Create/Enter Opening Balances Overview

Prerequisites

Prior to reading this article, please read Setup Checklist. 

Overview

When you move your accounting system to Accounting Seed, the ending General Ledger (GL) account balances from your prior legacy system will become your Opening GL Balances in Accounting Seed. Since Accounting Seed is a period-based accounting system, this should be done in conjunction with the end/beginning of an accounting period.

When you are ready to enter your opening GL balances into Accounting Seed you will need to finalize or “close” the period from your legacy accounting system and then run the appropriate reports or export the following information from your legacy accounting system:

• Unpaid Billings (Customer Invoices)
• Unpaid Payables (Vendor Invoices)
• Ending Inventory Quantity Balances
• Trial Balance report of all of your GL accounts and their ending values

Since it is unlikely that your books will be closed and the opening GL balances will be available on the first day of the month, you will not need to wait until your opening GL balances are entered into Accounting Seed in order to “go live” from an operational standpoint. In fact, you will want to start entering all new transactions (i.e., billings, payables, cash receipts, payments, etc.) into Accounting Seed when your new month begins, or as soon as possible after. All that is required to “go-live” from a daily operational standpoint is that your Chart of Accounts is entered, your Accounts (Customer and Vendor) have been set up, and your system training has been completed.

Note: It is recommended that you create the following clearing accounts when importing your data:

• Opening Accounts Receivable (A/R): 3900-AR Clearing
• Opening Accounts Payable (A/P): 3901-AP Clearing
• Opening Inventory Balances: 3902-Inventory Clearing

More detailed information on this can be found in the specific articles related to importing your opening A/R, A/P, and Trial Balance. After all your opening balance imports have been completed, this account balance should be zero ($0). Alternately, you can use an existing GL account, such as accrued expenses, to act as your clearing account if you prefer.

Important: Once you have exported the required data that will be used to create your opening balances in Accounting Seed you should not make any entries or process any transactions in your old legacy system that will affect these balances. All transactions must be completed in Accounting Seed going forward.

Until you have entered your opening GL balances into Accounting Seed from your previous system, you will not be able to generate a Balance Sheet. You will be able to run a Profit & Loss Report.

Steps

Below is an overview of the steps to migrate your legacy data into Accounting Seed. 

Note: If you have fewer than 25-50 records with any of the steps below, you may find it quicker to manually create them than to prepare and upload a spreadsheet.

Step 1 - Extract Data from Your Current System

Once you have closed your books in your previous system, run and extract the following data:

• Open Accounts Receivable
  
• Open Accounts Payable
  
• Ending Inventory Quantity Balances
• Ending Trial Balance

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Step 2 - Prepare and Upload Open Accounts Receivable Balances

In order to apply cash receipts against the proper customer account and outstanding/unpaid invoices, you will need to upload your legacy systems open A/R balances. 

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Step 3 - Prepare and Upload Open Accounts Payable Balances

In order to apply cash disbursements against the proper vendor account, you will need to upload your legacy systems open A/P balances for your vendor accounts.

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Step 4 - Prepare and Upload Inventory Quantity Balances

Before you can allocate and ship inventory on sales orders, you will need to create your warehouse(s), location(s), and products. Once this is done, you then upload your open inventory quantity balances. 

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Step 5 - Prepare and Upload Opening GL Account Balances (Trial Balance)

The opening balances are uploaded into Accounting Seed as a Journal Entry. The Journal Entry [Header] for the trial balance MUST be created manually in Accounting Seed PRIOR to uploading the Opening Balance JE Line upload file (created in the steps below). The date of the Journal Entry [Header] should be the last day of the accounting period prior to the go-live date. For example, if you are going live on June 1st, then you will want to upload the May 31st Trial Balance with a date of 5/31.

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Important: Upon completion of each import step, verify that the imported data is correct.