Best Practices for Importing Historical Trial Balances to Cetec ERP
When migrating to a new ERP system, maintaining financial data accuracy is crucial. This is especially true for manufacturers who rely on historical reporting. If you’ve been using an accounting ERP system for years, you’re likely accustomed to running Balance Sheets or Income Statements “as of” any given month in the past. When migrating to Cetec ERP, you can maintain this capability—but it requires proper planning to convert and import historical data accurately.
Here’s how to approach financial data migration to ensure that historical monthly reporting is reliable in Cetec ERP:
Step 1: Gather Historical Trial Balance Data. To recreate historical financial reports in Cetec ERP, you’ll need to gather monthly Trial Balances from your previous system. Specifically, plan to run a Trial Balance for each month-end across every year you want historical reporting for. These Trial Balances are essential because they capture the month-end balances in each account, which Cetec ERP will use to create historical financial reports.
Step 2: Avoid Common Import Pitfalls: Because each new month’s balance is the result of that month’s specific debit and credit transactions, you can’t simply post month-end Trial Balance totals one after another.
To demonstrate why this is important, let’s look at an example:
Imagine a balance of $9,693.13 in account 1010 as of January 31, 2010. In February, the balance changes to $10,693.13. The key to importing this data correctly is to provide Cetec ERP with the delta—the difference between January and February, which in this case is $1,000. Importing this delta ensures that the February balance reflects exactly $10,693.13, instead of accidentally summing up both months’ balances.
Without deltas, both balances would be added, resulting in an incorrect total that doubles the intended amount.
Step 3: Choose Your Approach for Historical Data Conversion There are two main approaches to achieving accurate monthly balances in Cetec ERP: a detailed, month-by-month delta method and a simpler reversal entry approach.
- Option 1: Detailed Delta Calculations
One approach is to calculate the monthly delta (change) for each account. Here’s how this works: Start with month 1’s ending balances and calculate the difference between each month and the previous month, then record each delta as a new GL entry for that month. To organize this approach, create a formula in Excel (e.g., using VLOOKUP) that subtracts each month’s prior balance from the current balance to produce the delta. While accurate, this approach can be complex and time-intensive to set up.
- Option 2: Simple Reversal Entries
A simpler solution is available that avoids month-by-month delta calculations. In this approach, you would create a GL entry with the correct Trial Balance values for the first day of the month. Then, immediately create a reversal entry for that same Trial Balance, set to the last day of the month.
This way, the balances are accurate for every day except the last day of the month, ensuring correct month-end balances across reports. Repeat these entries for each historical month you wish to import, excluding the final month’s reversal before your “go-live” date.
Step 4: Finalize and Check Your Setup: After importing each month’s Trial Balance using the chosen method, be sure to exclude a reversal for the final month’s entry before your go-live date, so future balances start from actual GL entries. Test your setup by running Trial Balance reports within Cetec ERP to confirm balances match as expected.
To avoid zero balances in reports, run historical Trial Balance reports on any day except the last day of each month.
By following these steps and carefully planning the data migration, you’ll be able to recreate accurate historical financial reporting in Cetec ERP. For additional guidance, including detailed instructions on batch-importing journal entries, visit Cetec ERP’s support page. With these tools, you’ll maintain seamless access to historical financial data, ensuring accuracy and continuity as you transition to Cetec ERP. To learn more about batch importing journal entries, check out our video guide.