QUICKBOOKS

SETUP NEW COMPANY FILE

(WITH OPENING BALANCES)

Set-up of new QuickBooks Company (with opening balances)

1. Please note the following before continuing with this procedure.

This process is necessary in the event of the following:
1. You have data corruption that cannot be fixed.
2. You have data corruption, and it is too much work to fix the data file.
3. Your data file has become slow due to a high volume of transactions that have been
captured, either due to the fact that the same data file has been used for a long time,
or due to the fact that a high volume of transactions have been captured in your
financial year.
Please note:
4. The best time to do this is at the end of your financial year.
5. All opening transactions should be dated for the last working day of the previous
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financial year. EG: You decide to start a new file on the 1 of March 2008. Date your
th
opening balances for the 29 February 2008.

2. You will need to complete the following steps in your old company before you start your
new company file.
1. You need to decide on a close off date for your old company. This means that you
will not process any transactions in the old company after this date. We normally
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advise that you choose your year end (i.e.: 31 December).
2. You need to have reconciled all bank accounts up to this closing date that you have
decided on.
3. All relevant data should be up to date and have been captured in your old
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QuickBooks company file. Let us assume, you are closing off your books on the 31
December 2014, all customer invoices and supplier bills have to be loaded for the old
period in the old company. Please ensure that all information that applies to financial
year ending 2014 has been captured.
4. Note: Your accountants journals will need to be captured in the old set of books and
the new set off books.
5. You need to print the following reports:
a. Go to reports on the menu at the top. The path is listed next to the report.
b. Please ensure that you run all reports for the financial year that you are closing
off on. For example, you are closing off on the 31/12/2014, run the reports for
01/01/2014 to 31/12/2014. Some reports will only allow you to put in one date.
Run these reports as of the period end that you are closing off, for example:
31/12/2014.
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Balance Sheet (Reports / Company and Financial / UK Standard Balance Sheet).

Profit and Loss (Reports / Company and Financial / Profit & Loss Standard).

Trial Balance (Reports / Accountant & Taxes / Trial Balance).

Accounts Receivable Ageing Summary (Reports / Customers and Receivables /

A/R Ageing Summary).

Accounts Payable Ageing Summary (Reports / Suppliers and Payables / A/P

Ageing Summary).

Stock Valuation Summary (Reports / Stock / Stock Valuation Summary).

3. You need to export your Master File information, for example, customers, suppliers,
items, etc out of your old company file.

1. From your top menu, go to File / Utilities / Export / Lists to IIF Files... You will tick
all of the lists.

2. Select OK. You will be prompted for a file name. Type in your name for your
export file, for example new company and save it to your Desktop (select
Desktop on the left).

3. You will get a message Your data has been exported successfully.

4. You are now ready to open your new company.

1. From the menu at the top, click on File / New Company.

2. Follow the set-up interview. Type in your company name as well as any other
information that is required (I.e.: Address Details). Make sure that you put in the
same details that you had in your old company. Please note the following:
3. Make sure that you give your new company a new name (i.e.: Company Name
New 2015), when saving the actual company file.

4. As you continue with your interview, you will be asked to add a bank account now.
Please choose the option No.

5. Your next screen will display a list of default accounts that will be created
automatically for you. Please un-tick all listed accounts. The reason for this is that
you will import your chart of accounts.

6. You must finish the interview.

7. Please compare your old company preferences to your new company preferences.
You can check your preferences by going to the top menu, and clicking on Edit /
Preferences. Go through these preferences in your old company, and make sure
your new company preferences are set to the same as the old company.

5. You now need to import your Master file information into the new company.
1. Go to File / Utilities / Import / IIF Files Click on Desktop (on the left). Browse for the
file on your desktop (We exported this from your previous company, so it should be
on your desktop with a name that you gave it). The import can take a few minutes.
2. You can now go through your various lists and delete old customers, suppliers or
items that you no longer need. The short key to delete is Control D.
3. You are now ready to bring on opening balances.

6. You will bring on your Trial Balance account balances through a general journal.
1. Get your Trial Balance report that you printed from the old company. Please make
sure it is for the correct dates
2. From the top menu, go to Company / Make General Journal Entries.
3. Your Trial Balance report will list all your accounts with a balance; and each account
will have either a debit or a credit amount. You will therefore select that account, and
type in the debit or credit amount, based on the balance listed on your trial balance.

4. This is what your journal will look like, based on your Trial Balance. Please see next
point before entering opening balances, as this refers to the next notes.

5. Please note the following.

a. Your Accounts Receivable account balance, Stock account balance and
Accounts Payable account balances will not go to their appropriate account.
They will go to an account named Share Capital Account or Opening Balance
Equity Account which ever account is on your list. See above picture if you
do not understand this.
b. The reason for this is this is the Accounts Receivable account is made up of
customer balances. Therefore, these balances will need to be loaded in a
different manner, as explained in the next step. When these balances are
loaded, they will post to the Accounts Receivable, and balance out the Share
Capital or Opening Balance Equity account. The same applies to Accounts
Payable and Stock.
c.

You will need to choose your VAT Agency and Standard Sales when you
bring on the balance for your VAT Liability or VAT Control Account. This will
enable you to carry on with filing VAT in your new company. Please note that
you will use your VAT reports for your last VAT period in your old company,
but file your VAT in your new company.

d. This only applies if you use the Bank Reconciliation feature in QuickBooks.
Your Chart of Account bank balance may not be the same as your last actual
bank statement balance that you reconciled. For example, your actual bank
statement has a balance of R7391.00, but your account on your Trial Balance
says you have a balance of R3205.08. This means that you have
transactions that you have issued that have not been reconciled.
a. Go to Reports / Banking / Previous Reconciliation.
b. Choose the bank with the difference.
c.

Print a Detail Report for this account.

d. When you bring on your opening balance journal off your Trial Balance,
you will do the following.
If Positive:
Each balance will be on a new line:

Debit

Credit

Debit the Bank with the statement balance

Credit the Bank with each un-cleared cheque

Eg: R7391.00
Eg:
2000.
Eg:
1200
Eg:
600
Eg:
90
Eg:
295.92

If your statement is negative you will put in a credit balance for the
statement.
The total will equal the account balance on your Trial Balance.

e. Your General Journal will balance at the end, as your Trial Balance will
balance. If your General Journal does not balance, this means that you have
made a mistake with one of the totals, so go through it carefully and check it.

7. Get out you A/R Ageing Summery (Accounts Receivable).

1. You will need to do a journal to bring in your customer balances. You will notice that
your ageing summary is equal to the balance in your Accounts Receivable account.
You will do a separate journal for each customer.

2. Go to Company / Make General Journal Entries. The journal will look like this.

a. You will select your Accounts Receivable on the first line. You will then put in the
outstanding amount owed to you by the customer in the Debit column and select
the customer name in the Name column. You will credit your Share Capital or
Opening Balance Equity account, depending on what account you used when
you brought in your Trial Balance.

b. Please note that the Accounts Receivable must be credited if the customer has a
credit balance with you. Please remember this activity is for customers.

8. You are now ready for suppliers (Accounts Payable). Get out you A/P Ageing Summery
(Accounts Payable).

1. You will also need to do a journal to bring in your supplier balances. You will notice
that your ageing summary is equal to the balance in your Accounts Payable account.
You will do a separate journal for each supplier.

2. Go to Company / Make General Journal Entries. The journal will look like this.

a. You will select your Accounts Payable on the first line. You will then put in the
outstanding amount owed by you to the supplier in the Credit column and select the
supplier name in the Name column. You will debit your Share Capital or Opening
Balance Equity account, depending on what account you used when you brought in
your Trial Balance.

b. Please note that the Accounts Payable must be debited if the supplier has a credit
balance with you.

c.

Please remember this activity is for suppliers

9. Stock take-on balances. (Only applicable to clients that track stock)

1. You will need to bring in your opening Stock. Your quantities of stock, as well as your
rand value of stock will need to match your Stock Valuation Summary.
2. Get out your Stock Valuation Summary. You will need to do Adjustment to bring on
your opening stock.

3. Go to the menu at the top. Go to Suppliers / Stock Activities / Adjust Qty/Value on

Hand.
4. Please ensure you date it for the period you closed off on in the old company, for
example 31/12/2014.
5. At Adjustment Account, choose your Share Capital Account, or Opening Balance
Equity Account, depending on what account you used when you brought on your
Trial Balance. Click OK to the warning that comes up when you choose this account.
6. Very Important: Tick the Value Adjustment block at the bottom on the left.
7. Take the On Hand quantity on your Stock Valuation Summary, and fill it in on your
New Quantity column on your stock adjustment. Then take the Asset Value on your
Stock Valuation Summary, and fill it in on your New Value column on your stock
adjustment.
8. See below for example.

9. Please ensure that the total value of your adjustment bottom right, is equal to your
total Asset Value on your Stock Valuation Summary. It should also equal your stock
in you Stock account.
Your stock is now done.

10. Customized Stationery Layouts.

1. You will need to bring any customized stationery layouts into your new company.
2. You need to go into your old company and do the following:
3. From the menu at the top, go to Lists / Templates. Right click on your customized
layout and select the option to Export. Export the file to your Desktop (Choose
Desktop on the left). You can give it any name. It will save as a .DES file.

4. You need to now go into your new company and do the following:
5. From the menu at the top. Go to Lists / Templates. Click on Templates at the bottom
left hand side of the screen. Select the option to import. Browse for your template on
your Desktop (the .DES file that you would have exported to your desktop). It will
import, and you can click OK. You will need to choose the template when you do your
first transaction, for example, your first invoice.

10. Final Steps

1. You are now ready to start working in your new company. You will find it is now
much more quick when you access reports, capture transactions etc
2. You can check that you have brought on all balances correctly by comparing all
totals in your reports printed in the old company, to all totals in your reports that
you have printed in the new company.
3. You can change your next invoice number in your new company to follow from
your previous invoice number in your old company.
4. Remember to set your users up again in your new company. From the Menu at
the top, click on Company / Set up Users.
5. You should be ready to continue in your new company.