Creating accounts

Step 6: Enter your detail accountsí opening balances

Step 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 6 > 7

If you havenít already read the Accounts Overview, see Opening balances for more information.

Idea: Enter all your accounts before proceeding
At this point, youíve created a single account. If you plan to add many accounts to the AccountEdge system -- for example, if youíre setting up your company for the first time -- we suggest that you perform the following steps again for each account that you plan to set up:

Choose the type of account you want
Enter basic information about the account
Choose a currency for the account (if youíre using Multicurrency)
Enter budgets for the account (optional; detail accounts only)

Then, when youíre finished entering all your accounts, continue with these next two steps.

The Account Opening Balances window should be displayed.

  1. If your conversion month is the first month of your fiscal year, enter the opening balances of your asset, liability and equity accounts only. (The opening balances of all your income, cost of sales and expense accounts should remain zero.)

If your conversion month is not the first month of your fiscal year, enter the opening balances of all your accounts.

You should almost always enter opening balances as positive numbers. Donít, for example, enter your liability accountsí balances as negative numbers. AccountEdge knows whether your accounts usually have positive or negative balances. Enter negative amounts only if accounts have negative balances.

Note: Important information about a few specific accounts Some of the accounts in your accounts list require some ìspecial treatmentî when youíre entering opening balances. Please read the following information carefully.

Current Year Earnings One of your most vital accounts is an equity account called Current Year Earnings. The balance of this account is incremented automatically during the course of your normal AccountEdge business activity. Although this account doesnít appear in the Account Opening Balances window, donít worry -- it does exist! Since AccountEdge calculates the balance of this account automatically, you canít enter an opening balance for it.

If your conversion month is the first month of your fiscal year, the opening balance of your Current Year Earnings account will be zero. This indicates that your company hasnít acquired any income in the current year because the year has just begun.

Earnings If youíve just begun using AccountEdge, enter your companyís entire previous yearís earnings as the opening balance of your Retained Earnings account.

Main inventory asset account If you plan to use AccountEdgeís inventory features, donít enter an opening balance for the account you intend to use to track the value of your companyís inventoried items. Youíll enter this accountís opening balance when you set up your items. See Creating items to learn how to set up your companyís items.
  1. Check the field at the bottom of the window thatís labeled ìAmount left to be allocated:î
  • If this field displays $0.00, the total of the opening balances you assigned to your asset accounts equals the total opening balances of your liability and equity accounts.
  • If you didnít enter an opening balance for your main inventory asset account in the last step, the amount displayed in the ìAmount left to be allocatedî field wonít be zero -- the amount displayed will equal your opening balance amount for inventory.
  • If the ìAmount left to be allocatedî field displays an amount other than $0.00 and you arenít tracking inventory costs, you should review the opening balances youíve entered to be completely sure youíve entered the exact amounts. (To keep accurate financial records, itís important that the total of your asset accountsí opening balances equals the total of your liability and equity accountsí opening balances.)
  • If the ìAmount left to be allocatedî field still doesnít display $0.00 after youíve rechecked your opening balances, click the OK button. The amount that appeared in the ìAmount left to be allocatedî field will be assigned to a special equity account called Historical Balancing.
  1. If you use Multicurrency, enter an opening balance for each foreign currency account. A message will appear asking if you want AccountEdge to automatically calculate and enter the opening balance of the exchange account.
  2. Click Calculate Now if you want AccountEdge to automatically calculate and enter the opening balance of the exchange account.
  3. Verify the information in this window, including the current exchange rate.
  4. Click OK.
  5. If you click Cancel, no opening balance will be entered for the exchange account. If you wish, you can manually calculate and enter the opening balance of the exchange account. See Multicurrency Overview for more information.

Creating accounts - Step 6