Opening balances · Prudent Documentation

The first thing to do when starting a new journal is to define the opening balances for your assets and liabilities.

Assets

An opening balance for an asset (a bank account with some money with it for example) is defined as follows:

2018/01/01
    Assets:Savings:Rosetta  $18000
    Equity:Opening Balances

Stocks and properties

Have a look at the Dealing with stocks and Dealing with properties sections respectively for additional information on opening balances for these asset classes.

Liabilities

The opening balances for liabilities has a - for its value. Liabilities has a negative effect on your net worth:

2018/01/01
    Liabilities:Mortgage:Geppetal  -$28000
    Equity:Opening Balances

Sources

Typical sources for the opening balance information are the online portals of the financial institutions that you deal with.

Completeness

It's your choice how comprehensive you want to be defining opening balances for your assets and liabilities. It is good to cover as many assets and liabilities as possible, it is best to cover all. Completeness is one of the core values that Prudent aim to deliver to its users because finances is one domain where completeness can make a whole world of difference in deriving insights or when making any decisions.