If you are upgrading to Brightpearl from an existing accounting system, even if it is Excel spreadsheets, you'll have some data that needs to be transferred to Brightpearl to make sure that all the account balances are up-to-date. Once you've got your accounting data out of your old system and into Excel, you can upload it to Brightpearl in order to create your chart of accounts, opening balances, debtor and creditor balances.
The set of data on the last day of your previous system is called the Closing Trial Balance. This is entered into Brightpearl as an Opening Trial Balance. Your accountant or book-keeper should be able to prepare a Closing Trial Balance from your existing systems.
What information do I need to provide?
You'll need to have the following information to build up the Opening Trial Balance (OTB) for Brightpearl:
- Bank account balance(s)
- Any outstanding debts from the company to directors or loan providers
- Detailed report of what your customers owe you (the Debtors list)
- Detailed report of what you owe your suppliers (the Creditors list)
- An accurate stock take, including all assets that the company owns
- Any outstanding VAT on sales or purchases that has not yet been included in a VAT return
- Any outstanding wages and payroll, including NI and sundry amounts that are owed to staff or the Inland Revenue
These reports should be generated for the last day that you use your old system. Note that the reports do not have to be generated on the day itself, you can produce the Closing Trial Balance from your previous system a few days later once bank balances have settled.
The process is slightly different depending on your choice of VAT scheme.
