Which Date Should I Use to Enter My Opening Balances?

Your opening balance transactions for your sales and purchase ledger must be dated within the previous accounting period to be accounted for correctly on your financial statements. For example, if you are entering your opening balances from the first month of your financial year and that year began on 1st January, you could use 31st December as the date of your opening balances.

The opening balances for your nominal ledger and bank accounts should be dated on the first day of your new accounting period. In the above example, this would be 1st January. If you are entering uncleared bank transactions, these should be entered with the original transaction date.

If you enter separate invoices and credit notes at their original dates, they will be aged individually on the balances reports and statements that will give you an accurate reading of your aged debtors and creditors.

If you are entering your opening balances mid-year, we recommend the date you enter should be the last day of the previous accounting period, or the actual invoice date. For example, if the Financial Year started January 2002 but the first processing month on Instant Accounts was April 2002, then either use the original invoice date or the 31st March 2002. If the transactions were dated April, then April's Profit and Loss, and Balance Sheet, will have incorrect MTD (Month-To-Date) values.