Introduction

Unless you are starting a new business and intend to use FirstOffice to administer your accounts from the first day, you will need to enter some opening balances. If you are starting to use FirstOffice at the beginning of the fiscal year, these opening balances will take the form of the closing balances for each Account for the end of the previous year. If you are starting to use FirstOffice in the middle of the fiscal year, there will be two components to opening balance figures: the closing balances for each Account for the end of the previous year and Account balances for the current year to date.

To carry out this task, you should equip yourself with as much information as you can in the form of transaction data and reports produced by the old system, in order to make this task as easy as possible.

We recommend that you change during a current financial year. You should enter Account balances for the previous year and then enter individually all current year transactions registered so far. This will a) make you familiar with FirstOffice, and b) automatically give you a check of the old transactions.

You should already have specified the current and, if appropriate, previous financial years using the Fiscal Years setting and entered the Chart of Accounts and VAT Codes you wish to use. Normally you will be able to use the Chart of Accounts included in the program. If this is not suitable, you can import your own chart from a text file or enter it manually. For more instructions about this process, please refer to the Setting up a Basic Accounts System page.

Once you have entered your Fiscal Year, Chart of Accounts and VAT Codes, it's a good idea to enter all the opening balances at once. Ideally, this process should be completed before you start to enter new Transactions, but it is possible to change the opening balances at any time during the financial year.

When entering opening balances, the level of detail is up to you. Factors influencing this decision may be the number of Transactions, the time available to enter these Transactions, whether they can be imported (otherwise, you will have to enter them manually) and the level of detail required in your reports. It might be that you enter or import all Transactions individually (in the form of Invoices, Receipts, Purchase Invoices, Payments and Nominal Ledger Transactions) or it might be that you enter a single opening balance for each Account. Full details covering the necessary data entry processes follow in the next sections.

Once you have entered your opening balances in their chosen form, print the reports you usually use and compare them with the reports from your old system. These reports should include the Trial Balance, Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet from the Nominal Ledger, and lists of Debtors and Creditors using the Sales and Purchase Ledger reports respectively.

Opening Balances in the Nominal Ledger

In the Nominal Ledger, the task of entering opening balances has two stages. First, it is recommended that you enter balances for each Account as they stood at the end of the previous fiscal year. Use the Brought Forward Balances register for this task. This information should be available on the Trial Balance report obtained from your old system. Then, if appropriate, enter Transactions for the current year to date, using the Transaction register.

Once you have entered all Balances and Transactions, print out a Trial Balance and compare it with that obtained from your old system. Any discrepancies should be investigated immediately: any delay will make this more difficult.

The following section assumes you have already defined a Chart of Accounts and a set of VAT Codes. To enter Account balances as they stood at the end of the previous financial year to the Nominal Ledger, follow these steps:

1. Select the Nominal Ledger module using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel.
   

2. Click the [B/FW Balances] button in the Master Control panel.
   

3. Click [New] on the Button Bar.
   

4. Enter the information as shown in the following illustration. Full details of the fields are to be found in the description of the Brought Forward Balances register. It is recommended that you choose a Transaction Date that is at the end of the previous fiscal year and that is, in any case, prior to the date when you will be starting work with FirstOffice.

5. The Brought Forward Balances screen does not have an OK check box, so Account Balances are updated as soon as the record is saved. Therefore, before clicking [Save], make sure that no mistakes have been made. One check is that the Debit and Credit totals are the same. If you discover a mistake at a later date, you will be able to correct the record without difficulty.
   

6. Finish with [New] (or use the Ctrl-N/⌘-N keyboard shortcut) if you wish to enter more Balances.
   

7. If you are using Objects, you should enter a separate record to the Brought Forward Balances register for each Object and one for the total. For example, if you have a Cash Account with a balance of 100.00 that is divided between two departments so that 49.00 belongs to Department 1 and 51.00 to Department 2, enter three Brought Forward Balance records as follows:
   

   1st record, Cash Account, no Objects, total figure (100.00)
   

   2nd record, Cash Account, Object for Dept 1, figure for Dept 1 (49.00)
   

   3rd record, Cash Account, Object for Dept 2, figure for Dept 2 (51.00)

8. Finish with [Save] when you have entered the last Balance, and close the window by clicking the close box.

If you are starting to use FirstOffice in the middle of a financial year, you should now enter the Transactions for the current year so far. You should enter these from the original documentation, and do not copy them from Transaction Journal reports produced from your old system. This will ensure that you do not enter any Transactions that relate to the Sales or Purchase Ledgers. These will be entered later. Follow these steps:

1. Using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel, ensure you are in the Nominal Ledger.
   

2. Click the [Transactions] button in the Master Control panel.
   

3. Click [New] on the Button Bar.
   

4. Enter the information as shown in the following illustration. Full details of the fields are to be found in the description of the Transaction register. Ensure you use the same Transaction Date that was used when entering the Transaction to your previous system.

5. The Transaction screen does not have an OK check box, so Account Balances are updated as soon as the Transaction is saved. Therefore, before clicking [Save], make sure that no mistakes have been made. One check is that the Debit and Credit totals are the same.
   

6. Finish with [New] (or use the Ctrl-N/⌘-N keyboard shortcut) if you wish to enter more Transactions.
   

   You can use another feature when you need to enter several Transactions quickly in one sitting and don't want to interrupt your typing by reaching for the mouse. Enter the debits in a Transaction first and then, with the cursor in the Credit field in the final credit row, press the Return or Enter key twice. The first pressing causes FirstOffice to enter the correct credit amount to balance the entry for you. The second saves, closes and commits the Transaction to the Nominal Ledger and opens a new, empty, Transaction.
   

7. Finish with [Save] when you have entered the last Transaction, and close the window by clicking the close box.

Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger

It is worth repeating that there can be two components to opening balance figures in the Sales Ledger: the final Customer balances from the previous fiscal year and, if you will be starting to use FirstOffice in the middle of a fiscal year, Customer balances for the current year to date.

In considering Customer balances from the previous year, it is only necessary to take account of those that are open (i.e. unpaid). These can be entered in one of two ways:

• as a single outstanding balance for each Customer; or
  

• as separate Invoices per Customer.

In considering Customer balances for the current year to date, the following options are available:

• the minimum is to enter a balance for each Customer as a single figure (in fact, you will need to enter an Invoice total and a Receipt total, representing totals for the current fiscal year to date, enabling you to reconcile your bank account and to keep your Aged Debtor report accurate);
  

• the opposite extreme is to enter all Invoices raised so far in the current fiscal year, and all Receipts;
  

• a compromise route to reduce the amount of work required is to enter monthly Invoice and Receipt balances for each Customer;
  

• a final option, available if you are changing to FirstOffice from an older computerised system, is to import the current year's Invoices and Receipts from a text file. Please refer to your local FirstOffice representative if you would like to consider this option.

In deciding which procedure to use, one factor to consider is credit control. If you need to produce statements that show details of previous Invoices, it will not be enough to simply enter a total balance for each Customer. Instead, you will need to enter individual Invoices and Receipts. If, however, you do not issue statements or it is acceptable for a single opening balance figure to appear on your statements, entering a single opening balance figure per Customer will be sufficient. If you do not issue Invoices or you do not give credit, it may not be necessary to enter any opening balances at all in the Sales Ledger.

If you need to enter opening balances in the Sales Ledger, you should first ensure that all Customers have been entered using the process described on the Entering the First Customer page. If you are entering individual Invoices, you should also ensure that all Items have been entered. Depending on your old system, you may be able to import this information from text files. Finally, if you are entering Receipts in any form (i.e. individual Receipts, or monthly or year-to-date Receipts) make sure all relevant Payment Modes have been entered, so that the Receipt amounts can be posted to the correct Bank or Cash Account.

Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger - and the Nominal Ledger

Enter Sales Ledger opening balances in the form of Invoices and Receipts. In the case of balances brought forward from the previous fiscal year, they should be Invoices and Receipts that will not be posted to the Nominal Ledger if you have already entered previous-year Nominal Ledger opening balances to the Brought Forward Balances register as described here. The Nominal Ledger opening balances include balances for the Accounts affected by Invoices and thus to post to those Accounts from opening balance Invoices is to post the same amounts twice. Therefore, before Sales Ledger opening balances can be entered, a setting in the Nominal Ledger needs to be considered to ensure that they will not be posted.

Using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel, ensure that you are in the Nominal Ledger. Click the [Settings] button in the Master Control panel or select 'Settings' from the File menu. In the subsequent list, double-click 'Sub Systems'. The following window appears:

Specify by clicking the check boxes the transactions ('Sub Systems') that are to create Nominal Ledger Transactions automatically. In the illustration, for example, approving and saving an Invoice with a Transaction Date later than 1/1/2005 will cause a Nominal Ledger Transaction to be created automatically. If the Transaction Date is earlier than 1/1/2005, a Nominal Ledger Transaction will not be created.

It is recommended that for each Sub System you enter the first day of your fiscal year. When you enter previous-year opening balances, use a Transaction Date prior to that date. This will ensure that Nominal Ledger Transactions are created when expected and that they are not created for opening balances. If it takes longer than expected to enter opening balances, you can continue doing so (using early Transaction Dates) and start to issue new Invoices without needing to worry about the consequences in the Nominal Ledger.

If you are starting to use FirstOffice in the middle of a financial year, you should already have entered the Nominal Ledger Transactions for the current year so far, as described here. If, as was recommended, you entered these from the original documentation and did not copy them from Transaction Journal reports produced from your old system, you will not have any current year Transactions that relate to the Sales or Purchase Ledger. These will now be created automatically from the Invoices and Receipts (and Purchase Invoices and Payments) that you are about to enter, providing that their Transaction Dates are later than the Sub System Date (the first day of your fiscal year). If you did enter current year Transactions relating to the Sales or Purchase Ledger as part of the previous exercise, you will not want them created again when you enter Invoices and Receipts. In this case, make the Sub System Date later (a few days before the date you start using FirstOffice to originate transactions). This means you will be able to enter Invoices for the current year to date and to issue new Invoices simultaneously without needing to worry about the consequences in the Nominal Ledger.

If you are not certain whether you have entered current year Transactions relating to the Sales or Purchase Ledger, produce a Trial Balance report for the current year and check the balances for your Sales, Purchase, Debtor and Creditor Accounts. If these are zero, you have not entered these Transactions. If they are the same as those on the Trial Balance produced from your old system, you have entered these Transactions already. Please refer to this page for details about printing a Trial Balance report.

Once the Sub Systems setting is to your satisfaction, save and close the window by clicking [Save] in the Button Bar.

!	Note that if you have entered previous-year opening balances in the Nominal Ledger, you should not post any Sales, Purchase or Stock opening balances to your Nominal Ledger. To do so will duplicate the work you have already done and will immediately render your accounts inaccurate.

Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger - Payment Modes

Before entering the first opening balance, there is a single setting in the Sales Ledger that needs to be considered if you will be entering Receipts for the fiscal year to date.

Use the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel to enter the Sales Ledger and click the [Settings] button, also in the Master Control panel. Double-click 'Payment Modes' in the subsequent list.

Payment Modes represent the different methods that your Customers will use to pay your Invoices and you will use to pay your Suppliers. Typical examples are cash, cheque, direct debit and credit card. If necessary, FirstOffice allows each Payment Mode to debit a different Account and to be paid into a different bank account.

If you have used the accounts template supplied with FirstOffice, you will find that the basic Payment Modes have already been entered. If you have modified the Chart of Accounts supplied, or you have created your own, ensure that the Account Code shown in the fourth column now refers to the correct Account (remember, you can use 'Paste Special' if necessary).

To create a new Payment Mode, simply click in the first blank row and enter a unique Code. Then enter the other details as appropriate, referring to this page if necessary. Click flip B to complete the entry.

Click [Save] when you have finished.

Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger - Opening Balances

The process described below applies to the entering of opening balances both from the previous fiscal year and for the current year to date.

You are now ready to enter the first Invoice. If you are entering a single opening balance figure per Customer, either for the previous fiscal year or for the current year to date, you will need to do this by entering it in an Invoice. If so, omit step 7 in the following procedure. Do this:

1. If you are not already in the Sales Ledger module, move into it using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel.
   

2. Click the [Invoices] button in the Master Control panel to open the Invoice register.
   

3. Click [New] in the Button Bar.

4. In the 'Invoice: New' window three fields are already filled in: the Invoice Number (except in multi-user systems) and the Invoice and Transaction Dates (which show the current date taken from the system clock). If you are entering a single opening balance figure for each Customer, you might like to use a separate numbering sequence for opening balances (use the Number Series - Invoices setting in the Sales Ledger to set up numbering sequences). If you are entering individual Invoices, you will need to use the Invoice Number and Date of the original Invoice. In multi-user systems, an Invoice Number will be allocated when the Invoice is saved: when entering individual Invoices for the current year to date, to ensure each Invoice retains the number with which it was originally issued, it is recommended that you enter these Invoices in number order from a single client computer to ensure each Invoice retains the number with which it was originally issued. You can enter the Invoice Number yourself before you save the Invoice for the first time to be sure that it is correct.
   

5. Place the insertion point in the Customer field and select 'Paste Special' from the Edit menu or use the shortcut (Ctrl-Return - Windows/Linux or ⌘-Return - Macintosh). The 'Paste Customer' window appears, showing a list of the Customers recorded in the Customer register. Select a Customer by clicking on its row and press the Return key twice. The first pressing causes the Customer Number to be transferred to the field in the Invoice, and the second will move all information about the Customer (Name, Address etc.) to the Invoice.
   

6. Use the Return key to move the insertion point to the Date field. In the case of Customer balances from the end of the previous fiscal year, ensure that this is set to a date that is earlier than the cut-off date you specified in the Sub Systems setting.
   

7. If you are entering individual Invoices, move the insertion point to the Item field and press Ctrl-Return or ⌘-Return again. Select the correct Item from the list and press Return twice. The insertion point is moved to the Qty field. Enter the number of items ordered, and press Return. Check that the Unit Price is correct and repeat for each item on the Invoice.
   

8. If you are entering single opening balances, move the insertion point to the Qty field and enter a quantity of 1. Press Return and enter the text "Opening Balance" in the Description field. Enter an amount (excluding VAT) in the Unit Price field.
   

9. Until you are familiar with the Invoice screen, it is a good idea to check that every field is correct. Clicking the named tabs marked 'Delivery', 'Inv. Address', etc causes different information about the Invoice to be shown, while the tabs marked A-D display further information about the Invoice items. Pay particular attention to the Sales Account and VAT Code fields on flip B. These defaults are taken from the Item record or, if not specified there, from the Account Usage S/L setting. It will be the latter in the case of single opening balances, as then you are not referring to the Item register.
   

10. At the bottom of the Invoice the total is shown, together with the VAT amount and the total payable amount.
    

11. Click [Save] to save the Invoice.
    

    The window title changes to 'Invoice: Inspect'. You can now correct any mistakes before you click the OK check box. With the OK box checked, clicking the [Save] button in the Button Bar once again approves the Invoice and commits it to your Sales Ledger. After this you may not change the individual fields. Invoices must be approved before Receipts can be allocated to them and to appear in the Periodic Customer Statement.
    

12. Finish with [New] if you wish to enter another Invoice. Or, if you are entering all Invoices for the current fiscal year, click [Duplicate]. This will create a new Invoice which will be a copy of the one just saved. This will save you having to enter Customer details, etc, again if they are the same.
    

13. Finish with [Save] when you have entered the last Invoice, and close the window by clicking the close box.

Opening Balances in the Sales Ledger - Entering Receipts

As with entering Invoices, you can get a lot of help with entering your Receipts using FirstOffice's built-in shortcuts. Perhaps the most useful tool is the 'Paste Special' command. 'Paste Special' can be used whenever you enter data in a field that refers to a register or setting in FirstOffice.

There is no need to enter any Receipts from the previous fiscal year, because you should only have entered outstanding Invoices from that year. You should only follow the steps described below for Receipts from the current year to date, and thus they are only applicable if you are starting to use FirstOffice in the middle of a fiscal year.

1. Open the 'Receipts: Browse' window by clicking the [Receipts] button in the Sales Ledger.
   

2. Click [New] or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-N (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-N (Macintosh).
   

3. The 'Receipt: New' window is shown. You can use a single window to enter all your Receipts from the earlier part of the year, even if they use different Payment Modes.

4. Enter the data in the top of the window. Select a Payment Mode using 'Paste Special' to open the list of Payment Modes you created earlier. Make sure the Transaction Date is correct.
   

5. For each Receipt, enter the Invoice Number in the first column (or use 'Paste Special' to choose from the unpaid Invoices) and press the Return key.
   

6. If you have an Invoice that is part-paid, alter the Received Value field to show the amount paid.
   

7. If any receipt uses a different Payment Mode to that specified in the top of the window, move to flip C to enter a Payment Mode to be used for that row only. Again, use 'Paste Special' to ensure the correct one is selected.
   

8. When you have entered every receipt, you should check what you have entered. If you find any errors you can change them as needed. When you are satisfied, click the OK check box in the lower left-hand corner.
   

9. When you click [New] or [Save], the Receipt is approved and after this may not deleted or changed.

Opening Balances in the Purchase Ledger

When entering opening balances in the Purchase Ledger, you should follow the same basic decisions and procedures described on the Sales Ledger page, using the Purchase Invoice and Payment registers in the Purchase Ledger. Before entering opening balances, use the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger to make sure that your previous year Purchase Ledger opening balances will not be posted to the Nominal Ledger, as described here.

Opening Balances in the Stock Module

When entering opening balances in the Stock module, the precise procedure to be followed will be determined by the nature of your business and the Items that are sold. Again, as in the Sales Ledger, the accuracy of the opening balances increases with the level of detail entered, but the time required by the task increases as well.

You should decide whether to:

• enter each example of each Item in stock at the moment of implementing FirstOffice. You may prefer this option if the cost price of each Item is often subject to fluctuation;
  

• enter a single line for each Item together with a quantity and an average purchase price; or
  

• use a combination of the two methods.

Before entering opening balances in the Stock module, you should first ensure that all Items have been entered using the process described on the Entering the First Item page. Ensure that, for each Item whose stock levels are to be maintained, the Stocked Item option on the 'Pricing' card is selected. Depending on your old system, you may be able to import Item data from text files.

You should also use the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger to make sure that your Stock opening balances will not be posted to the Nominal Ledger, as described here.

When entering opening balances in the Stock module, follow the same basic procedures described on the Sales Ledger page, using the Goods Receipt register.

Importing Opening Balances

If you are changing to FirstOffice from another computer program, it is likely that you will want to import opening balances for all three ledgers from text files created by your old system. If you wish to do this, please follow the import instructions described on the Setting up a Basic Accounts System page to import your text file. This procedure, although described there as one used to import a Chart of Accounts, is in fact an all-encompassing import function which will bring in whatever is in the selected text file and save it in the appropriate place in FirstOffice. For details of the composition of the text files, please refer to your FirstOffice representative. Ensure that they contain opening balances as they were at the beginning of the fiscal year and all subsequent transactions as described in the previous sections.

Printing Reports

FirstOffice can produce many different reports. A detailed description of these can be found in the appropriate sections of these web pages. You should, however, always print a Transaction Journal for the Transactions entered during one work session. The same goes for the Invoice Journal in the Sales Ledger.

Having completed the process of entering your opening balances, you should now print a Trial Balance and compare it with a Trial Balance produced from your old system.

To print a Trial Balance, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you are in the Nominal Ledger module using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel and click the [Reports] button, also in the Master Control panel.
   

2. The following window is shown.
   

   

3. Scroll to the bottom of the list and choose 'Trial Balance' by double-clicking, or press the "T" key twice and then press the Return or Enter key. The 'Specify Trial Balance' window appears.
   

   

4. In the 'Specify Trial Balance' window, enter the range of transactions you wish to print. To report on your opening balances, you should enter a period from the beginning of the current fiscal year to the current date. Separate the start and end dates of this period using a colon (:), as shown in the illustration. You can leave all the other fields blank, ensuring that all Accounts etc will be included in the report.
   

5. Use the Media options at the bottom of the window to choose a print destination (for example, 'Printer' or 'Screen'), and click the [Run] button to produce the report.
   

6. If you printed to screen and now wish to print on a printer, simply click the Printer icon in the Button Bar of the report window.