Set an account's opening balance

An opening balance is what an account held on the day you started keeping books in BooksGPT. Set it so your reports and your first bank reconciliation start from the right number.

Set an opening balance

1. Open All pages in the left sidebar, then under Accounting click Chart of accounts.
2. Click the account, or click Add account if it does not exist yet.
3. In the panel, enter the Opening balance amount and the As of date.
4. Save.

BooksGPT posts the other side to an equity account called Opening Balance Equity and marks the entry reconciled. A preview under the field shows you exactly what will post before you save.

Fixing, removing, or adopting

• Edit the account and change the amount to update it.
• Clear the field to remove it completely.
• If the panel says Handwritten opening balance found, click Adopt existing opening. BooksGPT takes ownership of that one existing entry without changing its debit or credit, so you do not create a competing opening balance.

There is always one opening entry per account, so editing never creates a second one.

Good to know

• Opening balances are for balance sheet accounts: bank, credit card, assets, liabilities, and equity. Income and expense accounts start every period at zero, so they do not take one.
• Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable are excluded. Those balances come from your open invoices and bills, so enter the unpaid invoices and bills instead.
• If you migrated from Wave or QuickBooks, your Trial Balance import already set your opening balances. Only set one by hand for accounts that were not in the import.

Updated on: 17/08/2026