If you are coming from an existing accounting software or taking the leap out of the shoebox accounting method, the trial balance import is the recommended way to get started with Kashoo. In fact, one of the first things a new Kashoo customer usually does is import their trial balance. But for the small business owner who isn’t an accountant, this often begs the question: exactly what is a trial balance import? A trial balance is a compilation of your ledgers into debit and credit columns, or more simply, it’s a list of the balances in all of your accounts. Your financial statements (balance sheets, profit and loss statements) are prepared from your trial balance. This information will be your starting balance in Kashoo. The trial balance import allows you to easily move from your old accounting software to Kashoo without bringing any baggage. A fresh, clean start with fresh, clean accounting software, if you will. (But note! Like all other accounting data, you’ll want to hold on to your old data in case you or a government body need a review of the past. In fact, if you feel strongly about important all of your historical data into Kashoo, there are certainly ways to do that!) Importing Your Trial Balance Using a Spreadsheet The easiest way to import your trial balance into Kashoo is to set it up in a spreadsheet and then export it as a CSV file. If you are an Excel user, download the ready-made template we’ve built. Or, if you are going to create your own using Google Docs or some other program you can use the following format… The column headers from left to right should be labeled as follows: First Column: Account # – The number of the given account (eg., 1000, 1001, 1002, etc.) Second Column: Account Name – The classification of the account (e.g. Office Supplies, Meals & Entertainment, etc) Third Column: Account Type – Either Income or Expense Fourth Column: Description – This is where you can put any notes relating to the account Fifth Column: Debit – The debit balance for the given account Sixth Column: Credit – The credit balance for the given account Importing your Trial Balance into Kashoo is Simple 1. From the left hand menu, select Accounts. 2. From this screen click on the Import: Trial Balance link 3. Upload your file. If you’d like to customize the List Name you can, otherwise, it will automatically be generated for you. In the Date field select the date of the trial balance report you’re importing. Indicate whether your import file has headings or no headings in the Column Headings field. Select Choose File, choose a file and then click Upload. 4. Verify the Kashoo fields agree with the column headings of the import file you uploaded. Click Save. 5. You will see a list of what you will import at the bottom of the page. Now click Import All. 6. You will be asked to confirm that you want to import your trial balance. Click Yes to continue. 7. Once you confirm that you want to import your trial balance, you will notice that the status of what you imported will show as Synchronized and a green bar will appear again that says done. And that’s that! While importing your trail balance may seem tedious, there couldn’t be a more valuable first step in setting up your accounting software. As always, our support team is here to help. Contact us at answers@kashoo.com or on Twitter at @KashooOnline.
