Opening Balances
Start your books at the right position — every customer, every vendor, every ledger account.
Opening balances are the starting position of your books. Get them right and every report from day one is accurate; get them wrong and errors compound across every period. In Trabalance they come in two ways: customer and vendor balances as Opening Balance documents, one per party, and the rest of the balance sheet as a manual journal. Both offset to the system account Opening Balance Equity, which nets to zero once everything is in.
When Opening Balances Are Needed
| Scenario | What You Are Entering | Expected Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Migrating from another system | Closing balances from the old system: every customer and vendor with a balance, then the balance-sheet accounts | Trabalance matches the old system's closing trial balance; aged receivables and payables match its aging reports |
| A new entity in a group | The starting position of the new company before current-year activity | Consolidated reports include the correct opening position |
| A new fiscal year | Nothing — balances carry forward automatically | Retained Earnings is derived by the reports; income and expense start from the new year's first date |
The Opening Balance Equity Account
A core system account that exists solely to absorb the other side of every opening entry. When every customer, vendor and ledger account has been entered, it should carry a zero balance — the debits entered (assets, receivables) equal the credits entered (liabilities, payables, equity).
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example Bank — Operating | 45,000.00 | — | Bank balance as at the migration date |
| Opening Balance Equity | — | 45,000.00 | Offset — absorbed here during migration |
The Migration Process
The last day of your previous period — the day before you start transacting in Trabalance. If your first transaction is on 1 April, every opening balance is dated 31 March.
Navigate to: Finance → Opening Balances → New (the customer side). One Opening Balance document per customer:
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Customer | Required |
| Date | The opening date |
| Items | One line per outstanding invoice, so receipts can be applied to each and aging is right from day one — or a single line for the total |
| Center, tags, project, memo, attachments | Optional |
Post it. The document posts DR Accounts Receivable for that customer, CR Opening Balance Equity.
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts Receivable · Acme Corp | 8,500.00 | — | Outstanding as at the opening date |
| Opening Balance Equity | — | 8,500.00 | Offset |
Export the aged receivables report from the old system first and enter from it — name, invoice, amount — so the aged AR report in Trabalance matches from the first day.
Navigate to: Finance → Opening Balances → New on the vendor side (the same page with ?match=vendor). One document per vendor; it posts CR Accounts Payable for that vendor, DR Opening Balance Equity.
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Balance Equity | 12,000.00 | — | Offset |
| Accounts Payable · Global Trading Ltd | — | 12,000.00 | Outstanding as at the opening date |
There is no separate screen for ledger-account opening balances — they are a journal. Navigate to: Finance → Journals → New, dated the opening date, with one line per balance-sheet account and Opening Balance Equity as the balancing line.
| Account | Enter? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and cash accounts | Yes | The statement balance at the opening date |
| Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable | No | Already posted per party by the documents above |
| Inventory | Yes | Total stock value; set quantities in Operations as well |
| Prepayments | Yes | Unexpired prepayments |
| Fixed assets and accumulated depreciation | Yes | Cost as a debit, accumulated depreciation as a credit |
| Loans and other liabilities | Yes | Outstanding principal, tax liabilities, accruals |
| Share capital, reserves | Yes | As at the opening date |
| Retained earnings | Usually no | Post the prior-period profit only if the old system carried it as a balance; otherwise leave Opening Balance Equity to hold it |
| Income and expense accounts | No | P&L accounts do not carry forward |
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example Bank — Operating | 45,000.00 | — | Bank statement balance |
| Inventory Asset | 12,400.00 | — | Stock at cost |
| Bank loan | — | 20,000.00 | Outstanding principal |
| Opening Balance Equity | — | 37,400.00 | Balancing line |
Finance → Chart of Accounts → Opening Balance Equity → its ledger. Once every balance is in, total debits should equal total credits and the closing balance should be zero.
| Balance | What It Means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Zero | Debits entered equal credits entered — the opening trial balance balances | Done |
| Credit balance | More assets and receivables than liabilities, payables and equity | A liability, an equity account or a vendor balance is missing |
| Debit balance | More liabilities and payables than assets | An asset or a customer balance is missing, or a liability was entered twice |
Recommended Order
| Order | Category | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Customers (per party) | Cross-check against the old aged AR before moving on |
| 2 | Vendors (per party) | Cross-check against the old aged AP |
| 3 | Bank accounts | Easiest to verify against statements |
| 4 | Inventory, prepayments, fixed assets | From count sheets and the asset register |
| 5 | Loans, tax and other liabilities | |
| 6 | Equity | Should bring Opening Balance Equity to zero if everything else is right |
Sub-Ledger Reconciliation
Because customer and vendor balances are entered as documents, the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable control accounts are built from the party lines beneath them — never posted to directly. The AR balance equals the sum of the customer documents; the AP balance equals the sum of the vendor documents. If the old trial balance showed 80,000.00 of receivables and your documents total 80,000.00, the sub-ledger is reconciled.
After Posting
| Action | Allowed? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| View the documents | Yes | Finance → Opening Balances lists them; each opens like any document, with its journal |
| Apply receipts and payments to them | Yes | Settlement exhausts the Opening Balance (Statement) first, then invoices and bills by their own dates |
| Add more opening balances later | Yes | Each new document or journal still offsets to Opening Balance Equity — check it returns to zero |
| Edit a posted Opening Balance document | Yes | Like any document, editing re-posts its journal |
| Void one | Yes | Voiding retires its journal |
| Write off at period close | Yes | The AR / AP adjustment in the close wizard lists opening balances among the party's documents |
Related
- Chart of Accounts — the classification system every report draws from
- Manual journals — the New Journal Entry form in full
- Importing accounts — bulk-load a chart from a spreadsheet
- System accounts — the accounts the app posts to on your behalf
- Period Close — the four-step wizard that locks a period