Administrator, Finance Lead and Accountant roles);
  • the Edit permission on Books to open a year and to rebuild the period balances (Administrator and Finance Lead);
  • the View permission on Reports for the Period balances report.

Steps

1. In the sidebar open Accounting > Books, open the books and choose the Fiscal years tab. You see one card per year, newest first. See Fiscal years.
2. If the year you are bringing balances into has no card yet, click Open next year. The confirmation "Open the next fiscal year?" reads "The year after FY <name> (from <date>) will be opened with 12 monthly periods. Opening balances for it are entered under Opening balances."
3. Click Open year. You see "Fiscal year <name> opened with 12 periods." and a card for the year.
4. Choose the Opening balances tab. You see every active ledger (and any retired one that holds a saved balance, marked Retired) listed by code, with a group heading wherever the group changes. The columns are Code, Ledger, Amount, Side and Saved, with the tiles Total debit, Total credit and Difference above. See Opening balances.
5. Pick the year in Fiscal year (it starts on the current year). The table shows whatever was saved for that year; Saved reads "—" for ledgers with nothing.
6. For each ledger with a balance, type the Amount (a positive figure) and choose the Side, Dr or Cr. A new row's side starts at Dr for asset and expense ledgers and Cr for the rest. Use the filter box ("Filter by code, name or group") to find a ledger, and tick Only ledgers with a balance to review what you've typed.
7. Check the Difference tile. It should read 0.00. While debits and credits differ, the tile turns amber and a warning reads "Debits and credits differ by <amount>. The server accepts an unbalanced set, but the trial balance will show the gap until it is corrected (Tally posts it to a suspense ledger)."
8. Click Save opening balances. You see "Opening balances saved (<n> ledgers)." and the Saved column shows each amount with its side. The button stays greyed out until you change something.
9. In the sidebar open Accounting > Reports and choose the Period balances tab. See Period balances.
10. Click Rebuild balances. The confirmation "Rebuild period balances?" reads "Recomputes the monthly cache for every ledger and fiscal year of <books> from the posted vouchers. Reports do not depend on it; use this after a data fix."
11. Click Rebuild. You see "Rebuilt <n> rows for <n> ledgers across <n> year(s)." The monthly figures on this report now start from your opening balances.

What happens next

• The Ledger report, Trial balance and Balance sheet read the openings at once. The trial balance shows Balanced when opening debits equal credits and closing debits equal credits.
• Saving replaces the whole set for the year: a ledger you clear, or set to 0, loses its saved balance. Rows with no amount aren't saved.
• An opening balance on a bill-wise party ledger (a buyer, member or channel partner) does not create a bill, so it doesn't show under Outstanding bills or on the Ageing report. Only posted vouchers open bills.
• When you later close the previous year, its closing balances replace whatever you typed here. See Close a fiscal year.
• Without step 10, the Period balances report keeps showing the old figures until the next posting on each ledger; the other reports are unaffected.

If something goes wrong

• "FY <name> is closed; its opening balances are fixed." and the table is greyed out: pick another year, or reopen the year on the Fiscal years tab. See No open period for the date (trouble.accounting.fiscal-year-missing).
• The Difference warning, or Not balanced: check opening balances on the trial balance: find the ledger typed on the wrong side or with the wrong amount, correct it and save again. See Trial balance not balanced (trouble.accounting.trial-balance-not-balanced).
• "Each ledger may appear only once." or "That ledger belongs to another set of books." after saving: refresh the page and save again.
• "Editing opening balances needs the Chart of Accounts update permission." above the table, or no Opening balances tab: your role lacks the permission. See No access (trouble.admin.no-access).
• "No cached rows: nothing has been posted to this ledger in this year, or the cache needs a rebuild." on Period balances: run steps 10 and 11. See Trial balance not balanced (trouble.accounting.trial-balance-not-balanced).

Related

• Fiscal years
• Opening balances
• Period balances
• Trial balance
• Set up the books
• Add a ledger
• Close a fiscal year