Enter opening balances in Reckon One

Legacy KB ID: 5487

Question

I have just created my Book.  How do I enter the opening balances for my ledger accounts?

Answer

Use a General Journal.

 

The Issue

Opening Balances for ledger accounts can be entered through a General Journal with the counter account being the Equity Account – Opening balance equity. 

You can enter all the ledger account balances on one General Journal.  You must ensure that all debit values equal credit values. 

 

In preparation for the transfer, we suggest:

·         Specify a date you stop using the old programme and take all measures to ensure your accounts are correct, up-to-date and free of errors.  Take into consideration your reporting needs when choosing a date to transfer.

·         Complete all processing to third parties – such as banking payment files, BAS reports and payments, payment of Payroll Liabilities, etc.

·         Separate open transactions (unpaid invoices and bills) and adjust your balances accordingly.  These open transactions should be entered individually into Reckon One.  Please make allowances for the dates of these transactions when selecting the start date of your Book.  If you cannot use the correct date of the transaction, use the first day of the book and note the actual transactions date in the Notes/Description/Narration field. 

 

In your old programme

1.    Print a Trial Balance;

2.    Print a list of Open Invoices;

3.    Print a list of Open Bills;

4.    Print a report that lists the chart of accounts;

5.    Print a report that lists all your customers, suppliers & employees;

6.    Print a report that lists all your items.

 

In Reckon One

1.    Create a new Reckon One book.  Take into consideration the dates of your open invoices and bills;

2.    Setup your bank and credit card accounts in Reckon One & configure the opening balance according to your Trial Balance Report.

  A system journal entry will be generated with the counter ledger account being “Opening balance equity”. 

                                          i.    A positive bank balance will result in a credit entry to opening balance equity;

                                         ii.    An outstanding credit card balance will result in a debit entry to opening balance equity;

3.    Setup your chart of accounts;

4.    Setup your customers, suppliers & employees;

5.    Setup your items (Note: Reckon One doesn't yet have inventory functionality);

6.    Setup your payroll items;

7.    Re-enter any open invoices

8.    Re-enter any open bills.

9.    Use the journal transaction form to configure the opening balances of your balance sheets accounts (e.g. assets, liability& equity) according to your Trial Balance report adjusted for any open invoices and bills.  See below for further detailed instructions.

 

Note: Reckon One has the following system default accounts that you need to be aware of:

·         Accounts Receivable (Reckon One uses this account to track amounts customers owe to your business)

·         Accounts Payable (Reckon One uses this account to track amounts your business owes to suppliers)

·         GST Collected (Reckon One uses this account to track tax amounts on income transactions)

·         GST Paid (Reckon One uses this account to track tax amounts on expense transactions) 

·         Opening balance equity

·         Retained earnings

·         Cash. 

o    This account is meant for Cash Register Funds or Cash on Hand. 

o    It appears with bank accounts but does not have full bank account functionality. 

o    Do not use this account for your bank account. 

 

When your account information has been transferred:

1.    Print the Trial Balance and compare to your Trial Balance from your old programme and confirm they are the same.  See below for more details.

2.    To report on data before the closing date you would use your previous accounting application reports. To report on data after the closing date you would use the Reckon One application report.

So if your closing date is within a financial year then you would need to maintain& work with both application reports until you roll over to the next financial year.

 

Entering a General Journal

1.    Open the form from Day to Day > Business > Journals > Add

2.    Journal date should be the date, or day before, your first transaction;

3.    In Amounts, select whether the amounts will be Gross or Net of tax;

4.    In Summary, enter Opening balances on dd/mm/yyyy;

5.    Select the ledger account in the Account column;

6.    Enter each ledger account balance on a separate line; 

7.    Click on Add new row to open a new line;

8.    Although you can enter all balances on one Journal form you may want to enter them in batches to allow you to do them over a period of time, to ease troubleshooting if errors occur, and minimise the potential loss of data from possible system and internet issues;

9.    Where a balancing item is required, use the Opening balance equity account;

10. To Save a Journal entry, the Total Debit Amount must equal the Total Credit Amount.

 

To Print a Trial Balance

1.    Reporting > Reports Centre > Categories> Financial

2.    Click on the Generate button on Trial Balance

 


Need more help?

Ask the Reckon Community at: https://community.reckon.com/categories/reckonone

Or Log a Support Ticket: https://www.reckon.com/au/support/

 

How did we do?

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