How do you enter opening balances into QB Online? Do you use a journal?

Hello Jenny

You can do this via a journal certainly it is in the + symbol in the top right in the QuickBooks.What opening balances are you looking to enter?

Thanks

Emma

My client is moving to QB from using a spreadsheet to comply with MTD.

Most of the opening balances will be balance sheet codes. They have already setup there bank account and connected and downloaded transactions, from what i understanding this will put in the opening balance for the bank accounts. Is that correct?

My concern is how to enter any VAT liability?

Thank you

Jenny

Hi,

With regard to the VAT entry - what accounts is this journal posted to? Could you give an example of the journal entry? Thanks, I'm struggling to get this entered correctly!

Hi Mel Owen,

To clarify, are you attempting to enter an opening balance for VAT? 

Thanks

I am in this situation too, as I am trying to enter opening balance for VAT liability, Social Security and other tax and Payroll creditor.

Thanks.

'Yemi

Hi userian, thanks for joining this thread. You can enter all opening balances using a journal entry, however, if you're unsure what specific account to offset this against on the journal we'd recommend reaching out to a bookkeeper/ accountant for best advise :) 

Hello,

Regarding your solution to quickbooks online, I have attempted to directly post the VAT opening balances (Output and input) to VAT control, but the same does not reflect in my VAT report or VAT 100 report.

How do I post a VAT journal with opening balances when I have VAT opening balances?

 For instance, I last filed in May using desktop, and my next filing period August… and I wish to use an online system...

How do I record VAT transactions (opening balances) from June to mid-August if I am moving the balances now?

Cheers,

Chris

Hi, @Chris_Atlantic.

Thanks for joining this conversation. Allow me to chime in and share information about posting opening balance in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Creating a journal directly to the VAT Control account will not be posted to VAT reports.

Since you mentioned that you already have VAT opening balance in QBO, you can either enter the transactions with VAT codes applied from June to August or create a journal entry with VAT codes on the account lines to hit the necessary boxes.

To enter the transactions, here's how:

1. In QBO, go to the + New option at the upper left and select the transaction type.
2. Enter the details and make sure taxes are applied.
3. Click Save and close.

If you want to create a journal entry instead, you can refer to this article for further guidance with the process: Create a journal entry in QuickBooks Online. If you're ensure what accounts to use, I suggest consulting your accountant.

To learn more about managing VAT in QBO, consider checking out these articles:

• VAT: Getting started.
• VAT exceptions and reports in QuickBooks Online.
• VAT 100 Report.
• VAT Detail Report.

I also recommend visiting our website for more tips and other resources you can use in the future: Self-help articles.

Please let me know if you have additional questions about VAT or anything else QuickBooks. I'll be here to help. Stay safe.

Hello,

Further to my query on VAT, I’ve been testing the migration from QuickBooks desktop Premier to QuickBooks Online and have run into a VAT issue. If anyone could please help me.

Just to give you an update of what I did, I manually pushed (quickbooks desktop premier to quickbooks online) the chart of accounts, product list and the VAT codes. Suppliers and Customers were pushed using an API tool (quickbooks desktop premier to quickbooks online). Customers and suppliers every transactions of quickbooks desktop premier (such as invoices, credit notes, bills, sales receipts) were recorded as an opening balance to respective supplier / customer accounts when they were migrated to quickbooks online. All of the balances that were migrated were reflectling correctly in the customer / supplier accounts.

Coming to VAT, because customers and suppliers were pushed via API, the system considers these entries to be an opening balance. Due to which, the system is unable to calculate the VAT I owe to HMRC. So, in order for the system to calculate the VAT, I had to pass a journal entry, based on what was suggested above… The VAT 100 – respective boxes were then calculated by the system. Once the journal entry was processed, the system correctly showed me the total VAT i owe HMRC.

Please refer to the attached snapshot

My question – Because am processing the VAT entry via journal entry, this is appearing in my P&L, Trial balance and Opening balance equity account. How do I make this balance to ZERO? or am i missing any corresponding entries?

Kind Regards,

Shaun Gonsalves

Hello there, @shaun.

Thanks for visiting the Community page. Let me share a few details about VAT.

Creating a Journal Entry (JE) using a control account won't affect your VAT report. However, it will affect your balance sheet. I'd suggest running a report for VAT control to check if there are JE that generate zero. When you create a transaction, the VAT Control allocates all VAT amounts. Also, the VAT control will be moved to the VAT suspense when preparing your returns. Once paid, the VAT suspense will zero out.

For more information, check out our help article: Adjust your VAT liability. It helps you modify your current VAT. I also advise seeking assistance from your accountant if you're unsure how to adjust.

Feel free to write again if you have more questions. We're always glad to help. Have a nice day!

Hi Maybelle,

Many thanks.

Yes, because I generated a journal entry, this impacted my – trial balance, P&L and balance sheet. I ran a report to see if I overlooked anything but don’t think so.

I believe this is the only option available when migrating data during the middle of the VAT quarter when data migration is routed via API.

When the VAT was filed and then marked it as paid, the VAT control and the VAT suspense account reflected as £0.00

Is there an alternative way to reflect the opening balance equity account as £0.00 as this is the only entry which is causing me a mismatch?

I have updated the snapshot document for your reference.

Kind Regards,

Shaun Gonsalves

Hello Shaun,  We would advise that you speak to a trained and qualified accountant on this and get them to check everything it could be possibly how you have created the journal entry but they will be able to help and guild you more on this.