Account Priming

When you move to CifraHQ from another Accounting system, your account balances do not come with you. Account Priming is the one-time Setup step that fixes this: you enter (or import) each account's opening balance, CifraHQ posts one journal entry, and your books start from the same position as your old system.

Where to find it

Go to Master Data > Accounting > Account priming. The page is titled Account Balance Initialization.

The Account Balance Initialization page in CifraHQ. — Account Priming: the details form, the summary, and the list of accounts with a Balance box on each row.

When to use this

Use it once, at the start of your CifraHQ Setup, with the balances from your final trial balance in the old system (or from an audited period end). It is not a tool for ongoing corrections. Later adjustments go through Journal Entries.

What is on the page

Item	What it does
Posting Period	Shows the posting period that contains your posting date, as a link. If none is found, a No period found notice appears and you cannot post.
Posting Date	The date of the opening entry. It starts as today. Use the last day of your previous Accounting period.
Balancing Account	The account that takes the other side of the entry, usually your Opening Balance Equity account. Click the field and type part of an account code or name to find it.
Comments	Optional. If you leave it empty, the entry says "Opening balance initialization".
Summary	Accounts with Balances, Total Debits (Assets + Expenses), Total Credits (Liabilities + Income) and Net Balance. Net Balance is a guide to the amount the Balancing Account will take.
Accounts list	One row per account with Type, Account, Balance, Name and Description. Type in the Balance box to change an account. Use the search field, the type filter and Only with balances to find rows.
Import from Excel	Fills the Balance boxes from a spreadsheet. See Import balances from Excel.
Post	Appears after you choose a Balancing Account. Creates the journal entry.

How to enter your balances

Set the Posting Date.
Choose the Balancing Account.
Enter each account's opening Balance in its box, or import them from Excel.
Check the Summary and the accounts you filled in.
Click Post and confirm. CifraHQ opens the journal entry it created.

Which sign to use

Enter every balance on the side where the account normally sits, as a positive number:

Assets and Expenses: the debit balance, positive.
Liabilities, equity and income: the credit balance, positive.
A contra account (for example an allowance for doubtful accounts, which is an asset with a credit balance, or sales Returns, which is income with a debit balance): enter it as a negative number.

What Post books

For each account, CifraHQ books the difference between the number in the box and the balance the account had on the Posting Date. Documents posted after that date are not counted, so you can prime with a date before go-live after you have already started working: the opening balance is set for that date, and everything posted later stays on top of it. Each box starts at the account's balance on the Posting Date, and changing the date reloads the boxes you have not edited. Only the boxes you change are posted; an account you leave alone gets no line. The Balancing Account takes the offset, so the entry always balances.

Accounts this page does not list

Some accounts cannot be set here, so the page leaves them out of the list and out of the Balancing Account choices:

Bank accounts. They are managed in Banking.
Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. Load what Customers owe you and what you owe Vendors as open Invoices and Vendor Bills.
Inventory Asset and Received Not Billed. Your stock value comes from Inventory documents: receipts, adjustments and the like.

CifraHQ also refuses these accounts if something tries to post them from here. See Control Accounts.

Import balances from Excel

Use this when you have many accounts to fill in. The import only fills the boxes so you can review them. It does not post and it does not save anything.

Click Import from Excel at the top of the page.
Choose your .xlsx file.
A message tells you how many balances were filled in. Review them, then click Post when you are satisfied.

What the file needs

An Excel workbook (.xlsx, up to 5 MB). CifraHQ reads the first sheet.
A header row with a Code column and a Saldo column. A Name column is welcome but ignored. A title line above the header is fine.
One account per row. Balances in the same sign convention as above.

What the import does and does not do

It matches rows to accounts by Code.
It fills in only non-zero balances. A zero in the file never clears a balance you already typed.
A code that is not in the list (a bank account, a locked account, or a code that does not exist) is skipped without a message.
If a code appears twice, CifraHQ uses the row with a non-zero balance. If the two rows have different non-zero balances, CifraHQ skips that code so you can enter it yourself.
It never changes the Balancing Account.
It does not save. If you leave the page before you click Post, the numbers are gone.

Check the **Net Balance** after an import. If your spreadsheet shows every amount as a positive number, contra accounts have lost their sign. Correct those boxes by hand before you post.

Tips

Prime once. If an opening balance needs correcting after you post, use a journal entry.
The Posting Date decides which posting period receives the entry. That period must be unlocked.
Leave zero-balance accounts alone. There is no need to type a zero.
Keep the trial balance from your old system next to you. The balances in CifraHQ should match it.

Posting creates a journal entry in your books. Verify every balance against your confirmed opening trial balance before you click **Post**.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
The Post button is missing	No Balancing Account chosen	Choose one in Balancing Account.
No period found next to Posting Period	The posting date is outside every posting period	Pick a date that falls inside an existing posting period. See Posting Periods.
The file could not be read. Use an Excel file (.xlsx) with the columns Code, Name and Saldo.	The file is not .xlsx, has no Code and Saldo header, or is too large	Save the sheet as .xlsx, check the header row, and try again.
Fewer balances filled in than your file has	Zero rows, bank accounts, locked accounts and unknown codes are skipped	This is expected. Enter those another way if you need them.
An account you expect is not in the list	It is a bank, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory Asset or Received Not Billed account	See Accounts this page does not list.

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