Starting balances exist only if you are transferring an existing business to Manager from another accounting system. In that case, you may need to set starting balances for suppliers with or to whom, on the day you begin using Manager, sometimes referred to as the start date:
- You have available credit unrelated to purchase invoices, or
- You owe money because of unpaid purchase invoices.
General procedures for entering starting balances are found in another Guide. Read it first. Before you can enter any type of starting balance, your suppliers themselves must be created. Follow these procedures to enter them.
Enter available credit
Available credit in the context of a supplier refers to any amount your supplier owes you on your start date. This credit could be the result of past debit notes, settlement of contract disputes, or promised refunds. If you have a credit balance that can be applied to future purchase invoices, go to the Suppliers tab and click Edit beside the supplier’s name.
Enter the Starting balance of the available credit:
Click Update.
Note
The available credit must be entered in the currency selected for the supplier.
Repeat for all suppliers with whom you have credit balances.
Enter unpaid purchase invoices
You cannot enter the starting balance for unpaid purchase invoices as a single figure. Manager requires you to enter the specific unpaid purchase invoices, fully completed. This is so Manager can assign future payments to proper purchase invoices, generate accurate cash-basis reports, and produce detailed supplier statements.
Enter a starting-balance invoice in the same manner as a regular purchase invoice. See this Guide for purchase invoice instructions. The Issue date field will, by default, be prefilled with the current date. Edit this to match the original issue date from your old accounting system.
Manager uses these pre-start purchase invoices to establish starting balances in Accounts payable. They will not affect profit and loss statements during the current or later financial periods. If an invoice has been partially paid on the day you begin using Manager, only its remaining balance due should be entered.
When finished, click Create to save the invoice. Repeat for all open purchase invoices preceding your start date.
Note
Carefully consider inventory items on pre-start invoices. If items on a purchase invoice were already received under the prior accounting system, subtract them from starting balances for those inventory items, because the pre-start purchase invoice tells Manager they must be received again.