Before your first journal, choose a start month, check ScaleXP holds every invoice behind it, and line up your opening balances. Complete the sections for the journals you use and skip the rest.

1. Pick a start month

1. Pick the first month ScaleXP will post journals for.
2. Choose a month after any financial close that can no longer be reopened. This is usually your last year end, but it can be earlier or later.
3. Choose a month you can easily document as a starting point, so any audit conversation about the changeover is simple.
4. You will enter this as the Journal Start Date in Setup 3.

2. Check your invoices from the start month

Journals depend on ScaleXP holding every invoice with revenue in months on or after your start month.

1. Check your ScaleXP invoice import date is early enough to include every invoice with revenue recognized on or after the start month, and that revenue from those invoices spreads correctly.
2. Add anything missing. It is often simpler to add a missing invoice manually than to change the import window. See How to add a manual invoice to adjust ScaleXP revenue recognition, or email support@scalexp.com.
3. Walk through the Revenue Recognition report from your start month forward and check the spread for every material customer. Use the checklist in Part 2 of Setup 1.

3. Choose your balance sheet accounts

1. Deferred revenue: the balance sheet account you use for deferred revenue (deferred income). If your previous method was very different from ScaleXP's, consider a new deferred revenue account so the changeover is easier to audit. See Option 2 in How to adjust the starting balance sheet for deferred revenue.
2. Accrued revenue: the balance sheet account you use for accrued revenue (accrued income).
3. You will select these accounts in Setup 3.

4. Line up your opening balances

Deferred revenue: if you have deferred a high volume of invoices over a long period, your opening balance is unlikely to match ScaleXP's calculation exactly. Small differences in included revenue, or in how revenue is spread across days and months, add up over time.

1. Post a one-time adjusting entry to bring your opening balance into line with ScaleXP. From then on, every journal is clean and backed by line-level downloads.
2. See How to adjust the starting balance sheet for deferred revenue for the steps.

Accrued revenue: if you already carry accrued revenue on your balance sheet, make sure the balance at your start month is also in ScaleXP.

1. Add any accrued revenue not yet in ScaleXP as manual accrued revenue. See Accrued revenue 1: Add accrued revenue.
2. Compare the two balances in section 6 of the Accrued Revenue Journal page. The ScaleXP team can also help during onboarding.