Migrating history from the trial balance

The trial balance gives each account’s balance, without the entry detail. It is the fastest way to start when detailed history is not needed, or when the previous software exports nothing else. By the end of this page, you will know which balance to upload and what SynkriaOps does with it.

What the trial balance brings over

Item	Migrated
Balances by account	Yes
Third-party accounts	Yes
Entry detail	No
Journals and matching	No

No detail, no matching

A trial balance gives a customer’s balance, not the list of their unpaid invoices. To chase invoice by invoice from the start, migrate the general ledger or the FEC instead.

The three recognised formats

SynkriaOps reads the column headers and recognises the balance’s structure:

Format	Columns	What SynkriaOps does
Simple balance	Account, label, debit, credit	The balances become the fiscal year’s opening position
6-column balance	Opening debit/credit, closing debit/credit	Opening on the first day; movements derived by difference, on the last day
8-column balance	Opening, movements and closing, in debit and credit	Opening on the first day, movements on the last day of the fiscal year

Amounts are dated at the fiscal year’s boundaries: it is the only date a balance can vouch for.

Migrating the trial balance

1. Open Settings → Opening balance import, click New migration and enter the fiscal year.

2. At the Source step, choose Trial balance and upload the file (.xlsx, .csv or .pdf).

3. Columns: check that each amount column is recognised with its nature (opening, movements, closing).

4. Accounts: map each account to the SYSCOHADA chart and create customers and suppliers as third parties.

5. Checks, Reconstruction, then Launch the import.

Which balance to upload

• To start on 1 January 2026: the 2025 closing balance, uploaded on fiscal year 2026. Its balances become the opening entries. The expense and income accounts it contains are kept as historical carry-forwards: they do not enter the 2026 result.
• To migrate the whole of 2025: the 2025 8-column balance, which gives both the opening and the year’s movements.

Checking the result

• Total debit equals total credit in View the Trial Balance.
• Balances of accounts 411, 401, 521 and 571 identical to the original balance.
• For a 6- or 8-column balance, Result for the year equal to the previous software’s.

Further reading

• Migrating the current fiscal year →: complete an opening balance with the months already gone.
• Opening balances explained →
• Migration overview →