Lazy8 Ledger

The solution to this problem is not as simple as many book-keeping programs have solved it. Most book-keeping programs allow either unbalenced transactions or have simply a field in the account definition for an incoming balance. In Lazy8Ledger, neither of the above ‘simple’ solutions are available. All transactions in Lazy8Ledger must be balanced. The solution I have come up with is the following.
1. Create an ‘Accounting period’ for the period prior to your present ‘Accounting period.’ For example, if your present accouting period is 2009-01-01 to 2009-12-31 then create an accouting period for 2008-01-01 to 2008-12-31.
2. Restart Lazy8Ledger(jEdit). You will be asked to choose which accounting period to work with. Choose the earlier accounting period.
3. Now enter a new transaction for the last day of the accouting period. In this transaction you can enter all your accounts that require an incoming balance. The hard part is that you must balance this transaction so if you enter an incoming amount into an account, you must then enter the same amount into another account to balance the transaction. Deciding which account to balance with is not always so easy and may require help of an accountant. If you are very good with accounting, you should be able to quickly come up with the right account to balance with. One technique that works for me to balance out ‘Capital or debts’ accounts (‘Capital or debts’ accounts are often the only accounts needing incoming balances) is to simply create an account called ‘Incoming Balances’ and be sure that this account is NOT marked as ‘Capital or debts’. Then use this ‘Incoming Balances’ account to balance out all the other ‘Capital or debts’ accounts incoming amounts.
4. Restart Lazy8Ledger(jEdit). You will be asked to choose which accounting period to work with. Choose the accounting period that you want to begin entering real transactions into.
Thats it.