Overview
For each bank account, be sure to add an accounting start date — this is when your financial tracking officially begins in the system. Along with this date, you'll enter the opening balance, which is simply the amount of money in your account on that start date.
This opening balance creates your financial foundation in DoorLoop, summarizing all activity that happened before your start date. Once set up, DoorLoop automatically tracks all your future transactions, adding to or subtracting from this initial amount. When everything is entered correctly, your DoorLoop Balance will match what you see in your actual bank
Walkthrough Video
Set Up Opening Balances Walkthrough Video Link.
Tip: Setting up your accounting start date and opening balance is essential to keeping accurate financial records.
What Is an Accounting Start Date?
One of the most important decisions you'll make in DoorLoop is picking your Accounting Start Date. This is the day you begin tracking your property accounting in DoorLoop. Everything before this date is summarized by setting opening balances, and you enter all transaction details from this date forward. In other words, this is the day you move away from your old system and begin doing business in DoorLoop.
It's recommended to set an accounting start date for all the bank accounts you plan on adding and tracking in DoorLoop.
Note: Once you implement your Accounting Start Date, DoorLoop recommends not changing it unless you are comfortable with advanced accounting principles. Choose carefully!
Your Options
When choosing your accounting start date, you have several options. You can pick any date, but to keep things simple, we recommend picking either the 1st of the upcoming month or the 1st of the current month — this also requires the least amount of manual data entry.
Choosing the 1st of next month
Pro: This method requires the least amount of extra work, since you won't be entering past transactions (other than existing lease deposits), and you'll start recording all new transactions next month.
Con: This requires some waiting, since you won't be able to enter your bank account opening balances and lease carry-forward balances until the end of the current month.
Choosing the 1st of the current month
Pro: Since you won't have to wait for your accounting start date, this method lets you enter your bank account opening balances and lease balances right away.
Con: You'll need to manually enter your lease charges, tenant payments, property expenses, and owner transactions for the month.
Choosing January 1 of the current year
Pro: If you aren't confident in your previous system's bookkeeping, you can regain that confidence by recreating all transactions for the year in DoorLoop. This also gives you one location for your year-end reporting for tax purposes.
Con: You'll need to manually enter all lease charges, tenant payments, property expenses, and owner transactions for the year.
Once you've decided on your accounting start date, continue to the steps below to set up your opening balance.
The Steps
If you have advanced accounting knowledge, you can create opening balances for any account using journal entries. We recommend setting opening balances when you create bank accounts so DoorLoop can handle the journal entries for you.
To set up the opening balance for a bank account, click Accounting > Transactions on the main menu.
On the Transactions page, for any bank that doesn't have the Opening Balance set, use the "Set Opening Balance" link under the DoorLoop Balance column on the bank account that needs one.
This takes you to the Edit Account window, under the Opening Balances section of your bank account. First set an Accounting Start Date — the date you'll start tracking transactions in DoorLoop for this account.
Then, enter the Account Balance from your actual bank account at the end of the day before your accounting start date. (For example, if your accounting start date is January 1, enter the bank account balance at the end of December 31.)
Next, enter the breakdown of the bank account balance by property. Select the Property from the drop-down menu and enter that property's share of the opening balance in the Balance field. Setting balances by property is necessary so DoorLoop knows which property balance sheets should reflect the bank account opening balance. Use the + Add Another Property link to add more properties. If you need help setting your opening balances for each property, see Opening Balance Wizard - How to Set Your Opening Balances.
Click Save when you are finished.
If you need to change an opening balance later, see Edit the Opening Balance on a Bank Account.