Entering beginning balances for expense/income lines on mid-year conversion

You've come to the right place. Allow me to provide some insights about entering opening balances in QuickBooks Online, @Tolting Colt Acres.

When you're new to QuickBooks Desktop, you pick a day to start tracking your transactions. You enter your real-life bank accounts balances for the day you pick. This way, QuickBooks matches your bank records from the start.

Also, be mindful of entering the opening balances for accounts on your Balance Sheet. These are the assets, liability, equity accounts. If you're unsure or have questions, I'd suggest reaching out to your accountant. If you don't have an accountant, we can help you find one.

Lastly, you don't need to enter the opening balances for income or expense accounts. These accounts simply track your earnings and spending.

For more information, refer to this article: Enter an opening balances for an account in QuickBooks Online

You'll also find helpful articles in this link that will surely help you get started with QuickBooks Desktop.
 

Should you need any further assistance getting your Chart of Accounts straightened out, please don't hesitate to comment below. I'm always here to help you.

Hello Liera,

Yes, I am aware of the purpose of the income and expense accounts, and how they normally function.

In this instance, though, I'm attempting to take an existing chart of accounts from a mid-year point (3 months into the accounting year) and start going "forward" in QB from that point.

I would like to not "lose" 3 months worth of income/expense data for the club's reports.

Yes, I could do as you say and from this point forward if I were to spend for example $500 on archive preservation, my income and expense reports would show $500 spent on archive preservation, but they will not be accurate because they will not also reflect the $3,500 the club spent on archive preservation the first three months of the accounting year.

This means for the next nine months I'm going to have to take the QB reports and then go through a manual reconciliation to "merge" the I&E data from the first three months which are not on QB to create the 'real' YTD reports. This is a lot of work.

My only other option, it would appear, would be to enter the starting balances for cash and retained earnings for the beginning of the year and enter re-create journal entries for all those months to get me to the 'same' point I am currently at in the manual excel spreadsheet. This is just a lot of unnecessary work IMO if I could simply enter what would be the mid-year 'starting balances' for the I&E accounts and then start working forward in period 4.

I'm concluding from your answer it simply isn't possible to do this. I am curious how people handle mid-year conversions into quickbooks and retain their current years' income and expense data, if that's the case.

Hi @Tolting Colt Acres,

Thank you for your prompt reply. I'll join the thread and provide additional information about your concern. 

You have the option to import data into your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) company, such as accounts on your Chart of Accounts. Before you proceed, I suggest you create a backup of your company file.

When you're ready, here's how to import accounts into your Chart of Accounts:

1. Go to the Lists menu.
2. Select Chart of Accounts.
3. Tap the Account drop-down menu, then choose Import from Excel.
4. Hit Browse to search for the Excel file you want to upload.
5. Click on the file in question, then press Open.
6. Select the Excel Sheet where the data you want to import is on.
7. Map your accounts.
   • Type in a mapping name.
   • Select Account as Import type.
   • Match the information under QuickBooks with the column headings in your Excel sheet.
   • Select Save.
8. Click Import, then Yes to proceed. 

For a complete list of everything that you can import and export with QBDT, see this article: Import and export data in QuickBooks Desktop. 

Let me know if you have other concerns with your QBDT company data, and I'll take care of it right away. 

Did you ever get a response to this or figure out how to do it?  I am having the same problem and do not want to input old data.  I am starting clean but in the 4th quarter.  Appreciate the help.

Well, it seems like there's no clear answer for this. In some cases, importing data (even from Excel spreadsheets) equals as much work as entering everything again from scratch. I am dealing with a painful, mid-year move into QB and it looks more like entering the whole year of transactions, one by one.

Thank you for posting, @Adam_W_Hawk_III.

Can you tell us more about data that you're trying to import? That will surely help us provide an accurate solution to the concern that you're having.

You can click the Reply button below to add more details.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon! Take care and have a wonderful day!

Thank you for replying @MJoy_D 

A few minutes after I posted the comment, I found a post in another site where they suggested to enter all the Balance Sheet accounts, with their balance at the set date. Then, using journal against a general account (Opening Balance Equity), enter the balance on all the income and expense accounts. If everything is entered correctly, the Opening Balance Equity should end in zero and all the other accounts should have their balances as required. I know is not most users want to hear, but I had no much of a choice.

Importing was not an option for us, as the original information was on a Peachtree-like product with too many issues to convert, and the Excel spreadsheet was not a good candidate either. In the end, paper reports from the old system and QBO journal entries saved the day (and the semester).

The idea of journal entering against the opening balance sheet account t was brilliant thanks ! 

Hi,

I am also looking entering opening balances for P&L accounts in the mid year. Can you tell more about the Journal entry? Dr Opening balance of all expenses and credit opening balance equity account, and Cr revenue and Dr equity? Is this right?