Table of Contents
Introduction
If you're here, chances are you've just joined the Indigo Business family, and we couldn't be happier to have you on board! 😄
Now, let’s get to the juicy part: opening entries for your imported accounts. All you need to do is prepare a closing Trial Balance from your previous system, then post the totals as Nominal Opening Balances in Indigo Business. This step is key to ensuring a smooth, clean, and quick transition from your old accounting system while keeping your financial records consistent.
So, have your Trial Balance at the ready and start fresh with up-to-date figures! 👇
Creating Nominal Opening Balances
Companies usually migrate to a new accounting system at the beginning of the financial year (e.g. 01/01/2025). Hence, opening entries are created as of that date and all at once for all the accounts in your closing Trial Balance.
A good-looking trial balance is one that has total debits equal to total credits (double-entry).
⚠️ Balanced totals in a Trial Balance don’t necessarily mean that your transactions have been accounted for correctly. For example, postings might still be recorded against the wrong accounts, but this can’t be identified just by looking at the Trial Balance.
Let's say that you have to insert the following Trial Balance data as opening entries in Indigo Business.
Account | Debit (EUR) | Credit (EUR) |
Account A | 18,814 |
|
Account B | 9,600 |
|
Account C | 7,186 |
|
Account D |
| 19,652 |
Account E |
| 15,948 |
Totals | 35,600 | 35,600 |
To do so:
Navigate to Nominal > Opening Entries > Nominal Opening Balances.
The Opening Balances page will open. The nominal Opening balance date field is automatically filled with the Accounting Start Date specified in the Company Settings.
👀 Note: The Accounting Start Date is usually the date you migrated from your previous accounting system.In the Nominal account dropdown, select the account.
Choose 'Debit' or 'Credit' from the D/C field.
E.g. For Account A, we'd select 'Debit', according to the Trial Balance.
In the Local (base currency) field ☝️, insert your previous system's closing balance for the selected account. In our case 18,814€.
Enter a preferred Ext Ref and Details as needed.
Select Add line item and repeat steps 3-7 for additional opening balances for other accounts.
The Total Debit and Total Credit for the inserted line items will show at the bottom of the screen. They must match for the opening balances to be posted.
📋 Note: The total amounts are shown per currency. If more than one currency is available in the opening balance journal, separate currency tabs appear and show the corresponding totals.
When you're ready, click on Post.
The generated opening entries will be visible in Nominal > Nominal Audit Trail.
👀 The Opening Balances' transaction IDs are prefixed with a # helping you easily identify them when sorting your transactions.
👩🏫 Tricks of the trade
It is not possible to post opening entries dated after the first input transaction. So, if you set the Accounting Start Date to 01/01/2025 and you post a transaction on the same date, the opening balance entries have to be dated 01/01/2025 or before.
Only sales and purchases opening entries prior to the first posted transaction date are allowed. This means that Sales/Purchases opening entries can have any date prior to the accounting starting date (e.g. up till 31/12/2024).
For nominal opening entries, the Opening Balance Date matches the Accounting Start Date in the Company Settings.
You can only post opening entries for an active and unfinalised financial year.
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