Skip to content
SynkriaOps Help center
Blog Community Open the app

Migrating history from the general ledger

After the accounting entries file, the general ledger is the most complete source: it carries every entry, with its date, its account and often its matching. By the end of this page, you will know how to prepare the export from your previous software and migrate it fiscal year by fiscal year into SynkriaOps.

When to choose the general ledger

Section titled “When to choose the general ledger”
You haveChoose
A FEC export from your previous softwareThe FEC, more reliable
A general ledger as PDF, Excel or CSVThe general ledger (this page)
Only year-end balancesThe trial balance

The general ledger brings over the entry detail and the third-party accounts, plus the journals and matching if the file contains them.

Preparing the export

Section titled “Preparing the export”
  • Export one complete fiscal year per file, from the first to the last day.
  • Prefer Excel (.xlsx) or CSV to PDF: reading is more reliable. A PDF produced by software is read directly; a scanned PDF goes through text recognition, with your consent.
  • Keep the date, journal, document number, account, label, debit, credit and, if possible, matching columns.
  • Include the opening entries at the start of the year: they become the opening balances.
  • 50 MB at most, no ZIP archive.

Migrating the general ledger

Section titled “Migrating the general ledger”

  1. Open Settings → Opening balance import, click New migration, then enter the fiscal year to migrate.

  2. At the Source step, choose General ledger PDF, General ledger Excel or General ledger CSV or text, upload the file and click Read the file.

  3. Columns: check the suggested mapping. If an amount column gives the account’s running balance rather than the line amount, tick The amount is a running balance. Save the mapping as a template if you migrate several years from the same software.

  4. Accounts: each account in the file must find its place in the SYSCOHADA chart. Accept the suggestions, map several accounts to the same chart account, or turn customer and supplier accounts into third parties with Create as third parties.

  5. Journals: designate the journal that carries your opening balances (often AN, RAN or ANOUV).

  6. Checks, Reconstruction, then Launch the import.

What the migration creates

Section titled “What the migration creates”
  • the fiscal year, if it does not exist yet;
  • the opening balances in the company’s opening journal;
  • every entry of the fiscal year, in the chosen journals;
  • the accounts and third parties decided at the Accounts step;
  • the matching present in the file.

If the fiscal year already has opening entries (from a closing or another migration), SynkriaOps compares them account by account with the file’s. When they differ, the assistant shows the Opening-entry differences table and lets you Ignore the file’s opening entries.

Checking the result

Section titled “Checking the result”

  1. At the Checks step, the Result for the year must match your previous software’s financial statements.

  2. After the import, open View the Trial Balance: total debit equals total credit, and the balances of accounts 411, 401 and 521 match the old trial balance.

  3. Open a known customer’s ledger and check their matched invoices.

Common problems

Section titled “Common problems”
FindingLikely causeSolution
The result is too high or too lowOpening journal not designatedRedo the import and designate the journal at the Journals step
Lines in error at the Checks stepUnreadable or unbalanced lines in the fileDownload the CSV report, fix the file, upload it again
Amounts are wrong from one line to the nextRunning-balance column read as an amountTick The amount is a running balance at the Columns step
The PDF is read incompletelyScanned or badly structured PDFUpload an Excel or CSV export instead

Further reading

Section titled “Further reading”