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Running the Opening Balance Check (Cloud)
What it is: A reconciliation step during a direct import that compares the prior year closing balances in Draftworx against the prior year balances in the client's accounting application, flagging any discrepancies.
What it's for
When a client's accounting application and Draftworx have both been used — or when journals have been processed in one system but not the other — the opening balances for the new year may not agree. The Opening Balance Check catches these differences at import time, before you proceed with the current year's work. It also offers to create a suggested correcting journal if retained earnings would be out of balance.
How to do it
Running the check
- When setting up a direct import (Sage, Xero, or QuickBooks), tick the Opening Balance Check checkbox in the Import Options panel before clicking Import.
- After import, the system compares each prior-year account balance from the accounting application against the corresponding balance on the Draftworx Working Trial Balance.
- If differences are found, a warning banner appears at the top of the screen and a Difference column is added to the trial balance showing the amounts.
- Use Export to Excel if you need to share the differences with the client or review them offline.
Resolving differences
- Differences are usually caused by journals processed in the accounting application that were not entered in Draftworx, or vice versa.
- If a difference affects Retained Earnings and would cause the financial statements to be out of balance, an option to Create a Suggested Journal appears.
- Click Create Journal. The system creates a journal in the current year as Not Recorded status — it does not affect the financial statements until reviewed and approved.
- Navigate to Journal Entries, review the suggested journal for accuracy, and change it to Normal type once confirmed.
- The financial statements will then reflect the corrected retained income balance.