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How do I import Opening Balances to a Manual Organisation?

Import the trial balance for your organisation to provide a robust starting point for future updates

Written by Mick Devine

We recommend bringing in opening balances for the last period of a financial year, ideally the one before last. Then you can import the actuals for each month since and start with prior year comparisons immediately.

For example, if your last financial year ended in December 2025, import the opening balances for December 2024 and then each month's data from then on.

How to structure your import

  1. Decide on the type of values to import

    1. Our default import type for Actuals is monthly movements

    2. If you are bringing data from a trial balance, it's generally easier to bring in Closing Balances using Debit/Credit amounts with debits positive and credits negative.

    3. If you are importing opening balances by business unit it may be easier to bring in the full year movements by business unit for the Profit & Loss accounts and then the Balance Sheet closing balances against one Admin or Overhead department.

  2. Confirm that you have imported the Chart of Accounts first, and Business Units if you are using those.

  3. Export a template first

    1. Navigate to Settings, Organisation Settings, Organisation Sync, Import Data

    2. Select Actual Amounts

    3. Choose the option to Export a Template
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      Export a template for Actual Amounts

    4. This will take you to the Budget Tools, Export options as we use the same template for budgets.
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    5. Choose either Organisation or use the dropdown to select your business units

    6. Set the date range you want for your opening balances. You can edit this in the template.

    7. Ensure you export empty rows as they will all be empty at this stage

  4. Populate the template with your existing numbers

    1. Use positive numbers for debit values, negative for credits
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  5. Import the new balances

    1. Settings, Organisation Settings, Organisation Sync, Import Data

    2. Select Actual Amounts and browse for your import file

    3. On the Match Fields screen take care with the selection
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    4. Select the options to import closing balance amounts and credit/debit amounts

    5. Check that the right month is selected.

    6. We will verify the data and import it

    7. Navigate to Budgets & Cashflow, Budgets & Actuals and select Actuals for your organisation. Choose the right date range and confirm that your balances are in with no discrepancy in the top row.

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