Overview
When changing your Opening Balance to a different date, it's important to understand how your DoorLoop Balance (account balance) will be affected by the transactions you have already recorded.
What happens to payments dated before your new opening balance date?
Payments recorded before your opening balance start date will always add to your DoorLoop Balance. Thus, if a payment is recorded prior to when an Opening Balance is entered, it will cause your account balance to be higher than it should be.
This is because you are adding a payment that has already been recorded as part of your opening balance.
Example:
The DoorLoop Balance for my bank account as of 4/1 is $10,000.00 and 4/1 is my chosen Accounting Start Date.
Prior to that, I recorded a $1,000.00 lease payment on 3/1.
My DoorLoop Balance will now incorrectly read "$11,000.00" instead of "$10,000.00." This is because the prior payment from March will still be added to the Opening Balance I recorded as of April 1st.
How do I reconcile my bank account balance if I need to record transactions that occurred before my Accounting Start Date?
If you still wish to record lease transactions that occurred before your Accounting Start Date, it is important to record lease payments as Credits to the Opening Balance account instead of payments, since a lease credit won't add to your bank account balance.
Note: We recommend you do not backdate transactions before your Accounting Start Date, as it creates more work and more room for error.
Example:
I already have $10,000 of income recorded in the account's Opening Balance as of April 1st. But I wish to record a $1,000.00 rent payment made in March.
Since March is before my Opening Balance date, I would record a $1,000.00 lease Credit to the Opening Balance account, so that it doesn't record as an additional payment and subsequently make my DoorLoop Balance $11,000.00 instead of $10,000.00.