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You can use the QuickBooks Pro Account Balances import command to retrieve the account balances for your client based on specified date ranges. Because QuickBooks Pro does not store the beginning balances, you need to import the prior-year's ending balances from QuickBooks Pro. Complete the steps in each of the following sections to establish the prior-year balances for your client.

Procedure

A. Steps in Quickbooks Pro

1. Choose Reports > Accountant & Taxes > Trial Balance.
2. Select Last Fiscal Year from the Dates field.
3. Click the Export button on the toolbar, choose new Excel workbook in the Export Report dialog, and click the Export button.

B. Steps in Microsoft Excel

1. After you have completed the steps in the section above, the worksheet will open in Excel automatically.
2. Highlight the first column to the right of the account number/description column and insert two new (blank) columns to serve as the "destination" columns for the next step.
3. To separate the contents of the single account number-plus-description column into two columns, highlight the first column and choose Data > Text to Columns. Choose the Fixed Width option and click Next. Define where the two columns should start and stop and then click Finish.
4. Review each row to identify secondary accounts and delete the primary accounts (if appropriate for the client) but leave the secondary accounts in the spreadsheet. For any accounts that contain sub-account digits, you need to manually edit both the account number and description to correct them.

   Example: If the account column contains account number "4000" and the description column says "Fees Collected:4000.7 Dental Exam/Consultation," change the account number to 4000.7 and correct the description to read "Fees Collected: Dental Exam/Consultation.

5. Add a new column for the account type and tag each account as A (for Asset), L (for Liability or Equity), R (for Revenue), or E (for Expense).
6. Verify that the Excel file contains columns for account number, description, type, and balance amounts. Delete any unneeded columns.
7. Save your changes to the Excel file.

C. Steps in CSA (Trial Balance CS or Accountant's Assistant)

1. For an existing CSA client, choose File > Select Period to Process to move the period back to the prior year.
   For a new client, you can create the client in the prior year. (For example, if the current year is 2008, then the client would be created in 2007.)
2. Choose Utilities > Import > Spreadsheet and then copy and paste the appropriate group of cells from the Excel spreadsheet you prepared in the previous section. Edit each column title to specify the data included in that column (Account Number, Description, Type, Period Balance - Debit, and Period Balance - Credit) and specify the appropriate year-end date for each balance.

   Note: Ending balances can be entered in the Trial Balance grid for new Trial Balance CS clients only in the latest period.

3. When the import is complete, choose File > Select Period to Process and click the Close to Next Year button to move the client to the current year.
4. Click Yes when prompted during the year-end close to carry forward the balance-sheet account balances.
5. To import the client's current-year balance amounts for a Trial Balance CS client, choose Utilities > Import > QuickBooks Pro Account Balances.
   
   Or, if you are a licensed user of Accountant's Assistant, choose Utilities > Accountant's Assistant > QuickBooks Pro - Account Balances Only.

See also: Import QuickBooks Pro account balances - overview

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