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Initial balance $ - how to use it
Initial balance $ - how to use it

And how to find initial balances for your accounts

Beau O'Hara avatar
Written by Beau O'Hara
Updated over 3 years ago

Note This article is for companies that transferred their data from another software system to Fieldwork. 

Summary

Initial Balance is only to be used when you imported your CSV file into Fieldwork. The Initial Balance entry is populated by the balance your previous program had for customers who still owed you money.

Key Points

  • Finding the Initial Balance entry

  • Paying the balance down to pay the initial balance

  • Paying the balance down to pay the initial balance plus an invoice

  • How to find initial balances for your accounts

In a customer Billing page you may see an entry for Initial balance $

The dollar value entered in the billing page also appears in the customer's account page under the Balance.

And in the New Payment box. 

And in the invoice.*

Here are two scenarios to pay this balance down.

Payment received just to pay the initial balance

When you receive a payment to pay off this balance, since there isn't an actual Fieldwork invoice to pay, you need to:

  • create a new invoice for the amount of the initial balance payment  

  • pay it with the payment you received

  • go into the customer's billing page and deduct the payment from the Initial Balance

  1. Go to the customer's account page

  2. Click Create a New... Invoice

  3. Date it properly for your purposes

  4. Add a line item type of Other

  5. Name it Initial Balance Payment from <month/year> or something similar

  6. Put the amount in the Unit Price 

  7. Click Save

  8. In the customer's account page

  9. Click Create a New... Payment

  10. Pay the invoice with the payment amount

  11. Click Apply & Save

  12. In the customer's account page

  13. Click Edit

  14. Reduce the Initial Balance $ by the amount paid

Payment received to pay the initial balance plus an invoice

  1. In the customer's account page

  2. Click Create a New... Payment

  3. Pay the entire invoice plus the initial balance 

  4. In the customer's account page

  5. Click Edit

  6. Reduce the Initial Balance $ by the extra amount paid

How to find initial balances for your accounts
The Accounts Receivable report has an Initial Balance column so you can better manage customers who owe you money from your previous program.

You can also see the current balance from Dashboard > Customers.  (You might need to scroll right on the page.) Click the Balance column to sort by balance Low to High with credits first. Click the Balance column again to sort by High to Low with money owed to you first.

* The balance forward will not show on an invoice/work order if you have selected

 [x] Hide invoice information for new work orders by default in Settings/Work Orders
-or-
[x] Hide balance forward on work orders and invoices in the customer's location page

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