How to import open invoices and partner balances

What is it for?

It loads the invoices that your previous software still had to collect or to pay, one row per document, so that you can then reconcile each one with its payment when it arrives. The documents become a single journal entry in the opening journal, balanced against an equity account. No certified invoices are created: the old document stays only as a reference on the line.

When to use it?

• When you need to know which invoice each customer or supplier still owes, and not just the account balance.
• When you will reconcile payments with the invoices from the previous software.
• Do not use it together with the opening balances for the same customer and supplier accounts: the balance would be doubled. Choose one of the two for customers and suppliers.
• For a customer or supplier without unpaid documents, without detail, there is the Opening balances by partner screen (see “Important notes”).

Where to find it?

Accounting › Configure › Migration and imports › Import open documents. What each profile sees in the Migration and imports menu (the profile is what you assign to the user in Settings › Users; the screen names are those of the menu):

Profile	Entries of the Migration and imports submenu	Imports open documents
Administrator	All those described in this article	Yes
Certified accountant (the Fiscal officer)	Import open documents, Opening balances by partner, Data import log, Import SAF-T file, Certified documents migration, Migration of series and Migration to organised accounting	Yes
Auditor	Only the Data import log (read-only)	No
Accountant	None	No
Administrative	None	No
Management	None	No

This table was checked by loading the menu with one user of each profile. Assign the profile, not loose access groups: it is the Certified accountant profile that carries the “Fiscal Migration / Import” group needed to import.

Before you start

• Your profile is Administrator or Certified accountant: the Import open documents and Opening balances by partner entries require the “Fiscal Migration / Import” permission, which only these two profiles carry. With the Accountant, Auditor or Administrative profile the menu does not appear: ask someone with one of the two profiles to do the import.

• The customers and suppliers in the file already exist, with a tax number (NIF).

• The file is CSV or XLSX, with a header. Required columns: Parceiro (NIF or exact name), Documento (the reference of the old document) and Valor. Optional: Conta, Data do documento, Vencimento and Moeda. Example, with made-up data (each table row is a file row; save with a semicolon between columns):

  Parceiro	Documento	Valor	Data do documento	Vencimento
  PT501000771	FT 2025/101	1230,00	15/11/2025	15/12/2025
  PT501000771	FT 2025/118	1770,00	20/12/2025	19/01/2026
  PT502000880	FF 2025/77	2500,00	10/12/2025	09/01/2026

• The amount takes a minus sign when the customer is in credit (for example an advance payment) or the supplier is in debit.

• The account of each document: if the Conta column is empty, the product uses the supplier account (2211) only when the partner is only a supplier; in every other case it uses the customer account (2111). A partner created without being marked as a supplier falls into 2111: mark it as a supplier or fill in Conta with 221.

• The Moeda column is optional. The amount is converted to euros at the rate in force on the Reference date (in the demo, 110.00 USD at the rate of 1.1 of 01/12/2025 became €100.00); if the currency has no rate registered on or before the reference date, the product does not import and says so on the document's row (see “Common problems”). Register the rate before importing. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the rate to use when opening foreign-currency documents.

• Vencimento can be left empty: the line is created without a due date.

How to use it

1. In Import pending documents, choose the file in Choose a file and type the Reference date, for example 01/01/2026. Opening journal and Counterpart account are filled in; Mode starts at Create as draft.
2. Click Check. If there are problems, the window lists them with the file's row number (row 1 is the header) and nothing is saved. Correct the file, click Back and choose it again.
3. With no errors, the window says “3 pending documents, customers 3000.00, suppliers 2500.00 EUR (net, in the company currency), to be dated 01/01/2026. Nothing is saved until you press Import.” Check Documents, Customers (net) and Suppliers (net) against the ledger of the previous software and click Import.
4. At “The opening entry will be created. Continue?”, click Confirm. The window says “Opening entry created (Create as draft) with 3 pending documents. Reconcile them with payments from the current account of each partner.” Click See entry, check the lines and click Publish.

Expected result

A posted journal entry in the opening journal, with these lines (those of the demo):

Account	Partner	Description	Debit	Credit
2111 Clientes gerais	Cliente Alfa, Lda	FT 2025/101	€1,230.00
2111 Clientes gerais	Cliente Alfa, Lda	FT 2025/118	€1,770.00
2211 Fornecedores gerais	Fornecedor Beta, SA	FF 2025/77		€2,500.00
561 Resultados transitados		Opening balance		€500.00
Total			€3,000.00	€3,000.00

Line 561 is the Counterpart account: it takes the difference between customers (€3,000.00) and suppliers (€2,500.00). Each document has its own line, with the old reference in the description, so you can reconcile it with the payment from the partner's ledger.

Important notes

The counterpart is the equity account

The wizard balances the entry with the Counterpart account (in the demo, 561 Resultados transitados). If you also imported the opening trial balance, this line doubles the equity. Decide the account with the certified accountant. Pending validation by a certified accountant: counterpart account for the partner opening.

• Opening balances by partner (Accounting › Configure › Migration and imports) is the alternative without a file: a window with Reference date, Opening journal, Counterpart account and Mode, and one line per partner (Partner, Ledger, Currency, Balance, Reversed, Nature, Reference). The window warns “Fill in the reference date of the opening entries.” while the date is empty. Each line becomes a journal entry. We did not use it to save anything.
• The wizard reads the sign of the amount: a minus sign on a customer is an advance payment, and on a supplier it is an amount receivable. An unpaid supplier invoice goes in with a positive amount.
• The import is recorded in the import log: 3 documents give Records created 3 (one per document, all in the same opening entry).
• If you already imported opening balances with the same reference date, the check warns you and only lets you continue if you tick Import again (see “Common problems”).

Common problems

“The date … is in a locked period”

• Symptom: when you click Check, the window says “1 problem(s) found in the file. Nothing was saved.” with Documents 0 and, at row 0: “The date 31/12/2025 is in a locked period (Global lock date (31/12/2025)). Nothing can be imported there; change the date or ask the fiscal manager.”
• Cause: the Reference date falls on or before the company's lock date. The row is 0 because the error is about the date, not about a row of the file.
• What to do: type a date after the lock date. If the opening really has to be in that period, the lock date is changed in Accounting › Close › Year-end closing › Year-end closing panel › Lock dates and exceptions, where the product asks for a reason and records it. Pending validation by a certified accountant: changing a lock date to import an opening.

“The due date … is before the document date”

• Symptom: “The due date 19/12/2025 is before the document date 20/12/2025. Check the two columns.” (row 3 of the example file, where the document is dated 20/12/2025 and the due date is 19/12/2025).
• What to do: check both dates and correct the one that is swapped. An empty due date does not cause an error.

“The document date … is not a valid date”

• Symptom: “The document date "31/02/2025" is not a valid date. Use 2024-12-31 or 31/12/2024.” The message gives only one example of each format; use dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd with a date that exists.
• What to do: correct the date on the indicated row.

“The currency … does not exist”

• Symptom: “The currency "XYZ" does not exist. Use the ISO code (EUR, USD...).”
• What to do: use the ISO code of a currency that exists, or leave the column empty for euros.

“The currency … has no exchange rate registered”

• Symptom: in the check, row 2: “The currency USD has no exchange rate registered on or before 01/01/2026, so its amounts would be converted 1 to 1 into EUR. Register the rate in Accounting › Setup › Currencies (in developer mode) and read the file again.” Nothing is saved.
• What to do: register the currency rate with a date on or before the Reference date and click Back to read the file again.

“An opening balances (or pending documents) entry was already imported on this date”

• Symptom: when you check the opening balances after importing the open documents with the same date (or the other way round), the window warns: “An entry of pending documents (…) was already imported on this date. These opening balances of customers and suppliers may include the same values: importing both would double them. Tick "Import again" only if the two files do not overlap.” When you check the open documents after the balances, it reads: “An opening balances entry (…) was already imported on this date. The balances of customers and suppliers may already include these pending documents: importing both would double the values. Tick "Import again" only if the two files do not overlap.”
• Cause: the customer and supplier accounts would go in twice, once in the opening trial balance and once in the documents.
• What to do: if the two files overlap, do not import the second one. If they do not overlap (for example, the trial balance has no customers or suppliers), tick Import again. In the example, the trial balance had accounts 2111 and 2211, so the second one should not be imported.

“The document … already appears on row …”

• Symptom: “The document "FT 2025/101" of Cliente Alfa, Lda already appears on row 2. One row per pending document.” (the same reference, for the same partner and currency, on two rows).
• What to do: if they are two different documents, give them different references; if it is the same one, delete the repeated row. Do not add up the amounts.

“No partner found”

• Symptom: “No partner found for "PT599999990" (VAT or exact name). Create the partner first; a partner without a VAT number is found by its exact name.”
• What to do: create the customer or supplier with the NIF in the file, or correct the NIF.

“The amount … is not valid”

• Symptom: “The amount "doismil" is not valid. Use a number (1234.56 or 1.234,56), with a minus sign for a customer in credit or a supplier in debit; text or formulas are not accepted.”
• What to do: write the amount with digits only, a decimal comma or point and, where relevant, the minus sign.

The totals do not match the previous software

• Symptom: Customers (net) or Suppliers (net) differ from the balance of the old ledger.
• Cause: the amount shown is net (sum of the documents with their sign), in the company currency. An advance payment with a minus sign reduces the customer's total.
• What to do: check row by row against the partner's statement in the previous software before you click Import.