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Recovering historical accounting data

Accounting carry-forward (reprise comptable) consists of importing your opening balances into SynkriaOps when migrating from a previous system (SAGE 100, Saari, Dunya, CIEL) or from spreadsheets. This operation is performed once only, at startup, and uses exclusively the AN journal (opening balances).

Typical use cases

Section titled “Typical use cases”
  • Migration from SAGE 100 or Saari Compta to SynkriaOps
  • Starting fresh after several years of Excel-based bookkeeping
  • Mid-year take-on (partial year already started in the previous system)
  • Change of accounting firm that held the historical data

Prerequisites before starting

Section titled “Prerequisites before starting”
  1. Fiscal year open in SynkriaOps: go to Settings → Fiscal years and verify that a year covering your take-on date is open. See Opening a fiscal year →.
  2. Closing trial balance from the previous system or manual bookkeeping, exported as CSV or entered in a spreadsheet with 4 columns: account number, label, debit, credit.
  3. Verify that total debit = total credit in your source balance — this is a non-negotiable prerequisite.
  4. All counterparties (customers, suppliers) present in the balance must already exist in SynkriaOps — their 411xxx and 401xxx sub-accounts are created when the counterparty is created.

Fundamental rule — what to carry forward and what not to

Section titled “Fundamental rule — what to carry forward and what not to”
Account typeCarried forward in opening entries?Reason
Balance-sheet accounts (classes 1–5)YesTheir balance rolls over from one fiscal year to the next
Counterparty accounts (411xxx, 401xxx)Yes — with detail per counterpartyEach customer/supplier sub-account is carried forward
Expense accounts (class 6)NoReset to zero at the opening of each fiscal year
Revenue accounts (class 7)NoReset to zero at the opening of each fiscal year
Retained earnings / net income (106000)YesPrior-year net income becomes an equity resource

Method 1 — Manual entry of the opening trial balance

Section titled “Method 1 — Manual entry of the opening trial balance”

Recommended if you have fewer than 50 accounts to carry forward.

  1. Go to Accounting → Vouchers → New voucher.

  2. Select the AN journal from the journal list.

  3. Set the date to the first day of the fiscal year (e.g. 01/01/2026).

  4. Add one line per account to carry forward:

    • Account: SYSCOHADA number (e.g. 521001)
    • Label: Opening balance 2025 — Main bank
    • Debit or Credit: the balance from your source trial balance

  5. Continue until total debit = total credit. The green banner confirms the balance.

  6. Click Post. SynkriaOps assigns the number AN-2026-000001.

Example — partial opening trial balance (extract):

AccountLabelDebitCredit
101000Share capital5,000,000
106000Prior-year net income1,243,750
411025Customer SOTRANB890,000
401018Supplier CAMPU SARL295,000
521001Main bank3,750,000
571001Cash register418,750
161000Long-term bank loan2,520,000

Method 2 — CSV import of the opening trial balance

Section titled “Method 2 — CSV import of the opening trial balance”

Recommended if you have more than 50 accounts, or if your balance is available as a file.

  1. Export your trial balance from the previous system as a CSV file (comma or semicolon as separator).

  2. Verify that the file contains these columns in order: account_number, label, debit, credit. Amounts without spaces or currency symbols (e.g. 3750000.00).

  3. Go to Accounting → Import → Opening balance.

  4. Select your CSV file. SynkriaOps shows a preview of the detected lines and the computed debit/credit totals.

  5. If total debit ≠ total credit, SynkriaOps blocks the import and shows the difference. Correct the source file.

  6. If everything is correct, click Import. The AN vouchers are created and posted automatically.

Mid-year take-on (partial fiscal year)

Section titled “Mid-year take-on (partial fiscal year)”

If you have already posted transactions in the previous system for the current fiscal year (e.g. January and February already done), you have two options:

Carry forward cumulative balances only at the cut-over date (e.g. 28 February). The detail of January–February transactions stays in the previous system.

Advantage: quick. Drawback: you won’t have Jan–Feb transaction details in SynkriaOps.

Post-import checks

Section titled “Post-import checks”

After the carry-forward, perform these checks before starting current transactions:

  1. Trial balance check: go to Reports & Exports → Trial balance. The “Total” line must show Debit = Credit.

  2. Counterparty balance check: filter the trial balance on accounts 411xxx and 401xxx. Compare the balances against your source trial balance.

  3. General ledger by account: open the general ledger for account 521001 (Main bank) and verify that the balance exactly matches your bank statement balance at the cut-over date. See Consulting the general ledger →.

  4. Entry test: create a current draft voucher (do not post yet) to confirm that accounts and journals are functioning correctly.

Common errors

Section titled “Common errors”
ErrorCauseSolution
”Import blocked — debit ≠ credit”Unbalanced source balanceLocate the missing account or amount error
”Account not found: 411025”Customer counterparty not yet createdCreate the counterparty in Counterparties & Products → Counterparties before importing
”AN journal — no fiscal year”Fiscal year not open for the dateCreate or open the fiscal year in Settings → Fiscal years
”Class-6 account 601xxx in AN”Attempting to carry forward an expense accountRemove class 6/7 lines from your balance
”AN voucher already exists”Duplicate importCheck existing AN vouchers and delete drafts

What’s next?

Section titled “What’s next?”