How to start Autobooks Accounting mid-year
How to start Autobooks Accounting mid-year
Tips to begin Autobooks Accounting without losing financial information for the previous months
The key challenge in starting Autobooks Accounting in the middle of the year is to make sure you don't lose any financial fidelity for the prior months. Autobooks will automatically pull in your bank transaction history when you connect your account, but your financial statements won't reflect the full picture unless you account for the months before you joined. Here's how to handle it:
1. Complete Onboarding First
Sign in through your bank's online banking portal, navigate to the Autobooks tab, and complete the standard enrollment. Autobooks will pull in your linked accounts, balances, and available transaction history automatically.
2. Enter Opening Balances via Journal Entry
You'll need to manually establish your opening balances using a Journal Entry (Accounting > Journal Entry). This is especially important for:
- Outstanding Accounts Receivable: create a reversing journal entry debiting Customer Balances and crediting any previous Income/Sales for the total accounts receivables balance, then recreate your open invoices in Autobooks so customers can pay online.
- Other balance sheet accounts: use journal entries to set opening balances for any assets, liabilities, or equity accounts that existed before your start date.
3. Categorize Historical Transactions
Once your accounts are connected, go to Accounting > Transactions and work through the transactions that Autobooks pulled in. Setting up Rules for recurring transactions (like rent, utilities, subscriptions) will save significant time here ( learn more about setting up Rules here).
4. Set a Budget for the Remaining Year
Navigate to Accounting > Budget to enter projected income and expenses for the remaining months of your fiscal year. You can filter by period or full fiscal year. Learn more about how to create a budget here.
The most important step for a mid-year start is establishing accurate opening balances. Without this, your Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss will only reflect activity from your enrollment date forward, not the full fiscal year.
Creating Opening Balance Journal Entries in Autobooks
How to Access Journal Entry
- Log into Autobooks.
- From the dashboard, select Accounting.
- From Accounting, select Journal Entry.
Key rule: The total in the Debits column must always equal the total in the Credits column before you can save an entry. Journal entries move money around your financial statements without moving real money.
What Opening Balances You Need to Enter
Gather your balances as of the day before your Autobooks start date from your previous records (prior accounting software, spreadsheets, or your accountant). You'll need:
| Account Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Assets | Cash, Accounts Receivable, Equipment, Prepaid Expenses |
| Liabilities | Accounts Payable, Loans, Credit Cards |
| Equity | Owner's Equity, Retained Earnings |
Step-by-Step: Entering Opening Balances
For each balance sheet account, create a journal entry line:
- Assets → enter the balance as a Debit
- Liabilities → enter the balance as a Credit
- Equity → enter the balance as a Credit
Use Owner's Equity (or a dedicated "Opening Balance Equity" category) as the offsetting account to keep debits equal to credits. Click here to learn how to create a custom category for this purpose.
Example: if your balances on June 30 were:
- Cash: $10,000
- Equipment: $5,000
- Business Loan: $8,000
- Owner's Equity: $7,000
Your journal entry would look like:
| Category | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | $10,000 | — |
| Equipment | $5,000 | — |
| Business Loan | — | $8,000 |
| Owner's Equity | — | $7,000 |
| Total | $15,000 | $15,000 ✓ |
Add a date (your start date in Autobooks) and a description like "Opening balances as of June 30" and hit Save.
Verifying Your Balance Sheet After Opening Balance Journal Entries
Step 1: Navigate to the Balance Sheet Report
- Log into Autobooks
- From the dashboard, select Accounting > Insights
- In the Balance Sheet tile, click Explore your Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet is a snapshot of what your business owns (Assets) and owes (Liabilities), plus your Equity.
Step 2: Check the Fundamental Equation
The single most important check is: Assets = Liabilities + Equity
If this equation doesn't balance, something is wrong with your journal entries. Common causes:
- A line was entered as a debit when it should have been a credit (or vice versa)
- A balance was entered in the wrong account type
- A line was accidentally duplicated or omitted
Step 3: Verify Each Account Balance
Go through each section and compare the balances shown against your source records (prior accounting software, bank statements, or your accountant's trial balance):
| Section | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Assets | Cash matches your bank statement balance as of your start date; A/R matches total outstanding invoices |
| Liabilities | Loans, credit cards, and A/P match your statements |
| Equity | Owner's Equity reflects the difference between your total assets and total liabilities |
If any number looks off, note the account name and the discrepancy amount (you'll use this to correct it).
Step 4: Run the Bank Reconciliation Report
Navigate to Accounting > Insights, then click Start reconciling in the Review and Reconcile tile. This report confirms that the cash balance on your Balance Sheet matches the actual cash in your connected bank account.
Look for:
- Total Uncategorized Transactions: any bank transactions not yet categorized will cause a discrepancy. Work through these in Accounting > Transactions.
- Total Uncleared Transactions: book transactions (like payments) that haven't settled yet. These are expected and will clear over time.
- Variance: ideally $0.00. Any variance means your book balance and bank balance don't agree.
Step 5: Check the Customer Balances Report (if you use Autobooks Payment tools like Invoicing)
If you entered an opening Accounts Receivable balance and recreated open invoices, go to Accounting > Reports > Customer Balances. This is your A/R aging report and should show:
- Each customer who owes you money
- The correct outstanding amount per customer
- The total matching your opening A/R journal entry amount
If the totals don't match, check that all open invoices were recreated correctly in Autobooks.
Step 6: Correct Any Errors with a New Journal Entry
If you find a discrepancy, do not delete the original journal entry. Instead, create a correcting journal entry:
- If you entered a balance that was too high → create a new entry that reverses the excess (credit the asset, or debit the liability/equity)
- If you entered a balance that was too low → create a new entry that adds the difference
- Date the correcting entry to your start date and add a clear description like "Correction to opening Cash balance"