When do I enter beginning balances?

If you begin using General Ledger at the start of your financial year, enter a beginning balance for accounts under the following major headings in your chart of accounts

• Assets
• Liabilities
• Fund Principal
• Permanent Restricted
• Temporary Restricted

Enter a beginning balance for all accounts. Enter the ending balance in the account for the last month in the software that you used before ACS. After entering all beginning balances, enter the difference between the total debits and the total credits as the beginning balance in the fund principal account.

You can enter beginning balances at any time as long as you have completed the following steps:

• Created a fund code in Define Lists for each set of books in your chart of accounts.
• Associated the appropriate fund code to each account in Add/Edit Chart of Accounts.
• Added a fund principal account for each fund code in Define Lists.

Does it matter if I use multiple funds?

You should enter Beginning Balances one fund at a time. Each fund has its own fund principal account.

After you've entered the beginning balance amounts for each account in the fund, you must balance the transaction by entering the offset amount to the fund principal account for that fund. Entering beginning balances one fund at a time makes it less confusing.

For example, if you have a Church fund and a Building fund, you enter two separate Beginning Balance transactions. The first transaction includes only accounts for the Church fund, and the second transaction includes only accounts for the Building fund.

Do I have to enter all beginning balances at once?

When entering transactions in the General Ledger module, the transactions must balance. Debits and credits must equal to complete the transaction. When you enter beginning balances, you must complete the transaction by entering an offsetting amount to a Fund Principal account before you click OK.

If you click Cancel before you finish entering balances, the transaction information is not saved, and you must start over.

You can enter beginning balances for one fund or for a group of accounts, but each batch must balance.