ni4
Level 1

Opening balances

How i can input opening balances?

MichaelDL
QuickBooks Team

Reports and accounting

The Community has you covered, @ni4.

 

I have just the steps you'll need to input those opening balances. To clarify, are these balances for accounts you'll be creating new in your company, or for existing accounts? I'll outline the steps needed for both scenarios below:

 

Input opening balance for a New Account

  1. From QuickBooks Online, navigate to the Accounting tab and the Chart of Accounts section.
  2. Click New to create a new account and select an Account Type and Detail Type.
  3. Enter the beginning balance in the Balance field and set the as of date for this balance. Click Save and close once finished.

This information and more is also available from our guide on recording opening balances. I've attached a short video demonstration of this below:

 

The value entered in the Amount box is created as a journal entry which offsets against Opening Balance Equity. If you didn't enter a value here when creating the account, you can create this entry manually with the following instructions:

 

Input opening balance for an Existing Account

  1. From QuickBooks Online, click the Plus icon (+) and select Journal Entry.
  2. Set the opening balance as of date in the Date field.
  3. On the first line, select the account whose balance you're assigning. Enter the opening balance in the Debit or Credit field. Per the linked article:
    For Asset accounts, positive balances appear in the Debit column.
    For Liability and Equity accounts, positive balances appear in the Credit column.
  4. On the second line, select Opening Balance Equity as an offset account. The value will auto-fill to match the first line. Click Save and close.

The clip here will provide a visual example of this process:

 

These instructions will help you input opening balances for whichever accounts you need. Please don't hesitate to keep in touch with me here for all of your QuickBooks needs. Thanks for dropping in and have a great rest of your day.

rikis981
Level 2

Reports and accounting

I just followed your steps for a journal entry to a credit card account and entered an opening balance.  But, when I go to reconcile, it still shows an opening balance of zero.  Any fixes?

Angelyn_T
QuickBooks Team

Reports and accounting

Hello there, @rikis981.

 

Please allow me to join the thread and help share additional information about the opening balance when reconciling transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

 

For you to have the opening balance, you have to go back to your credit card account register and manually mark the transactions/the opening balance with R under the Check-Mark (✓) column.

 

  1. Go to the Gear icon.
  2. Select Chart of Accounts.
  3. Look for your credit card account.
  4. Click on View register under Action drop-down arrow.
  5. To add an opening balance, mark the transactions or balance as R.

You can see attached screenshot for additional reference.e7 opening balance.PNG

 

Please know that I'll be always here to help you if you have any other banking questions, just add a post/comment below. Have a great day ahead!

babswabir
Level 1
MorganB
Content Leader

Reports and accounting

I'm so glad you were able to find the answer you were looking for here in the Community, babswabir. You know where to come if you ever need a hand again in the future.