Import accounting entries (journal, general ledger, FEC)

Why it matters

Your accounting firm keeps some of the entries, or your old software holds thousands of them. Instead of re-entering them, import a journal, a general ledger or an FEC: each entry is recreated with its document, accounts and journal.

Summary

Did your accounting firm or old software give you your entries? No need to re-enter them: Genuka imports a journal, a general ledger or an FEC (CSV or Excel) and recreates each entry, with its document, accounts and journal. This works even if accounting is already initialized and the fiscal year has already started: there is no closing or reset to do.

Prerequisites

• The Manage accounting right (accounting.*).
• An open fiscal year covering the entry dates (create it first if needed). Entries in a closed fiscal year or a closed period are refused.

Steps

1. Accounting › Fiscal › Imports, tab Entries (/accounting/imports?type=journal-entries). A CSV template shows the expected format.
2. Set the options:
   • Default journal, for a file with no journal column;
   • Status of the imported entries: posted (default) or draft, to review before posting;
   • Import from / Import until: the changeover date (see below).
3. Upload the file and check the column mapping. Only the date is required, along with the amounts: Debit/Credit columns, or Amount + Direction (D/C). The column names of an FEC and of common French exports are recognized automatically.
4. Check the preview: number of entries, rejected entries and why, duplicates, journals and accounts that will be created, and above all the overlap warning.
5. Import. Beyond 500 lines, the import runs in the background: follow its progress in the history, under the tabs.

How entries are rebuilt

• By entry number if there is one, otherwise by document number + date, otherwise by a reference slipped into the description (BNK1/2025/00461), otherwise by grouping consecutive lines of the same journal and the same date until they balance.
• In a general ledger, the account written on the header line ("401100 Suppliers") is carried onto the lines below it; total lines are ignored.
• The document becomes the entry's reference; Genuka assigns its own entry number. The original number, the subsidiary account and the reconciliation letter are kept on the lines.
• Missing journals and accounts are created from the file; existing ones are not modified.

Edge cases & common errors

• Counting twice. This is the main trap: if Genuka has already recorded sales or payments over the same period, importing the old software's journal would book them a second time. The preview shows how many entries Genuka already holds over the period, by journal. Then set a changeover date ("Import until"): old software entries before it, Genuka entries after it.
• Opening balances twice. If the file contains the opening entries (journal AN) and you also imported an opening trial balance, they are counted twice. Exclude one of the two.
• Unbalanced or single-line entry. It is rejected on its own, with its line numbers; the others are imported. Fix it in the file and import again.
• Re-importing the same file. Safe: an entry that is already there (same journal, same reference, same date) is skipped and counted as a duplicate.
• Unreadable date. The formats 31/01/2025, 2025-01-31, 20250131 and Excel dates are read; a line with an unreadable date is flagged and its entry rejected.

FAQ

Do I need to close the fiscal year or wipe everything first? No. The import adds the entries to the open fiscal year. Closing would not help: closing carries balances forward, it does not erase anything.

I only have the trial balance, not the detail? Import the trial balance (the Trial balance tab): you carry over the opening balances, without the detail of the transactions.

Can I import my journals first? Yes, tab Journals: code, name and type. An existing journal has its name updated, never its type.

See also

• Import a trial balance (opening balances)
• Fiscal years and accounting periods
• The chart of accounts