Opening Balance

Opening Balance

Your account’s opening balance is the amount of money it holds on the day you start tracking it in Moniqo. It’s the number every future transaction builds on, so getting it right matters more than any other single field on the Add Account form.

How Opening Balances Work

When you create an account with a starting balance greater than zero, Moniqo automatically records it as an opening balance transaction dated to the “as of” date you chose. If you leave the opening balance at zero, no transaction is created, and the account simply starts empty. Either way, from that point forward, your account’s balance is entirely calculated from its transactions, not a number you can edit directly. If a balance ever looks wrong, the fix is to add, edit, or remove the transaction causing the difference, not to try to edit the balance itself.

Steps to Set an Accurate Opening Balance

1. Check your actual balance for the account (your bank statement or app, or your cash on hand) as of a specific date.
2. When creating the account, enter that amount in the initial balance field.
3. Set the as of date to match the date of that balance. This is usually today, but can be a past date if you’re backfilling an account you’ve had for a while.
4. Save the account. Moniqo creates the opening transaction automatically, so you don’t need to add it yourself.

Tips

• If you’re setting up an account you’ve had for months or years, use its balance as of a recent, known date rather than trying to reconstruct its full history.
• An opening balance of exactly zero is completely valid; it just means no opening transaction is created, and the account starts from nothing.
• Because balances are always computed from transactions, reconciling your account regularly (see Managing Accounts) is the best way to catch a mismatch early.

Common Mistakes

• Confusing “as of” date with today’s date. If you’re adding an older account, the “as of” date should reflect when that balance was actually true, not the day you happen to be using Moniqo.
• Trying to correct a wrong balance by re-editing the initial balance later. Once transactions exist, the balance is computed from them. Correct the underlying transaction instead, not the account’s starting figure.

Next Steps

With your opening balance set, learn how to keep your balance accurate over time in Managing Accounts, or see how accounts interact with Transactions day to day.