Starting balances exist only if you are transferring an existing business to Hub from another accounting system. In that case, you may need to set starting balances for suppliers with or to whom, on your start date:

• You have available credit unrelated to purchase invoices, or
• You owe money because of unpaid purchase invoices.

General procedures for entering starting balances are found in another Guide. Read it first. Before you can enter any type of starting balance, your suppliers must be created.

Enter available credit

If you have a credit balance with a supplier that is not related to a specific purchase invoice, but can be applied to future purchase invoices, go the Settings tab and click Starting Balances:

Click the blue balance for Accounts payable, then Edit beside the supplier’s name:

• Select a Currency (if a base currency is set).
• Enter Available credit amount.

Click Update to save the change. The available supplier credit shows as a negative amount under the Accounts payable column in the Suppliers tab:

Repeat for all suppliers with whom you have credit balances.

Enter unpaid purchase invoices

You cannot enter the starting balance for unpaid purchase invoices as a single figure. Hub requires you to enter the specific unpaid purchase invoices, fully completed. This is so Hub can assign future payments to proper purchase invoices, generate accurate cash-basis reports, and produce detailed supplier statements.

To enter a starting-balance invoice, go the Settings tab and click Starting Balances:

Click the blue balance for Accounts payable, then the blue figure for Unpaid invoices on the line for the supplier:

Click New Purchase Invoice:

Complete the unpaid purchase invoice in the same manner as a regular purchase invoice. The Invoice date field will, by default, be prefilled with the date one day before your start date. Edit this to match the original invoice date from your old accounting system. Only purchase invoices with invoice dates before your start date will be treated as starting balance invoices. When finished, click Create to save the invoice.

Repeat for all open purchase invoices preceding your start date.

Adjusting the purchase invoice

Now go to the Purchase Invoices tab. You will notice that amounts in the Invoice total and Balance due columns for the unpaid invoice(s) are equal:

This is usually the correct scenario, unless you have already partially paid a purchase invoice as of your start date. In that case, click on the amount under the Balance due column. You will see the starting balance with an amount of zero. Click Edit next to the starting balance transaction:

Enter the amount you previously paid the supplier toward this purchase invoice in the Opening balance field:

Click Update to save the change. When you go back to the Purchase Invoices tab, you will see the Balance due of the partially paid purchase invoice has decreased by the amount already paid:

Note
Starting balance purchase invoices affect only the monetary balance of suppliers’ subaccounts in Accounts payable. They do not affect starting balances of inventory items. Those should be set to match the physical count on the start date.