Overview
An opening balance is the amount of money in an account at the start of an accounting period. For example, the amount of money in a bank account when it is opened.
In DoorLoop, the start of your accounting period is your accounting start date. Your account opening balances summarize everything before this period. For example, at least one of your bank accounts is likely holding lease deposit and/or property reserve funds.
As you record all transactions in DoorLoop going forward, they add to or subtract from the opening balance. If you’ve entered your opening balance and all transactions correctly, the resulting DoorLoop Balance will match your real-world bank balance.
The Steps
If you have advanced accounting knowledge, you can create opening balances for any account using journal entries. However, we recommend setting opening balances when you create bank accounts so DoorLoop can handle the journal entries for you.
Set opening balances for your bank accounts using the following steps.
The first step in setting up your Opening Balances is to click Accounting on the main menu and then to click Banking.
Click on the three vertical dots icon on the right side of the line for the bank account you need to set an opening balance for and choose Edit.
Click on the Opening Balances option in the left menu and choose an Accounting Start Date. This date is when you will start tracking transactions in DoorLoop.
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.
Enter the breakdown of this 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 because we need to know which property balance sheets should reflect the bank account opening balance. If you truly do not want this opening balance to appear on the balance sheet for any existing property, you can create a new “property” that actually represents your business. Then you can set the opening balance for this bank account to your business “property.”
Use the + Add Another Property link to add more properties.
Click Save when you are finished.
If you find that you need to change an opening balance later, follow these instructions.