Adding Beginning Balances for the Firm

IMPORTANT: Do not use this procedure for adding beginning balances for the Trust Cash and Trust Liability accounts. Instead, use this procedure.

IMPORTANT: All beginning balances should have the same posting date.

There are two methods for entering beginning balances for a firm.

• Method 1: The recommended way is to use your trial balance to enter beginning balances for all asset, liability, equity, income, and expense accounts.

• Method 2: If you do not have all of the account information, you can enter only one or a subset of the account balances along with an equity account. However, at some point all account balances must be entered in order for the financial statements to be accurate.

Method 1

1. Reconcile the cash accounts from your previous program up to the date that you are bringing the balances forward.

2. Print a trial balance report.

3. Select File > Setup > Beginning Account Balances to open the Beginning Balances window. Click Add.
   
   

4. For the first account, select the account, enter the amount, and select whether the balance is a debit or credit.
   
   

5. To add the next account balance, check Create Another and click OK. The window fields clear and you can enter the balance for the next account. Continue adding all of your firm accounts. When you are finished, uncheck Create Another and click OK.
   
   

6. The Beginning Balances window reappears with your entries listed. Ensure that Total Debits equals Total Credits. If they do not, you need to edit the account balances so that Total Debits equal Total Credits.
   
   

7. For Posting Date, select the date that you want the beginning balance to be recorded in the general ledger. Then, click Post All to post the entries.

Method 2

1. Reconcile the cash accounts from your previous program up to the date that you are bringing the balances forward.

2. Create an equity account. Name it "Beginning Balance Equity" if you like.
   
   

3. Select File > Setup > Beginning Account Balances to open the Beginning Balances window. Click Add.
   
   

4. For the first account, select the account, enter the amount, and select whether the balance is a debit or credit.
   
   

5. To add the next account balance, check Create Another and click OK. The window fields clear and you can enter the balance for the next account. Continue adding the subset of firm accounts.

6. When you are finished adding firm accounts, add the balance for the equity account. The total debits must equal the total credits, so enter the amount and select Debit or Credit so that the equity account will zero out the other accounts you added.
   
   

7. Uncheck Create Another and click OK.
   
   

8. The Beginning Balances window reappears with your entries listed. Ensure that Total Debits equals Total Credits. If they do not, you need to edit the account balances so that Total Debits equal Total Credits.
   
   

9. For Posting Date, select the date that you want the beginning balance to be recorded in the general ledger. Then, click Post All to post the entries.