Set or correct an opening balance

An opening balance is what an account held before its first recorded transaction. Pennyweight adds the account's transactions in its own currency to it, so a wrong opening makes every balance after it wrong by the same amount. Your AI can set it, correct it or clear it. If the account doesn't exist yet, start with add a manual account.

How to do it

1. Find the balance the account had just before the oldest transaction you have in Pennyweight. If your oldest transactions came from a statement, use the starting balance printed on that statement.
2. Ask your AI to set that figure as the account's opening balance. Name the account if you have more than one of its kind.
3. For a credit card or a loan, give the amount you owed as a positive number.
4. Your AI sets it and tells you the account's new balance.

What you'll see

Your AI confirms the opening balance it set and gives the account's recalculated balance, which is the opening balance plus the account's transactions in its own currency. The change takes effect right away.

In the web app, open Transactions, filter to that one account and choose All time. Once every row is loaded, a "Starting balance" row sits at the bottom of the list with the opening figure. It doesn't show for an account with no transactions. After you clear the opening balance, the row shows $0.00.

Good to know

• It has no date. The opening balance always sits before the account's oldest transaction. If you later add older history, set it again to the balance before the new oldest row.
• Zero clears it. Ask your AI to clear the opening balance and it sets it to $0. The balance is then the sum of the account's transactions in its own currency, which can be below zero.
• Cards and loans take a positive amount. Say what you owed, such as $410. Pennyweight stores it as a negative balance. A negative amount for a card or loan is refused. See why a credit card shows a negative balance.
• Imports need one first. A manual account with no opening balance can't take an import until it gets one, so the import doesn't assume the account started at $0. Your AI has to get the figure from you. See import a PDF or screenshot statement.
• The first import's opening stays. Once an import has set an account's opening balance, a later import's figure isn't applied. Ask your AI to change it this way instead. See balance looks wrong after an import.
• Undoing an import leaves your figure alone. An opening balance you set this way isn't cleared when you undo an import. Undo only resets an opening that an import set, and only once the account has no transactions left. If a later import brings its own opening balance, that figure replaces yours.
• Money between people works differently. An account for money you lent or borrowed has no opening balance. Record the original amount as a transaction instead. See track money you lent or borrowed.
• Linked bank accounts. Pennyweight accepts an opening balance on a linked account. The balance in your account list stays the one your bank reports. The opening balance helps older history you import add up to that figure: your AI gets back the gap between the bank's balance and what the transactions add up to, and a gap of zero means they match. See reconcile an account against a statement.
• Every change is logged. Each opening balance your AI sets goes into your audit log with the reason your AI gave. See the audit trail.