Import your closing balance sheet

Your books start on a given day, for example 1 January. Everything the company owned and owed the day before comes in through a single entry, the opening entry: banks, receivables, fixed assets, loans, provisions and capital. Import the closing balance sheet that your fiduciary, your spreadsheet or your previous software closed: To Bill prepares this entry, you check it, then you book it.

Before you start

• You need the right to keep the accounts.
• Have the closing balance sheet for the day before your books start: at 31.12.2025 for books that start on 01.01.2026. A financial year that starts during the year, for example on 1 May, needs the balance sheet at 30 April.
• The balance sheet can be an Excel (.xlsx, .xls), CSV or PDF file, 15 MB at most. A PDF is read with AI: see A balance sheet as a PDF.
• If you have them, add the fixed-asset register and your loans’ repayment schedules, as Excel files. They can also be sheets of the balance sheet’s workbook.
• Your books are not open yet? Import the balance sheet while you turn on accounting: see While you turn on accounting.

Import the balance sheet

Open Accounting › Opening balance. If your books have no opening entry, Health of the books reports it with the Opening balance point, with the Import my closing balance sheet button (1), which leads to the same page.

1. Drop the closing balance sheet in the first box (1), or click it to choose the file.

   

2. If the fixed-asset register or a loan’s repayment schedule is in another file, drop it in the second box (2).

3. Click Read the balance sheet (3).

To Bill recognises the columns for the account number, the description and the balance, or for debit and credit. It skips titles and totals. If it does not recognise the columns, it asks you where they are: choose the Header row and the role of each column, then click Read with these columns.

The Closing balance sheet at 31.12.2025 box checks the file: assets must equal liabilities and equity. If they do not, To Bill gives the difference. A line is missing, or it was read on the wrong side: compare with your document.

No file?

Download the CSV template gives you a file to fill in with a spreadsheet: one line per account, with the number, the description and the balance. An asset is positive, a debt or an equity item negative.

A balance sheet as a PDF

A PDF is read by AI, if an administrator has turned it on in Settings › AI. The file is sent as it is to the AI, which reads the balance sheet lines at the date required, even if the file contains other balance sheets. To Bill then checks these lines against the totals printed on the document: The lines read add up exactly to the totals printed on the document. If they do not, it says where the difference is. You confirm each account before anything is booked.

Without AI, nothing is sent: import the Excel or CSV version of the balance sheet, which your fiduciary usually has, or copy it into the CSV template. See The AI assistant.

Check the accounts

Each line of the balance sheet goes to an account in your chart of accounts, by its number, then by its name. The Match column says how the account was found.

When the number and the name do not say the same thing, To Bill asks the question once, under the line (1). In the example, the fiduciary put the IT equipment on their account 1510. In the Swiss SME chart of accounts, 1510 is furniture and IT is 1520.

1. Read the question.
2. Click Take 1520 (2) for the account the name gives, or Keep 1510 for the number in the file.
3. For another account, choose it in the line’s list. The button next to the list ignores the line.

A number that does not exist in your chart of accounts: To Bill suggests the parent account, or Create account … with the number and the name from the file.

The banks

A balance sheet often gives a single line for all the banks. To Bill splits it across your bank accounts, with the balance of each statement at 31.12.2025 (1).

• On each line, change the bank or the amount. Split across another bank adds a line. New bank account… creates a bank account, when the opening is booked.
• Each bank has its own ledger account: the first on 1020, the next ones on 1021, 1022…
• A difference equal to your invoices still open (2): your balance sheet counted as cash the money from invoices not yet paid at closing. The real balances of your banks and your receivables together give the same total: the entry balances.

Receivables, payables and equity

Receivables and payables compares your balance sheet with what To Bill knows at 31.12.2025: the invoices still open that day, on account 1100, and the supplier invoices paid since, on account 2000.

• Take To Bill’s invoices: recommended. Each payment of these invoices is booked against account 1100: if an invoice is missing from the opening, 1100 goes negative.
• Keep the balance sheet figure: if your fiduciary set it differently, for example because of a disputed invoice.

Equity follows your legal form:

Legal form	At opening
Sole proprietorship	The result for the year, the private account and the contributions are transferred to the capital 2800: Make the closing transfer.
Partnership	The same, to each partner’s capital (2800, 2850). The split follows the partnership agreement.
Company limited by shares (AG), limited liability company (GmbH)	The capital (2800) and the reserves stay as they are. The result for the year opens on 2970 “Retained earnings / accumulated losses brought forward”, until the general meeting decides.

Fixed assets and loans

With a fixed-asset register, each asset joins your fixed assets: acquisition cost, depreciation already booked, useful life, rate and method. Depreciation continues from the first day of your books.

To Bill compares the register’s net book values with the balance sheet, account by account. It flags a rate above the one the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) allows. Untick an asset to leave it out.

With a loan’s repayment schedule, To Bill compares its balance at closing with the balance sheet, and lists the instalments still to pay.

Create the bank rule (1) proposes the loan account for each instalment that shows up in the bank: the instalment reduces the debt instead of being an expense. You accept the proposal line by line. See Bank rules and automations.

Book the opening

The opening entry is dated on the first day of your books, with one line per account.

1. Read the entry. Under each account, To Bill says where the amount comes from.
2. Check the Total (1): debit must equal credit.
3. Click Book the opening (2). While a point is still open, for example an account to confirm, the button stays inactive and To Bill lists what is missing.

To Bill confirms the entry’s number and what it created: fixed assets, bank rule, bank accounts. The imported file is the entry’s supporting document: you download it from the entry, in the journal. The Opening balance point disappears from Health of the books.

When the entry does not balance

To Bill shows how much is missing, and on which side. First correct a line, for example a bank or the receivables. If the difference is intended, choose the Account for the difference and click Balance automatically: the line is marked as calculated in the journal, for your fiduciary to check. To Bill never balances without you.

Undo or replace the opening

Undo (1) books the opposite entry, a reversal, on the same day. Nothing is deleted. The fixed assets created by the import are removed as long as no depreciation has been booked, and the bank rule is paused.

Your books already have an opening entry, for example the one from the activation? Import your fiduciary’s balance sheet and tick Replace it: the old entry is reversed on the same day, and the new one is booked in its place.

Earlier imports stay listed at the bottom of the page, under Previous imports.

With or without AI

Everything works without AI, except reading a PDF. With AI, Explain with the Copilot opens the Copilot on your import: what was read, where each line goes, what needs your attention. It relies on To Bill’s calculations.

While you turn on accounting

Your books are not open yet? In the wizard that turns accounting on, at the Starting point step, keep First day of the year + opening balance, then click Import my closing balance sheet. The same checks appear. Use these lines fills in the opening balance table, and the fixed assets and the loan are created with the books. See Turn on accounting.

Legal basis

• The accounts record transactions completely, truthfully and systematically; every entry is supported by a voucher: Art. 957a para. 2 CO.
• The balance sheet consists of assets and liabilities; liabilities comprise borrowed capital and equity: Art. 959 and 959a CO.
• The loss of value of an asset through use and age is recorded by depreciation: Art. 960a para. 3 CO.
• The books cannot be changed without the change being visible: Art. 3 GeBüV, the Ordinance on the Keeping and Retention of Accounting Records (German version: fedlex has no English one). An opening is therefore corrected by a reversal and a new entry.