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Enter ledger opening balances

Enter the balance each ledger had on the first day of a financial year, such as bank, cash, capital, loans, debtors and creditors.

Opening balances carry your old books into Arthlekha. Enter the closing balance of each ledger from your last year (or your old software) as the opening balance of the new year.

Before you start

Create the financial year. See Financial years.
Opening stock is not entered here. Enter it on each product. See Products.
Have your last balance sheet or trial balance ready.

Steps

Open Accounting > Opening Balances.
Under Select Financial Year Opening Date, click the date of the year you want, for example 01/04 of that year. The latest year is picked for you.
Click in Search & add ledger... and type a ledger name. Pick it from the list. It is added as a row.
On each row, choose DR or CR. Assets such as bank, cash and debtors are usually DR. Capital, loans and creditors are usually CR.
Enter the Amount.
Repeat for every ledger. Use Filter entries... to find a row when the list is long.
Check the cards: Total Debit, Total Credit and Difference.
Click Save All Balances.

The balances are saved for the date you picked. The app posts them as one opening entry dated the day before that date. That way they show as opening figures in your reports.

If debit and credit do not match

You can save even when the totals differ. The difference goes to a ledger named Opening Balance Equity so that your books still balance. Check this ledger after saving. It should be zero once all your balances are in. A balance left in it usually means a ledger is missing or has the wrong side.

Create a new ledger with its opening balance

Type the new name in Search & add ledger....
Click + Create "name".
In Create Ledger + Opening Balance, pick the Group. The Nature fills in from the group. Change it only if needed.
Choose a GST Ledger Type if this is a GST ledger. Otherwise leave NONE.
Choose DR or CR and enter the Amount.
Click Create & Save Opening. If you leave the amount blank, the button says Create Ledger and only the ledger is made.

Add many ledgers at once

Click Add multiple. A table with 10 rows opens.
In each row, type in Search existing or type new. Pick an existing ledger, or type a new name.
For a new name, pick the Group and Nature. For an existing ledger these are not needed.
Choose DR or CR and enter the Amount. Click Add row for more rows.
Click Create & Save Openings.
Rows that worked turn green. Rows with a problem turn red and show the reason. Fix them and save again. Blank rows are ignored.

Common problems

No financial years found. Create one first from Settings. — create a financial year first. See Financial years.
... already added — that ledger is already in the list. Change the existing row.
Ledger '...' already exists — pick it from the dropdown instead of creating new — a ledger with that name exists. Pick it instead of creating a new one.
A balance will not go away — removing a row, or setting it to 0, does not clear a balance that was already saved. To change a saved balance, enter the correct amount and click Save All Balances.
Opening Balance Equity has a balance — your debits and credits do not match. See "If debit and credit do not match" above.

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