Setting up opening balances in MYOB Business

Question

I'm in the process of setting up MYOB Business. I've created my chart of accounts and I'm beginning to insert opening balances.

I have an equity account 3-9000 titled "Share Capital" but MYOB is not allowing me to enter the opening balance for this account. Can someone explain how I get the opening balance into this account.

Many thanks.

CSSAUS · Answer

Hi Celia.

Many thanks for your response.

I'm attempting to enter opening balances for my P&L accounts. In your response you say:

If you configure the initial setup of the company file where you have a later conversion month than the start of the financial year you can enter opening balances for your Profit and Loss Accounts. (Income, Cost of Sales, and Expense Accounts).

Below are my Financial Year settings:

What is preventing me from entering my open balance for P&L items such that I'm receiving the error message?

Opening balances from a previous financial year may not be changed for P&L accounts.

My opening balance date is 01/07/2022 and I can't see how MYOB thinks I'm attempting to change opening balances from a previous FY. Stephen

Celia_B · Answer

Hi @CSSAUS

We appreciate your patience for getting back to us and provided information on the issue.

Generally speaking, a user would enter the beginning balances of Balance Sheet accounts (Asset, Liability and Equity accounts). If you configure the initial setup of the company file where you have a later conversion month than the start of the financial year you can enter opening balances for your Profit and Loss Accounts. (Income, Cost of Sales, and Expense Accounts).

If you have been using the file for a period o time/closed a financial year you would no longer be able to enter opening balances for your Profit and loss accounts. The field will still be listed, however, you will encounter an error message: Beginning balances from a previous year may not be changed for P&L accounts when saving the account. This is to alert the user to the fact that you are not able to enter that opening balance as the financial year is no longer the same as when the company file was first created.

Typically, if you are in a situation where you have an opening balance for a Profit and Loss account there is an impact on another account be it a Balance Sheet or another Profit and Loss account. As such, a journal transaction or similar transaction would need to be recorded to reflect that. I would recommend speaking with an accountant for further assistance with adding that opening balance to a pre-existing Profit and Loss account.

Please feel free to post again. I'm happy to assist you further.

If my response has answered your inquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

Cheers,

Cel

CSSAUS · Answer

Thanks for replying to my post. Your response says that for the opening balance of your income, cost of sales and expense accounts they should be zero but based on the link you provided for entering opening balances, it says that this is the case if entering balances at the start of a FY. In my case, I've entered the balances for assets, liabilities and equities and I'm trying to enter balances as they are now. When I try to enter a balance in an expense account, I get the error as seen in the attached file screenshot1,jpg. As to what I have under business settings, see attached file screenshot2.jpg Appreciate your help. Stephen

Screenshot1.jpg

Screenshot2.jpg