---
title: Choosing a starting balance (BS/CF)
description: When you are using our Balance Sheet and Cash Flow feature, you'll need to import a starting balance so that you see the correct data, but what date should this balance come from? There are two consid
---
[Skip to content](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/knowledge/choosing-a-starting-balance-bs/cf#main-content)
[More support](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/kb-tickets/new) [Customer Portal](https://community.budgyt.com/customer-portal)
Open main navigation
Close main navigation
- [More support](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/kb-tickets/new)
- [Customer Portal](https://community.budgyt.com/customer-portal)
Helping you with what's needed next
- There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.
1. [Knowledge-Base | Trials](https://community.budgyt.com/trials)
2. [Features and Capabilities](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities)
3. [Balance Sheet and Cash Flow](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#balance-sheet-and-cash-flow)
# Choosing a starting balance (BS/CF)
When you are using our **Balance Sheet and Cash Flow** feature, you'll need to import a starting balance so that you see the correct data, but what date should this balance come from?
There are two considerations here:
1. How far back to do you want to be able to review your actual data?
2. How far back is your chart of accounts in the same format?
If you've made structural changes to your COA, or some of your older data is not as clean as you'd like, then you should choose a date after that point, and if you only need to see the last two years of actual data, then maybe use the trial balance from the end of the previous fiscal year.
Once the trial balance from your starting point has been imported, every import of actual data subsequent to that date will update the deltas and adjust the balance sheet balances accordingly.
When importing actual data you won't need to check the **Run Double Entry** box as all the balances will already be available in the imported data.
- [Admins](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#main-content)
- [Multi-Currency](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#multi-currency)
- [Scenarios (Budgets)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#scenarios-budgets)
- [Settings & Configuration](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#settings-configuration)
- [Reports & Visualizations](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#reports-visualizations)
- [Dimensions](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#dimensions)
- [Payroll (Employees)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#payroll-employees)
- [Data/Formula](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#data-formula)
- [Balance Sheet and Cash Flow](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/admins#balance-sheet-and-cash-flow)
- [Regular Users](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#main-content)
- [Troubleshooting](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#troubleshooting)
- [Data Sheet](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#data-sheet)
- [Getting Started](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#getting-started)
- [Payroll (Employees)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#payroll-employees)
- [Multi-Currency](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#multi-currency)
- [Dashboards](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#dashboards)
- [Approvals](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#approvals)
- [Scenarios (Budgets)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/regular-users#scenarios-budgets)
- [FAQ](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#main-content)
- [Dashboards](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#dashboards)
- [Departments](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#departments)
- [Settings & Configuration](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#settings-configuration)
- [Approvals](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#approvals)
- [Scenarios (Budgets)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#scenarios-budgets)
- [Categories](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#categories)
- [Navigation & User Interface](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#navigation-user-interface)
- [Reports](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#reports)
- [Data Sheet](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#data-sheet)
- [Setup & Onboarding](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/faq#setup-onboarding)
- [Features and Capabilities](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#main-content)
- [Approvals](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#approvals)
- [Multi-Currency](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#multi-currency)
- [Departments](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#departments)
- [Multi-Entity](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#multi-entity)
- [Balance Sheet and Cash Flow](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#balance-sheet-and-cash-flow)
- [General](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/features-and-capabilities#general)
- [Video Library](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#main-content)
- [Getting Started](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#getting-started)
- [Payroll (Employees)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#payroll-employees)
- [Formulas (C2C's & FOAs)](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#formulas-c2cs-foas)
- [Dashboards](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#dashboards)
- [Data Sheet](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#data-sheet)
- [Reports & Visualizations](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/video-library#reports-visualizations)
- [Tips](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/tips#main-content)
- [Free Trial Tips](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/tips#free-trial-tips)
- [Top Tips](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/tips#top-tips)
- [Release Notes](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/release-notes#main-content)
- [2023](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/release-notes#2023)
- [2021](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/release-notes#2021)
- [2022](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/release-notes#2022)
- [2020](https://community.budgyt.com/trials/release-notes#2020)
[](http://budgyt.com)
[mailto:email@email.com](mailto:email@email.com)
Copyright © 2025, Budgyt Inc