Finance and Accounting · Setup & configuration · 8 min read

Load opening balances

Bring the ledger, customer items and supplier items from another system into Finance with a checked, approved and posted batch.

Before you begin

• The chart of accounts, customers and suppliers exist.
• You know the cut-over date: every row is dated on or before it, and the date must be postable (not locked).
• Two people are involved. The person who prepares, uploads or validates a batch cannot approve it.
• Rows are in three sections: gl (ledger balances), ar (customer open items) and ap (supplier open items). A batch holds up to 2,000 rows; split larger loads.

Steps

1. Open Finance > Accounting > Opening balances and press New opening batch.
2. Enter the Name (up to 120 characters), an optional Code (the system suggests one) and the Cut-over date. Add Notes if useful.
3. Open the batch and press Upload rows. Paste CSV, choose a file, or press Load the template to see the layout. The columns are section, account, partner, document, date, due_date, currency, fx_rate, debit, credit, amount, description and dimensions.
4. Check the rules while you prepare the rows:
   • gl rows carry either a debit or a credit in the company currency. Do not use the receivable or payable control accounts here.
   • ar and ap rows need a partner and a document number (up to 30 characters) and a non-zero amount. A negative amount is money on account.
   • Dates are not after the cut-over; a due date is not before the document date; a foreign rate must equal the approved rate.
5. Press Run dry run. The summary shows ledger, customer and supplier totals, debit, credit and the Difference, and lists problems per row.
6. Fix problems and run the dry run again until it is clean and the difference is 0. Nothing balances a batch for you: find the missing or wrong row.
7. A different user presses Approve. Only a batch whose last dry run was clean can be approved.
8. Press Post to ledger.

Worked example. Row gl 1000 Cash at bank debit AED 50,000.00 and row gl 3000 Owner's equity credit AED 50,000.00 give debits 50,000.00, credits 50,000.00 and difference 0.

What happens next

One opening-balance journal carries every row. Customer and supplier rows become posted invoices and bills with their original numbers and dates, and negative rows become receipts on account, so aging and statements use the original due dates. The reconciliation section reads "All agree" when the batch ties to the ledger. Use Open the journal to see the entry.

Good to know

• Back to draft returns a batch to preparation before it is approved.
• Roll back reverses a posted batch (needs journal.reverse and a reason). It is refused once allocations have been made against the opening items; undo those first.
• Unmatched control balances: load customer and supplier balances as ar and ap rows, by customer or supplier, not as ledger rows.
• If the dry run reports that the cut-over date cannot be posted, check the lock date and the period status first. See Close a month and a year.