In this article, we describe how you can enter the comparison year data into the program.

Preparation

First, create a financial year for the reference year in Settings - Accounting - Financial year (if the financial year has not been created yet). By default, the program suggests the next financial year as the period for the new period, but the dates of the period can be changed to match the comparison year. After this is done, at the top right of the screen you can select the comparison year as the accounting period you are working in.

Next, generate a detailed balance sheet report and profit and loss report (using the versions of the reports which show all used accounts) from the comparison year.

If you are not yet fully familiar with the chart of accounts used in Briox, we recommend that you also open it in a tab. You can find it e.g. in Reports - Reports in the list REGISTRIES & LISTS:

When you generate the chart of accounts, we recommend that you include all accounts, so that the printed list shows both active and inactive accounts:

It's good to have the chart of accounts at hand, as you can then search for matching accounts in Briox chart of accounts.

If you can't find a direct numerical equivalent in Briox for an account you've used in a previous system, you can search for a suitable replacement account in Briox based on the account name instead. Once you have the chart of accounts in a new tab, you can search for accounts using CTRL + F/CMND + F.

Once you have created the comparison year and compared the accounts, you can go to the Accounting - Journals section and start entering balances using the Create Journals function:

Registering in journals

You can freely enter the following information:

• The posting date of the journal 
• The description of the journal
• The journal type of the journal

The journal description can be, for example, “Comparison year data” and the date is usually set to the last day of the financial year.

The account balances from the reports are entered in the accounting grid as follows:

• Assets: positive values to the debit column, negative to the credit column
• Liabilities: positive values to the credit column, negative values to the debit column
• Profit and loss statement: positive values to the credit column, negative values to the debit column

The balance sheet and the profit and loss statement can be posted in the same journal or, if you wish, you can post a separate journal for each report. If you post the reports in separate journals, you can use the following accounts from Briox standard chart of accounts for the counter entry:

• Balance sheet: 2371 (profit)/ 2375 (loss)
• Income statement: 9999 (net profit)

If you post both reports in the same journal, you will get a direct balancing in the journal. However, we recommend that you also use the above accounts as counter accounts for the reports in this case. Posting the result to these accounts will help you manage the opening balances.

If in your previous program you have not allocated the profit/loss of the previous financial year, you can book the result to account 2251 in Briox.

NOTE! When working in the journal tool, remember that you can always save the journal as a draft even if the journal does not yet balance.

The saved journal (not yet posted) can be found under Accounting - Journals in the group called Drafts. There you can open the saved, not yet posted, journal and continue your work where you left off.

Once you have completed the journal, you can post it by pressing the Post button. Once this has been done, in the next financial year it will appear in the comparison columns of the balance sheet and profit and loss statement.

If the account is not immediately found in the account table

When you enter numbers in the account table, the program opens a list of the active accounts that match the entry:

Some of the accounts you need to register may be inactive. If you can't find the account you need directly among the suggested accounts, you can check if the account you need is in the Briox chart of accounts. In the first chapter of this article, we described how you can open the chart of accounts in another tab (Reports - Reports). If the account you need is in the chart of accounts, but it is currently inactive, you can enter the account number in the account table and press Enter:

The program will offer you the possibility to activate the account:

If the account you need does not exist at all and you cannot find a suitable replacement in the Briox chart of accounts, you can enter the account number in the account table and also in this case press Enter.

In this case, the program will offer you the possibility to add the account to the chart of accounts:

By clicking OK, the program will take you to a view in which you can add details for the account:

Here you will find a more detailed description of how to create a new account. Once you have saved your new account, the program will redirect you back to the journal view, and your newly created account will be located on the following line of the journal:

Transfer balance

Once you have posted the balance for the comparison year, you can switch to the following financial year in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Now you can transfer the balance from the previous financial year to the opening balance of the following financial year according to the following instructions.

The balances of accounts 2371 & 2375 are not automatically allocated to account 2251 (Results of previous financial year) when the balance is transferred. Instead, a manual journal can be created at the beginning of the following financial year to transfer the balances of accounts 2371/ 2375 to account 2251.

If you add accounts to the chart of accounts for the comparison year, you must also add them for the following financial year. If not all accounts are in the chart of accounts for the following financial year, you will receive a warning that the balances are not in balance when you make the balance transfer. Once you have added the missing accounts, you can go to Registry - Chart of accounts - Opening balances and do the transfer again. Opening balances can be transferred more than once. The transfer will always retrieve the current booked balances from the previous financial year.

Customer starting with Briox in the middle of its financial year

If a customer switches to Briox in the middle of its financial year, the opening balances of the accounting already done in another program can be entered in the same way as above (if you are content to import only the balance of the period into Briox).

Example: The customer's financial year is 1.1. - 31.12.2025. The financial year up to March has been recorded in another program, and from March onwards the accounting will be done in Briox. In this case, you can take the balance sheet and profit and loss statement generated by the customer's old system, filter them to the period: 1.1. - 31.3.2025, and use these reports to make entries at the beginning of the financial year in Briox.

When posting balances for an already ended period, you can again use accounts 2371/ 2375 & 9999 to post the reports. When the financial year done in Briox ends, take into account the posting you have already made when processing the result of the financial year; do not post a report at the end of the accounting period for the result of the whole period, instead, deduct posting the part you have already posted.