How to enter a Beginning Balance for a Checking Account

Objective: Create an adjustment in your Checking Account that will increase the Bank Account balance and increase the value of the GL Account that represents the value of the Bank Account in the proper way.

NOTE: The Banking System and General Ledger are two separate, fairly unrelated systems in OneSource.  In order to create a transaction that will set a beginning balance in your checking account AND in your General Ledger Cash Account at the same time, you will need to follow these steps:

1. If you do not already have a Banking Account set up in OneSource, create a new Bank Account before proceeding.

2. If you are opening up a new Bank Account at the same time, you can enter the beginning balance as a Deposit by clicking on the Deposits tab and pressing the New button to record the deposit.  (If you are not opening up a new Bank Account at the same time, please proceed to Step 3).

3. If you need to create a beginning balance for an existing account (that will not have all checks and deposits re-entered from the beginning) you will need to follow these steps:

4. 1. Locate your most recent (balanced) Bank Statement

   2. Click on the Bank Accounts tab and enter the Last Bank Statement Balance and Last Reconciliation Date in the appropriate fields reserved for this purpose.

   3. Click on the Adjustments tab.

   4. In the Transaction Type box, select Beginning Balance.

   5. Enter Beginning Balance Entry (or something like that) in the Memo field.

   6. Enter the last (balanced) bank statement balance in the Amount Deposited field.

   7. The final step is to select the appropriate GL account to credit in the Credit Account drop down box. (The Bank Account that you are adjusting (depositing money into) will automatically be debited when you press the Post button).  The tricking part is to determine which account to Credit.  You may need to consult with your Accounting advisor to make this decision.  NOTE: On the other hand, if you are performing these steps as part of the process of trying to GoLive with OneSource software, you will need to enter the GL asset account that represents the exact Bank Account that you are creating the adjustment for.  In other words, the objective is to have the posting to the General Ledger debit and credit the exact same account.  (Why? )