When you first start using Prelude, you may have bank account balances, outstanding debtors and creditors, assets and prior income you would like to show on your Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Account.

To do this, you must enter a summary of your past business activities.

This can take many steps, and may require some knowledge of bookkeeping terminology, like debits and credits, equity, and retained earnings.

If you're not sure of your ability to do this yourself, we recommend that you ask an accountant or bookkeeper to assist you.

Decide on an appropriate cut-off date and obtain the following reports from your previous accounting system in sufficient detail to input the opening balances analysis that you require:

• a detailed Trial Balance listing
• a detailed Sales Ledger Account (Customer) listing
• a detailed Purchase Ledger Account (Supplier) listing

Depending on the size and nature of your opening data, this could be an involved and time-consuming task. You should consider the potential disruption to your normal daily business processes and plan accordingly.

We recommend that the task be done in the following three main stages in this order:

• Sales Ledger Account balances
• Purchase Ledger Account balances
• Nominal Ledger Account balances