Entering Opening Balances & Transactions

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The following procedure is a suggested approach to entering your financial opening balances and transactions into Polygon Back Office. These procedures are only applicable to existing businesses. A new business will not have opening balances to bring forward.

It is suggested that you read the following topics before following these steps. Getting Started with Polygon Back Office, Getting Started with Polygon Inventory, Getting Started with Polygon Payroll.

Obtaining the Required Data

Before beginning, ensure you have details of:

•Unpaid supplier invoices (date, invoice number and amount)

•Unpaid client invoices (date, invoice number and amount)

•Unpresented cheques (date, cheque number, payee and amount)

•Leave accruals for each employee (for both sick and annual leave) and

•Amount of cash on hand and amounts outstanding from merchant cards (Bankcard, Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Diners etc)

As at close of business on the last day of your old system.

Entering Outstanding Transactions

It is necessary to record these transactions in Polygon Back Office so that you can pay supplier invoices, record the receipt of payments from clients, record the deposit of funds and reconcile your bank accounts. The original dates of these transactions must be used for data integrity. This also ensures that the transactions of the previous period are excluded from ranges chosen for GST Transactions and BAS Calculation reports.

For each of the unpaid supplier invoices:

•Access the Suppliers Transactions File;

•Create a New transaction using the correct date;

•Debit the amount to the Retained Earnings Equity account;

•Select the GST type Not Applicable.

For each of the unpaid client invoices:

•Access the Client Transactions File;

•Create a New transaction using the correct date;

•Credit the amount to the Retained Earnings Equity account;

•Select the GST type Not Applicable.

For each unpresented cheque:

•Access the Bank Account Transactions File;

•Create a New cheque record using the correct date;

•Debit the amount to the Retained Earnings Equity account;

•Select the GST type Not Applicable.

For amounts of cash on hand and merchant balances outstanding:

•Access the Virtual Safe Transactions File;

•Enter a new Receipts Transaction (Debit) using the first day of the new system;

•Assign the Transaction Total to the Retained Earnings Equity account;

•Select the GST type Not Applicable.

The nest step only necessary if you have purchased the Polygon Payroll add-on module. It is recommended that you read the Getting Started with Polygon Payroll section and Using Polygon Payroll section before following this step.

To enter the opening leave balances for each employee:

•Access the Employees Leave File for each Employee who has accrued leave in the old system;

•Enter the accrued leave using the last day of your old system.

Entering Ledger Opening Balances

•From your old system, obtain a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss report (or Trial Balance) to the closing date of your old system.

All the following transactions are to be entered dated the first day of the new system with the exception of the journal entry described under:

•Liability concerning the Annual Leave Expense account.

This entry is to be dated the last day of your old system.

Assets

For all other Assets:

•Add the total value of the unpresented cheques to the bank figure shown on your report.

This is the adjusted Opening Bank Balance figure that will be entered as the Bank Opening Balance.

From the Bank Accounts Transactions File:

•Enter a new transaction for the adjusted Opening Bank Balance figure;

•Assign this amount against the Retained Earnings Equity account;

•Select the GST type Not Applicable;

•Enter a journal entry debiting all remaining Asset accounts with the relevant figures from your Balance Sheet and crediting the Equity account Retained Earnings.

Liability

From the Chart of Accounts, enter a journal entry dated the last day of your old system for the value of the Annual Leave, crediting the Annual Leave Expense account and debiting the Retained Earnings Equity account. This will return the Annual Leave expense to a zero balance and adjust Retained Earnings accordingly.

•Enter a journal entry crediting all remaining liability accounts with the relevant figures from your Balance Sheet and debiting the Equity account Retained Earnings.

Revenue

•From the Chart of Accounts, enter a journal entry crediting all Revenue accounts with the relevant figures from your Profit & Loss report and debiting the Equity account Retained Earnings.

Expenses and Costs

•From the Chart of Accounts, enter a journal entry debiting all Expense and Cost accounts with the relevant figures from your Profit & Loss report and crediting the Equity account Retained Earnings.

Equity

•From the Chart of Accounts, enter a journal entry debiting or crediting any other Equity accounts with the relevant figures from your Balance Sheet against the Equity account Retained Earnings.

Entering Opening Stock Figures

If you have an existing Stock Asset to carry over, follow the Stock Take – Entering Opening Stock procedure as described as described in Polygon Inventory > Opening Stock Details. Note: If you will be tracking your stock quantities perpetually it is suggested that you read the Polygon Inventory > Getting Started and Polygon Inventory > Using Polygon Inventory before entering an Opening Stocktake. Recording an Opening Stock Take will create a debit entry in your Stock Asset account. This figure should approximate but may not be exactly equal to the value of stock in your old system depending on your previous method of stock control.

It is important that you do not enter any new supplier invoices detailing the Goods & Services bought until the opening stock take has been processed.