Opening Balances

Introduction

The debit or credit balance of a ledger account brought forward from the old accounting period to the new accounting period is called the opening balance. This will be the first entry in a ledger account at the beginning of an accounting period. The opening balance is being captured based on Department, fund, function etc are based on how the system is configured.

If a ULB is using another accounting system, firstly ULB should close financial statements in that system. Then the closing balance of the accounts should be updated as an opening balance in the new application.

Data Table

Sr No*	Financial Year*	Department*	Fund Code*	Function Code*	Account Code*	Subledger Category	Entity	Debit	Credit
1	2020-21	Account Branch	01	000300	4101010	NIL	NIL	1000000
2	2020-21	Street Light	01	202406	3301010	NIL	NIL		2000000
3	2020-21	Street Light	01	202406	3401002	Contractor	MH003		1000000

The data given in the table is sample data.

Procedure

Data Definition

Sr No	Column Name	Data Type	Data Size	Is Mandatory?	Definition/ Description
1	Financial Year	Number	10	Yes	The Financial year indicates the year for the which the opening balances will be entered for the GL accounts. This can be the opening balance of the year or the date from which the system is going live
2	Department	Text	250	Yes	A department indicates to which the GL code is linked, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular department to which amount will be entered
3	Fund Code	Alphanumeric	50	Yes	A GL Code can be linked for the validation of the Fund Code, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular fund code to which amount will be entered
4	Function Code	Alphanumeric	50	Yes	A GL Code can be linked for the validation of the Function Code, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular function Code to which amount will be entered
5	Account Code	Alphanumeric	50	Yes	A General Ledger Code (GL Code) is a string of 7 to 9 digit numeric characters assigned to each financial entry in a State/ULB ledger. A GL Code can be assigned to different debit or credit entries to make opening balances. A detailed GL code to be provided to update the opening balance
6	Subledger Category	Text	250	No	The Sub Ledger type indicates if the GL code is linked to a sub-ledger account which is contractor, supplier and employee then the user can select the sub-ledger type while entering the opening balances. Click SubLedger Category for the master details
7	Entity	Alphanumeric	50	No	When the Sub Ledger is linked to the individual entity, the user can select an entity while entering the opening balances. So when a sub-ledger is “Contractor” then the value here will be “Contractor code”
8	Credit	Number	50	No	If the opening balance for a Financial year or a period of a particular GL account is a credit Balance then the user needs to update the amount under the Credit column
9	Debit	Number	50	No	If the opening balance for a Financial year or a period of a particular GL account is a Debit Balance then the user needs to update the amount under the Debit column

Sr No

Column Name

Data Type

Data Size

Is Mandatory?

Definition/ Description

Financial Year

Number

Yes

The Financial year indicates the year for the which the opening balances will be entered for the GL accounts. This can be the opening balance of the year or the date from which the system is going live

Department

Text

250

Yes

A department indicates to which the GL code is linked, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular department to which amount will be entered

Fund Code

Alphanumeric

Yes

A GL Code can be linked for the validation of the Fund Code, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular fund code to which amount will be entered

Function Code

Alphanumeric

Yes

A GL Code can be linked for the validation of the Function Code, the user while entering the opening balance can select a particular function Code to which amount will be entered

Account Code

Alphanumeric

Yes

A General Ledger Code (GL Code) is a string of 7 to 9 digit numeric characters assigned to each financial entry in a State/ULB ledger. A GL Code can be assigned to different debit or credit entries to make opening balances. A detailed GL code to be provided to update the opening balance

Subledger Category

Text

250

The Sub Ledger type indicates if the GL code is linked to a sub-ledger account which is contractor, supplier and employee then the user can select the sub-ledger type while entering the opening balances. Click SubLedger Category for the master details

Entity

Alphanumeric

When the Sub Ledger is linked to the individual entity, the user can select an entity while entering the opening balances. So when a sub-ledger is “Contractor” then the value here will be “Contractor code”

Credit

Number

If the opening balance for a Financial year or a period of a particular GL account is a credit Balance then the user needs to update the amount under the Credit column

Debit

Number

If the opening balance for a Financial year or a period of a particular GL account is a Debit Balance then the user needs to update the amount under the Debit column

Steps to fill data

Download the data template attached to this page.
Have it open and go through all the headers and understand the meaning of them by referring 'Data Definition' section.
Make sure all the headers, its data type, field size and its definition/ description is understood properly. In case of any doubt, please reach out to the person who has shared this document with you to discuss the same and clear out the doubts.
Identify all the Ledger Codes for which opening balance need to be entered.
Start filling the data starting from serial no. and complete a record at once. repeat this exercise until the entire data is filled into a template.
Verify the data once again by going through the checklist and taking care of each and every point mentioned in the checklist.

Checklist

The checklist is a set of activities to be performed once the data is filled into a template to ensure data type, size, and format of data is as per the expectation. These activities have been divided into 2 groups as given below.

Common Checklist

This checklist covers all the activities which are common across the entities.

Sr. No	Checklist Parameter	Example
1	Make sure that each and every point in this reference list has been taken care of	Checklist

Sr. No

Checklist Parameter

Example

Make sure that each and every point in this reference list has been taken care of

Checklist

Entity Specific Checklist

This checklist covers the activities which are specific to the entity.

Sr. No.	Activity	Example
1	The Amount cannot be entered in both the Debit and Credit column for a particular GL code.	Debit:100000 [Allowed] Debit:10000 Credit:10000 [Not Allowed]
2	If for a particular account code the data is captured at sub-ledger level then the Sub-ledger and entity should be selected,	Account Head: Security Deposit Subledger Type: Contractor: Entity: Cont003 (Test Contractor)

Sr. No.

Activity

Example

The Amount cannot be entered in both the Debit and Credit column for a particular GL code.

Debit:100000 [Allowed]

Debit:10000 Credit:10000 [Not Allowed]

If for a particular account code the data is captured at sub-ledger level then the Sub-ledger and entity should be selected,

Account Head: Security Deposit

Subledger Type: Contractor:

Entity: Cont003 (Test Contractor)