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Opening balances represent the account balances at the beginning of the year or accounting period.
In Banana Accounting's double-entry accounting, they are normally entered in the Accounts table, Opening column. Assets are entered as positive amounts and Liabilities as negative amounts, so that the total opening balances equal zero.
On this page you will find the procedures for entering and checking opening balances, carrying them forward from previous accounting, and correcting them when necessary.
Enter opening balances in new accounting
When you create new accounting, enter the opening balances manually.
- Go to the Accounts table, Base view, Opening column.
- Enter the opening balances:
- Assets → positive amounts
- Liabilities → negative amounts, entering a minus sign (-) before the amount.
- Check that the sum of the opening balances equals zero.
The total Assets must therefore correspond to the total Liabilities, with the latter entered as negative amounts.
For more information about using positive and negative amounts, see Double-entry accounting mathematics.
Check that opening balances are balanced
At the beginning of the accounting year, the total Asset accounts, entered as positive amounts, must balance with the total Liability accounts, entered as negative amounts.
If the sum of the opening balances does not equal zero, the accounting is not balanced and Banana Accounting displays the Opening balance difference message in the information window.
In this case, check the amounts entered and correct the balances until the difference is eliminated.
For more information about possible causes and solutions, see:
Opening balances for Cost centers
In the Accounts table, the Opening column can also be used to enter the opening balances of Cost centers.
Opening balances for Segments
To enter opening balances for segments, you must instead enter opening transactions.
More details are available on the Segments page.
Start accounting already in progress
If you start using Banana Accounting when the accounting year has already begun and need to transfer data previously managed with another program, you can proceed in two ways.
Resume accounting from the beginning of the year
You can recreate the complete accounting starting from the beginning of the year.
In this case:
- In the Accounts table, Opening column, enter the opening balances at the beginning of the year.
- In the Transactions table, enter the transactions already recorded in the previous program.
- Then continue entering new transactions directly in Banana Accounting.
This way, you have all the transactions for the accounting year in a single file.
For more information, see Retrieving data from other programs.
Enter opening balances as opening transactions
As an alternative to the Opening column of the Accounts table, opening balances can also be entered as opening transactions in the Transactions table.
For each opening transaction:
- enter the accounting start date as the date
- in the DocType column, enter the code 01
- enter the account in Debit or Credit
- enter the amount.
The total opening balances entered in Debit must balance with the total entered in Credit.
Opening balances entered as transactions are used when preparing reports.
The opening balance resulting from the transactions is added to any amount entered in the Opening column of the Accounts table.
Previous year balances
Previous year balances are different from opening balances.
If you start new accounting by transferring existing accounting and want to display the previous year's values in the printouts as well, enter the corresponding closing balances in the Accounts table, Previous view, Previous column.
Enter:
- the closing balances of Asset accounts
- the closing balances of Liability accounts, with a negative sign
- the closing balances of Expenses
- the closing balances of Income, with a negative sign.
These values make the previous year's data available in comparative printouts.
Carry forward opening balances from the previous year
When you move to the new accounting year, Banana Accounting can automatically carry forward the opening balances to the new file.
The recommended procedure is to use the Create new year command.
If the accounting file for the new year has already been created, you can use the Update opening balances command.
If necessary, opening balances can also be changed manually in the Opening column of the Accounts table.
After each change, check that the opening balances are still balanced.
Change the opening balance of an account
The account card is generated automatically, and you cannot enter or change the opening balance directly from the account card.
To change an opening balance, make the change in the Accounts table, Opening column.
If you need to correct an accounting transaction instead, edit the corresponding transaction in the Transactions table.
Correct the carry-forward of Profit and Loss opening balances
If the opening balances of the Profit and Loss accounts were also carried forward to the new year by mistake, you can correct the situation in two ways:
Delete the balances manually
Go to the Accounts table, Opening column, select the opening balances of the Profit and Loss accounts and delete them.
Repeat the opening balance update
From the Actions > Update opening balances menu, select the previous year's file.
In the Carry forward balances dialog box, clear the option for the Profit and Loss Statement to prevent the related balances from being carried forward to the new year.
Print opening balances
You can print the opening balances in two ways:
- to print the contents of the table directly, use the Print/Preview command, selecting the Balance Sheet rows
you can also use the Accounting reports, setting the printout to the Balance Sheet section and the Opening column.