Entering historical transactions

Historical transactions overview

The New Company Setup Assistant helped you summarize the status of your company as of your start date.

Now you can enter every transaction that has occurred between your start date and today. All your account balances will then be up to date and you will be able to get accurate reports.

Do not start with your bank account

You must enter the following kinds of transactions before you enter anything directly in your bank account.

Purchase transactions

Enter historical purchase transactions in the order in which they occurred.

Sales transactions

Enter historical sales transactions in the order in which they occurred.

Do your bank account last

After you have entered all the transactions listed above, from your start date to today, your QuickBooks bank account will already have the following (if they apply to you):

The only remaining entries you have to add are:

Read before you start

If your start date is a long time ago, we strongly recommend that you read “Entering historical transactions” in the User's Guide before you begin. It's even more work if you have to go back and fix transactions that you enter incorrectly.

What you have already set up

Here is what should be set up in your QuickBooks company file if you have gone through the entire New Company Setup Assistant: