If you receive a message indicating that the Balance Sheet is out of balance, you need to identify the cause.

Possible solutions:

• Automatic transactions – Did you start entering accounting data without setting the Automatic transactions Start Date? For example, if you started using SimplBooks this year but entered accounting data from the previous financial year, make sure the automatic transactions start date reflects this. Go to Settings → Environment Settings → General Settings. On the right side, find the Accounting Settings section and the field Automatic transactions starting from. Enter the date from which you entered the opening balances (it may also be one day later). Also if no automatic entries (D/K) are generated when you post an invoice, also check to see if the “Automatic Transactions Starting From” date is set correctly. Automatic accounting entries are generated starting from the date entered in this field.
• Check account 9999 (temporary/interim/Clearing Account). This account should always have a zero balance at the end of the day. If there is a balance in this account, review the related transactions and make the necessary corrections. Go to Accounting → General Ledger and filter by account and period.
• Have you added new accounts to the Chart of Accounts? If so, make sure they have also been assigned to the Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss Statement. Remember:
  • Accounts beginning with 1, 2, 3, or 4 belong to the Balance Sheet.
  • Accounts beginning with 5 or higher belong to the Profit and Loss Statement.

You can verify this by going to Accounting → Accounts, filtering for the account you added, and checking on the right-hand side whether it is linked to the correct report. More information can be found here.

• Have you distributed the current year’s profit? When allocating the current year’s profit, do not use the Current Year’s Retained Earnings account in manual journal entries. Instead, use the Previous Year’s Retained Earnings account. In this case, the previous year’s retained earnings may appear as a negative amount, but the overall Retained Earnings balance will remain correct.
• Were the opening balances imported from another accounting system? Check whether the Current Year’s Profit (Loss) account was included in the imported opening balances. The balance of this account is calculated automatically based on income and expense accounts, so you must not enter an opening balance manually. For more information, see the guide Entering Opening Balances – Existing Company.
• Identify when the Balance report first became unbalanced. When viewing the Balance Sheet report, filter the report month by month. For example, review the period from January 1 to February 28, then January 1 to March 31, and so on. This will help you determine in which month the imbalance first appeared, making it much easier to locate the cause.

If you have any questions, please contact us at support@simplbooks.lt.