Import trial balances - overview

In Visma Net, to initialise the system during initial implementation, you can import either a trial balance (or balances) or a number of general ledger transactions from third-party software. If you import the general ledger transactions, you do not need to import the trial balance because the trial balance will be computed by the system automatically according to imported general ledger transactions.
If you do not need to keep the history of general ledger transactions in Visma Net, you can import the trial balance only.

Before importing the trial balance, you need to select the period to start keeping records in Visma Net, and decide whether you want to import the history of balances for multiple preceding periods or just one period.

We recommend that you import the trial balance for at least one period prior to the period in which you start using Visma Net.
For example: If you start using Visma Net in 01-2021, you import the trial balance for at least 12-2020.

In the third-party software, you should prepare the data to be imported. For each required period, you should run the trial balance report. If the third-party software has no such report, you need to use a traditional trial balance report and calculate the balances of accounts by using information about the account types.

From the third-party software, you should export the prepared trial balance data to a CSV file (.csv) or to an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx). The file should have the following columns:

  • Account: The account ID of the account to be imported.
  • Subaccount: The subaccount ID of the subaccount to be imported. If there is no specific subaccount for a particular account, specify a non-specific subaccount that fits the SUBACCOUNT segmented key in your system, for example, 000-00-00.

    This column is required only if you plan to use subaccounts with your accounts. In that case, the Subaccounts functionality should be enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window.

  • YTD balance: The ending balance of the account for the period. The balance can be provided either with the positive or with negative sign. For details about the signs of the balance, see sections below in this topic. For this column, the Currency or Text format setting can be specified in the Excel file.

    The file can contain multiple columns with the balances for different financial periods.

  • Description (optional): Any meaningful description of the account that you can add for convenient working with the file.

You should not import the balance of the YTD net income account; Visma Net calculates this balance automatically from the imported balances of income and expense accounts.

The following types of trial balances can be used in different accounting software:

  • Normal trial balances are those that have debit balances for asset and expense accounts and credit balances for liability and income accounts, and these balances are displayed with the plus sign if the respective debit or credit balances are positive.
  • Reversed trial balances are those that have normal balances of asset and expense accounts or positive amounts are displayed with the plus sign.
    The balances of liability and income accounts are reversed: the credit balances of these accounts are positive, but they are displayed with the minus sign.

From the third-party software, you have exported either the normal or the reversed type of the balance, so before you start importing the trial balance to Visma Net, you need to specify an appropriate option in the Sign of the trial balance field in the General ledger preferences (GL102000) window:

  • Normal: To keep the signs of account balances while importing a trial balance
  • Reversed: To reverse the signs of credit balances of the liability and income accounts while importing a trial balance

Normal balances satisfy the following validation criterion.

Total debit balance of the (assets + expense)accounts = Total credit balance of the (income + liabilities) accounts

The example below demonstrates a trial balance with normal account balances.

Account Type Balance
Cash Asset 100
Customer ledger Asset 400
Supplier ledger Liability 100
Shareholders' equity Liability 100
Retained earnings Liability 100
Sales Income 400
COGS Expense 100
Other expense Expense 100
Totals:
Debit total (asset accounts +expense accounts) 700
Credit total (income accounts + liability a ccounts) 700

For a normal trial balance, you select Normal as the sign of the trial balance in the General ledger preferences (GL102000) window.

The reversed credit balances, implemented in some applications, satisfy the following validation criterion.

Total debit balance of (assets + expense)accounts = - (Total credit balance of (income + liabilities)accounts)

This criterion can also be expressed as follows.

Total debit balance of (assets + expense)accounts + Total credit balance of (income + liabilities)accounts = 0

The example below demonstrates a valid trial balance with reversed credit balances for liability and income accounts.

Account Type Balance
Cash Asset 100
Customer ledger Asset 400
Supplier ledger Liability -100
Shareholders' equity Liability -100
Retained earnings Liability -100
Sales Income -400
COGS Expense 100
Other expense Expense 100
Totals:
Debit total (asset accounts +expense accounts) 700
Credit total (income accounts + liability accounts) -700

Before importing a reversed trial balance, you should select the Reversed option in the Sign of the trial balance box in the General ledger preferences (GL102000) window, so that the balances of liability and income accounts will be imported properly.

You import data by uploading a specially prepared Excel or CSV file with the trial balance in theTrial balance (GL303010) window.
You import data to a selected target branch into its posting ledger to the specified financial period.
For the import to complete successfully, you have to map the imported list of accounts (and subaccounts, if any) to the internal accounts (and subaccounts) used in Visma Net.

After you have uploaded the file with the trial balance, the list of accounts (and subaccounts) to be imported are displayed on the Transaction details tab. Visma Net performs most of the mapping of the imported accounts (and subaccounts) and the internal accounts (and subaccounts) automatically when you select the Validate action and click Process or Process all in the table toolbar.
However, after the mapping process is finished, some lines can contain unmapped accounts (and subaccounts).
Such records are marked as errors and displayed in red font. The system also marks the duplicate records as errors.
In this case, you need to perform the mapping of accounts and subaccounts manually, and merging the duplicate records (by processing the Merge duplicates action on the table toolbar).

If you import the trial balance data for system initialisation, the Exceptions tab will be empty because the target ledger contains no records.
If you perform periodic imports, the Exceptions tab contains the list of accounts (and subaccounts) with their balances (as currently recorded in the ledger for the specified period) that are not present in the data being imported. In this case, you should review this list carefully and make sure that the balances of these accounts should be equal to zero in the period for which you are importing the trial balance. This review is needed because on release of the trial balance entry, for each account listed on the Exceptions tab, the system generates a transaction that makes the account balance zero for the period you are importing the trial balance for.
If these accounts balances should be non-zero, verify and correct the list of accounts in the file from which you are importing the trial balance.

Once you are done mapping the accounts and adjusting the records, clear the Hold check box and release (Release) the trial balance entry.
After the release, the system will generate a batch of general ledger transactions that adjusts account balances in the ledger to match the imported trial balance.

Only the Balanced trial balance entry can be released.

If you import the trial balance for the second financial period and all subsequent financial periods, the system generates journal entries in the amount of the difference between the ending balances of the previous period and the imported balance of the next period.
Therefore, if you import the trial balance for more than one financial period, you have to release each generated batch and post the transactions before you import the trial balance for the next period; otherwise, the transactions might be generated incorrectly.

During the release of the trial balance entry, the system generates a general ledger batch with the On hold status.
For normal balances, for each asset and expense account, the system generates a debit entry if the imported balance is positive, or a credit entry if the imported balance is negative. For each liability and income account, the system generates a credit entry if the imported balance is positive, or a debit entry if the imported balance is negative. For the reversed balances, for each liability and income account, the system generates a credit entry if the imported balance is negative, or a debit entry if the imported balance is positive.

If you have imported the trial balance incorrectly, or you have had some inconsistencies during the importing process, you can repeat the importing procedure once again. After you release and post the general ledger batch, the account balances will be adjusted.

Related tasks
Import trial balance