Setting up your general ledger (G/L) is one of the most critical steps when transitioning to a new accounting system. With the Starting Balances feature in BQE CORE, accounting and finance teams can establish accurate opening balances for all accounts in the Chart of Accounts, ensuring a seamless migration from legacy systems and a reliable financial foundation for future operations.
The Starting Balances feature allows you to define and lock the opening balances for your accounts as part of the migration process. Instead of manually entering historical transactions, you can record the cumulative balance for each account and let CORE handle the rest. When a starting balance is saved, CORE automatically posts the corresponding journal entry and enforces accounting rules that protect your data integrity. Click here to watch a video on entering starting balances in CORE.
If a transaction is entered with a date earlier than the starting balance date, CORE will block it from posting to the general ledger, ensuring your opening balances remain accurate. Transactions can still be created and saved in CORE, but they will not affect the ledger until after the balance date. This safeguard ensures chronological consistency and accurate reporting from the start.
Purpose
Accurate starting balances are essential for producing reliable financial reports and ensuring continuity between your previous accounting system and CORE. This feature eliminates the need to import years of historical transactions, reduces manual work, and provides complete visibility into your company’s financial position from day one.
Key Benefits
- Faster migration: Establish opening balances without recreating historical transactions.
- Automated journal entries: CORE posts the required entries automatically, reducing manual effort and errors.
- Data integrity and accuracy: Out-of-sequence transactions are blocked from posting to protect the reliability of your ledger.
- Audit-ready setup: All accounts start with validated balances, ensuring financial statements align with previous records.
You can set up starting balances in CORE in the following ways:
- Set starting balances in bulk: Use the More > Starting Balances option in Chart of Accounts to define balances across multiple accounts simultaneously. CORE automatically creates the necessary journal entries and blocks transactions dated before the balance date.
- Import accounts via CSV: Bring in your Chart of Accounts, including starting balances and balance dates, directly from a .CSV file for faster migration and implementation.
Note: You can add the Starting Balance (previously called Opening Balance) individually for your non-migrated accounts from the account creation or detailed view screens just like before. For migrated accounts, however, you must always use the bulk update option.
Starting Balances in CORE give your accounting team the control and confidence to start fresh with precise, audit-ready figures. By eliminating manual steps, enforcing posting rules, and supporting bulk setup and CSV import, CORE ensures that your financial data is accurate, consistent, and ready to support business decisions from the very first day.
To learn more about this feature, check out the help article.