• An opening balance of an account in the trial balance that normally has a debit balance is on the credit side or has a credit balance but is on the debit side.
• An accumulated amortization / depreciation contra account should be a negative number instead of positive in the opening balance.

Before starting:

• Opening balances can only modified when you start a new company and when the History option is on the menu bar.
  
• You cannot enter Opening balances after leaving history mode.
• Sage recommends creating a backup of your data by going to DocLink: How do I create a backup?.

Step 1: What account types normally hold a debit or credit balance?

1. Assets - Debit
2. Liabilities - Credit
3. Revenue - Credit
4. Expenses - Debit
5. Owners / Shareholders Equity / Capital - Credit

Notes:

• If any of your accounts hold a balance other than above, enter it as a negative amount on the Setup Guide. See Step 2.
• The exception is that you may have few accounts in the class type that may have a opposite balance, and must be entered as a negative amount in the Setup Guide:

• Asset: Amortization / Depreciation account - Credit
• Owners / Shareholders Equity / Capital: Drawings account - Debit
• Expense: Gain - Credit
• Revenue: Loss - Debit

Step 2: Compare your existing trial balance to the account Setup Guide

• In this example, this is a list of assets that normally hold a debit balance, but two contra accounts hold a credit balance.

• The account Setup Guide can be accessed by going into Setup, Setup Guide, Accounts.
• Because these accounts are assets, enter it as: