[Sticky] What's the Best Way to Enter Historic or Prior Year Transactions?

You have three main options for bringing historic financial data into Clubtreasurer, depending on the level of detail you need for reporting.

Option A: Loading Detailed Prior-Year Transactions (Full History)

This option is for users who require every individual transaction from previous years to be searchable and visible in Clubtreasurer. The best method is using the Import Transactions feature.

Preparation Checklist

1. Extract Data: Get a .csv file containing the historic transactions you want to import. The minimum data needed per row is Date, Description, and Amount.

2. Adjust Year-End: Go to Setup > Organisation and temporarily set your Financial Year-End to a prior year or an older date. This prevents transaction age-locking.

3. Setup Accounts: Create all necessary Accounts (Bank, Cash, etc.). Ensure their opening balances and dates correctly reflect the cash amount before the earliest transaction you plan to import. Ideally, this should be the day before your earliest transaction.

4. Define Cost Codes: Finalise your Cost Code Structure (Parent Codes and Cost Codes) so you can properly categorise the historic transactions during the import process.

Finally, run the Transaction Import (under the Receipts & Payments menu) to load your detailed history.

Option B: Loading Aggregated Prior-Year Transactions (Summary Only)

This option is simpler and is best if you only need the financial summary (Income and Expenditure) of a previous year, rather than every detail.

The goal is to load your prior year's Profit & Loss (P&L) summary using a single entry per category.

1. Bank Opening Balance: Enter the Bank Account opening balance as the amount existing on 31-DEC of the year prior to the summary period (e.g., 31-DEC-2023).

2. P&L Summary Entry: Enter the aggregate (total) income and expense figures for the prior year (e.g., all of 2024) as single Receipt and Payment Transactions dated 31-DEC of that summary year (e.g., 31-DEC-2024).

3. Result: Your account balances for 1-JAN of the current year will now be correct, and you will have summarized prior-year P&L data.

Tip for Multiple Accounts: If you have several bank/cash accounts, you should enter the P&L summary entries (Step 2) independently for each account. If separating them is difficult, enter the summary into a single account, and then record an Account Transfer transaction on the summary date (e.g., 31-DEC-2024) to adjust cash balances between accounts.

Option C: No Prior-Year Transactions Required (Clean Start)

If you do not need historic transaction data in Clubtreasurer, this is the simplest method:

• Simply enter your Account Opening Balances (Bank and Cash) as at the day before you officially start using Clubtreasurer (e.g., 31-DEC-2024).

• Use your bank statements or closing Trial Balance to find these amounts.

Note on Other Balances: If your organisation has outstanding debtor/creditor balances, fixed assets, or stock accounts that you need to carry forward, please open a Support Ticket and we will assist you with the final steps of your transition.

Which of these options sounds most appropriate for your current setup needs?