You are starting to keep your accounts in Plugin.ch and your previous years are in another program or with your accountant? Export them to Excel and import them: Plugin.ch recognises the accounts and balances, creates the accounts missing from your chart of accounts and writes the balances to the general ledger. You can then continue your accounting in Plugin.ch from the following financial year.

To open the wizard, click Import accounts :

• in Invoices → Manage the general ledger, tab Journal, to the right of the search bar;
• or in Settings → Use ledger, in the page header (the button appears when the general ledger is enabled).

Drag one or more files into the area Drag your files here or click to choose them: balance sheets, income statements, opening balances or a simple chart of accounts. One file can contain several sheets and several years.

The first step of the wizard: uploading the Excel files

Each file is read immediately: the list Files read shows, for each sheet, the number of accounts found. Columns (account number, name, balances) and signs are recognised automatically, whatever the layout of the file. Click Continue.

The Years step shows each balance column found, with its totals (assets, liabilities, income, expenses and result). For each one, choose in What the column contains :

• Year-end closing (balance sheet and result): the balances at the end of a financial year;
• Opening balances (brought forward): the balances carried forward at the start of a financial year;
• Do not import: the column is ignored.

Check the Date of each column. If the file does not give it, it is taken from the title or the file name (to be confirmed), or you must enter it.

Two years found in the same file, with their totals

Further down, the Options block applies to all years:

• Offset account (9100 by default): each balance is posted against this account, which returns to 0 when the balance sheet and the result match;
• Account for the year's result (2891 by default): it receives the result when the following year is opened;
• Open the year that follows the last closing: writes the closing entries and carries the balance sheet forward to the first day of the following year, so you can continue your accounting in Plugin.ch;
• Replace the names of existing accounts: otherwise only the accounts missing from your chart of accounts are added.

The import options

Click Review.

The Review step shows what will be written, year by year: one card per closing and per opening balance, with the voucher number (IMP-…) and the totals. Click Show the … entries to see the details.

Two imported closings and the generated opening of the following year

Read the messages at the top of the step carefully:

• To fix before importing: for example a missing date or an account without a valid number (Plugin.ch uses numbers with 4 to 6 digits). The Import button refuses while an error remains;
• Good to know: remarks that do not prevent the import. For example, if entries or Plugin.ch invoices already exist for the same period, their amounts will be added to the imported balances.

The Chart of accounts table lists the accounts read, with their status: New, Existing, Different name or Number needed. You can change the Plugin no. and the name of an account there before importing; then click again on Review.

The chart of accounts read from the file, compared with the club's

Click Import and confirm. Accounts and entries are written in one go: if an error occurs, nothing is changed. The Import complete screen shows the number of entries and accounts created and offers links to the balance sheet and the income statement of each imported year.

To view the result and continue your accounting, see the article Keeping the accounts with the general ledger.