How to Enter Beginning and Ending Financial Balances
When setting up Total Office Manager it may be necessary to enter existing balances for customers and vendors, along with Balance Sheet related accounts and other COA accounts.
As an overview to the process, each customer and vendor — including their respective existing balances — are entered first. The appropriate A/R and A/P accounts thusly increase along with the built-in “Uncategorized Income” and “Uncategorized Expense” offset accounts. Then balance sheet related accounts (like bank accounts) and their respective existing balances are entered. The built-in “Opening Balance Equity” offset account is automatically used behind-the-scenes when entering these balance sheet related accounts. Based on the advice of your accounting professional, the resulting balances in the “Uncategorized Income”, “Uncategorized Expense”, and “Opening Balance Equity” accounts are then typically dispersed across appropriate COA accounts (like Income, Expense, and COGS accounts) using journal entries.
Recommended Reports and Documentation
Prior to entering existing balances, it is advised to have available the most recent reports as follows:
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A/R Aging Report
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A/P Aging Report
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Balance Sheet
- Income Statement
Entering Customer Balances
Setup each existing customer using the Customer:Job form. On each customer’s Payment Info tab, accept the default A/R account, or use a different one based on advice from your accounting professional. Then enter the opening balance info for the customer (see the related topic, “Customer:Job Form – Payment Info Tab” for more info). When the new customer’s information is saved, the program automatically creates an “Opening Balance” invoice for the customer, which increases the A/R account and to which future payments may be received against. Simultaneously, the built-in COA offset account “Uncategorized Income” increases by the same amount as the opening balance invoice.
Entering Vendor Balances
Setup each existing vendor using the New Vendor form. On each vendor’s Additional Info tab, accept the default A/P account, or use a different one based on advice from your accounting professional. Then enter the opening balance info for the vendor (see the related topic, “Vendor Form – Additional Info Tab” for more info). When the new vendor’s information is saved, the program automatically creates an “Uncategorized Expense” bill for the customer, which increases the A/P account and to which future payments may be applied. Simultaneously, the built-in COA offset account “Uncategorized Expense” increases by the same amount as the opening balance bill.
Entering Balance Sheet Related COA Accounts
Balance sheet related COA accounts (like bank accounts) are those which have opening balance information fields. Simply setup these accounts in normal fashion, entering the opening balance info for each account (see the related topic, “Chart of Accounts List” for more info on creating new accounts). As each of these accounts is saved, the built-in “Opening Balance Equity” offset account is automatically increased to maintain proper balance of the books.
Dispersing Uncategorized Balances
As the preceding activities occur, amounts have been automatically accumulating in the built-in accounts “Uncategorized Income,” “Uncategorized Expense,” and “Opening Balance Equity” to maintain proper balance of the books. Based on the advice of your accounting professional, these uncategorized balances are typically dispersed across appropriate COA accounts (like Income, Expense, and COGS accounts) using journal entries (see the related topic, “Journal Entry” for more info).
