During system setup, use this screen to initialize the beginning balance of each relevant reference number in the General Ledger. Use this screen to initialize beginning balances only for reference numbers to be used in data entry. Reference numbers used as alternate reporting structures are for reporting purposes only and do not contain balances. Initialize beginning balances for project and non-project account/orgs in the Maintain Non-Project and Maintain Project Beginning Balances screens. Before updating beginning balances, you must first set up your account and reference number tables, in the Maintain Accounts and Maintain Ref Elements screens, respectively.
If you are initializing as of the beginning of the fiscal year, enter balances only for reference number Balance Sheet accounts.
If you are initializing later in your fiscal year, do not use this screen. You must initialize balances for reference number Balance Sheet accounts through adjusting journal entries. You will need to enter year-to-date balances for reference number Income Statement accounts as well. You must also initialize these accounts through adjusting journal entries. This is necessary so that the rate calculation programs will recognize and include these balances in the rate calculations.
Use this screen when initializing the system. Access to this screen should be restricted once initialization is complete.
Enter, or select from the drop-down box, the fiscal year for which you are entering beginning balances. You can also use the Query function to select the appropriate fiscal year. Using Query allows you to populate the table window with accounts from the Reference Sum table for the selected reference number. This allows you to view previous entries that you have made to this screen.
Enter, or use Lookup to select, the appropriate reference number. The reference number description will display once the selection is made. To access the table window, use the New Line button on the toolbar.
Enter, or use Lookup to select, the account for which you want to enter beginning balances.
This non-editable field displays the name of the account that you have selected to update.
Enter the opening balance, in your company's currency, for the selected account. Regardless of the type of account (e.g., asset, liability), enter the number as a positive amount if the account has a debit balance. If the account has a credit balance, enter a negative amount by preceding the number with a dash.
Enter the beginning balance in hours, if applicable, for the selected account.
In each session, a running balance amount, in hours and currency amount, will be kept of all accounts initialized in this session. A good procedure to follow is to know in advance the net currency amount and hours of all the accounts you are going to enter in that session. By checking these hash totals against the running balances, you can catch data entry errors more easily. The running balances are not retained by the system after you leave the screen.