Old vs New Ledger
Finance › New Ledger › Old vs New Ledger shows your two sets of books account by account: the left figure is what your existing finance module says, the right is the New Ledger, and every row states why they differ.
- Not started — the New Ledger has nothing for that account yet. Before an opening balance is posted, every row says this. It is expected, not a fault.
- Agreed — both show the same figure.
- Differs — both hold a figure and they do not agree. A real question.
- Not in the old chart — your existing ledger posted to an account code that is not in its own chart. No report there can show these, because every report lists accounts and these have none.
Setting your opening balances
Press Set opening balances. A draft is built from your existing figures and shown in an editable table. Nothing is written until you press the button at the bottom.
These figures are a starting point, not a verdict. They are what your old system says. If you know a bank balance is not really that figure, type the real one before posting. This is the whole reason for doing it here: your old books are left exactly as they are, and the corrected figures go into the new ledger.
Only balance-sheet accounts appear. Income and expense measure a period and start each one at zero, so bringing last year's revenue across would make your first profit & loss include figures already reported.
"Your existing books do not balance — they are out by …"
An opening balance must balance, or it cannot be posted. If your existing figures do not add up, neither will the draft. The usual causes are money paid out that was never recorded, entries posted to an account code that is not in your chart, or opening balances that were never entered when the old system was first set up.
The difference goes to a suspense account — a holding place for an amount nobody has explained yet. That lets you start using the New Ledger today while leaving the question visible on your balance sheet until your accountant resolves it. It is not lost and it is not hidden. Spreading it quietly across other accounts would bury the exact problem you need to fix.
An opening balance can only be posted once. To redo it, reverse it on Ledger Journals first.