Opening balances
The balances brought forward into a fiscal year, one amount and side per ledger, typed in one table and saved as a whole, with running debit and credit totals.
Opening balances
The balances each ledger starts a fiscal year with. You type them here when you move an existing company's accounts into NirmaanOne, for example from Tally, and the app writes them itself when you close the previous year. The whole table for the year is saved in one go.
Where to find it
Open a set of books from Accounting > Books and choose the Opening balances tab, or click the Opening balances shortcut on the Books overview. The confirmation for opening a new fiscal year also points here.
You need the View permission on Books to open the books, and any permission on Chart of Accounts to see the tab. To change balances you need the Edit permission on Chart of Accounts; in the default roles that is the Administrator, the Finance Lead and the Accountant.
Before you start
- The fiscal year must exist and be open. Open it on Fiscal years if needed.
- The ledgers must exist. Add any missing ones on Ledgers first.
What you see
Across the top:
- Fiscal year: "FY <name>", with "(closed)" after closed years. It starts on the year that holds today's date, or the first year when none does.
- A filter box, "Filter by code, name or group".
- Only ledgers with a balance: hides ledgers with no amount.
- Save opening balances on the right.
Messages you may see:
- "FY <name> is closed; its opening balances are fixed." The table is read-only.
- "Editing opening balances needs the Chart of Accounts update permission." The table is read-only for you.
Three tiles show Total debit, Total credit and Difference for the whole year, including changes you haven't saved yet. The filters don't change the totals. Difference turns amber when debits and credits don't match, with the warning "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)."
The table lists every active ledger by code, plus any retired ledger that already has an opening balance (marked Retired). A heading row with the group name and its nature starts each new group.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Code | The ledger code. |
| Ledger | The ledger name. |
| Amount | The opening amount, zero or more, up to two decimals. |
| Side | Dr or Cr. A new amount starts on Dr for asset and expense ledgers and on Cr for liability, equity and income ledgers. |
| Saved | The amount and side currently saved, or "—". |
When the filter matches nothing the table reads "No ledgers match."
What you can do
Save opening balances
Saves the table for the chosen fiscal year. Only rows with an amount above zero are saved; the set you save replaces everything saved before for that year.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Chart of Accounts. Without it the button isn't shown.
- Greyed out: until you change something, and always for a closed year. No reason is shown on hover.
- What happens next: "Opening balances saved (<n> ledgers)." The Saved column updates, and the reports pick up the new balances.
- If it's refused:
- "That fiscal year is closed."
- "Each ledger may appear only once."
- "That ledger belongs to another set of books." Refresh the page and try again.
Things to know
- Clearing an amount removes that balance. Because the whole set is replaced, a ledger you empty (or set to zero) loses its saved opening balance.
- Type positive amounts only. Use Side for credit balances. A negative amount is dropped without a message and the ledger's saved balance is removed.
- An unbalanced set is accepted. Watch the Difference tile. The trial balance shows the gap until you correct it.
- Where opening balances are used. The ledger report, the trial balance, the profit and loss and the balance sheet read them directly, so they show the change as soon as you save.
- Period balances don't refresh by themselves. After saving, the stored monthly figures on Period balances can lag until someone runs Rebuild balances there (or the next voucher is posted to that ledger).
- Closing the previous year overwrites this table. When the previous year is closed on Fiscal years, the app replaces this year's opening balances with the closing balances of every asset, liability and equity ledger. Reopening the previous year removes them again. Balances you typed by hand for this year are lost either way, so type openings only for the first year of the books.
- Opening balances don't create bills. A customer or member ledger that is settled bill by bill gets no outstanding bill from its opening balance; only posted vouchers create bills.
- Very large charts. The table loads up to 1,000 ledgers. Books with more ledgers than that don't show the rest here.
- Your organization can rename the tab labels, so your screen may use different words.
Related
Related
- Fiscal yearsScreen
The fiscal years of a set of books with their 12 monthly periods: lock or unlock a month, open the next year, and close or reopen a year at year end.
- Books overviewScreen
The home page of one set of books: its company and settings, counts, fiscal years, and shortcuts to the chart of accounts, vouchers, reports and opening balances, with the actions to rename, deactivate or delete the books.
- LedgersScreen
Every ledger of the chosen set of books, as a grouped tree or a flat list, with the actions to add ledgers and party ledgers, edit or retire them, and open a ledger's report.
- Trial balanceScreen
Opening, period debit and credit and closing per ledger or per group for a fiscal-year range, on a grid you can sort, resize and filter by column, with the report's totals in the footer and CSV export.
- Ledger reportScreen
The ledger of one account between two dates: opening balance, every posting with a running balance, and closing balance, with CSV export.
- Period balancesScreen
The stored month-by-month opening, movement and closing of one ledger, used as a cross-check, with the action to rebuild it for the whole set of books.
- Balance sheetScreen
Assets against liabilities and equity as of a date, with the year's profit to date carried into equity and a check that the two sides agree.
- Fiscal years, periods, locks, opening balances and the year-end closeConcept
Each set of books runs in fiscal years of twelve monthly periods; a voucher can post only into an open year and an unlocked period, opening balances carry each ledger's balance into a year, the year-end close moves income and expense into Profit & Loss Account by a closing journal and writes the next year's openings, and a monthly balance cache is kept as a cross-check.
- Bring forward opening balancesHow-to
Type the balances a promoter company brings from Tally or its earlier books into the start of a fiscal year, check that debits equal credits, save them, and refresh the period balances.
- Close a fiscal yearHow-to
Review the year's profit and loss and balance sheet, open the next year, clear the draft vouchers, then close the year so income and expenses move into Profit & Loss Account and the closing balances become the next year's opening balances.
- "Not balanced: check opening balances": the trial balance or balance sheet shows a differenceTroubleshooting
Posted vouchers always balance, so a gap on the trial balance or balance sheet comes from the opening balances typed for the year; balance them on the Opening balances tab, then rebuild the period cache so Period balances agree.