Entering Beginning Balances

If you start to use Job Cost in the middle of an existing job, you can enter beginning balances in the Job Transaction Entry window (Transactions > Job Cost > Job Transaction Entry). You can enter beginning balances any time during your fiscal year.

When you set up a job for the first time, you enter beginning balances for all applicable cost codes with your job transaction entries. Since Job Cost creates a general ledger journal entry as costs post, you should enter a debit amount and a credit amount to the same account. This results in having no effect on posting account balances in the general ledger, but it provides your job's cost codes with the beginning balances.

If you enter beginning cost balances, keep in mind that if you want to view summary amounts for previous periods, enter a separate transaction for each period using an applicable posting date.