| name | opening-balances-and-migration-playbook |
| description | Cutover from legacy Excel / QuickBooks / Tally / Sage / POS / manual systems into Chwezi. Defines the conversion-date model, CoA mapping, opening trial balance, opening subledgers (AR / AP / Inventory / Fixed Assets / Payroll / Tax), bank / mobile-money / cash opening balances, migration suspense, reviewer sign-off, and acceptance evidence. Use whenever a software system, SRS, SDS, test plan, proposal, or business plan involves data migration, cutover, opening balances, or legacy-system replacement. |
Opening Balances and Migration Playbook
Overview
Migration must not preserve bad architecture. The cutover converts legacy data into the new accounting model with explicit mapping, tie-outs, and reviewer sign-off. Trial-balance-only migration is not sufficient where open subledgers exist.
Required first reads
doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.mddoctrine/references/chart-of-accounts.mddoctrine/references/ledger-invariants.mddoctrine/references/required-patterns.mddoctrine/references/forbidden-patterns.md (migration section)- This skill's
references/cutover-pack.md.
Conversion-date model
A single named conversion date per entity. All balances are at end-of-business on the conversion date. Operational postings before the conversion date live in the legacy system; postings from the day after live in Chwezi. The conversion-date journal is the opening journal.
Cutover pack (mandatory contents)
| # | Item |
|---|
| 1 | Named conversion date and effective time zone. |
| 2 | Legacy trial balance: legacy account, balance, currency, mapped Chwezi account. |
| 3 | Legacy chart-of-accounts to Chwezi CoA mapping (every legacy account either mapped or routed to Migration Suspense with reason). |
| 4 | Opening journal in Chwezi: balanced; per currency; per book. |
| 5 | AR open items: customer, invoice, date, amount, currency, ageing bucket, document reference. Tied to AR control account. |
| 6 | AP open items: supplier, bill, date, amount, currency, ageing bucket, document reference. Tied to AP control account. |
| 7 | Inventory: SKU, location, quantity, unit cost, valuation method (FIFO / weighted average — never LIFO), total value. Tied to Inventory control accounts. |
| 8 | Fixed assets: asset, class, acquisition date, cost, accumulated depreciation, useful life, depreciation method, residual value, location, custodian. Tied to FA cost and accumulated-depreciation accounts. |
| 9 | Bank balances: account, currency, balance, latest reconciled date, reconciliation evidence. |
| 10 | Mobile-money balances: provider, account, balance, reconciliation evidence. |
| 11 | Cash on Hand / petty cash: location, count, custodian, evidence. |
| 12 | Card / mobile-money settlement clearing balances at cutover. |
| 13 | Payroll liabilities: PAYE, NSSF, WHT, salaries payable, by employee schedule. |
| 14 | Tax liabilities: Output VAT, Input VAT, WHT, income tax payable, by tax-code schedule. |
| 15 | Borrowings: lender, principal outstanding, accrued interest, repayment schedule, security. |
| 16 | Provisions: nature, opening balance, basis, expected timing. |
| 17 | Equity: share capital, share premium, retained earnings, other reserves. |
| 18 | Migration suspense account: must reach zero or be formally waived with sign-off. |
| 19 | Source-evidence index: every figure traceable to a legacy source. |
| 20 | Preparer, reviewer, approver names, roles, sign-offs, timestamps. |
Workflow
- Scope and freeze. Confirm entities, books, currencies, sectors, integrations, and roles. Freeze legacy data at conversion date.
- Map. CoA mapping; product / SKU mapping; customer / supplier mapping; tax code mapping.
- Extract. Pull legacy trial balance and subledger detail.
- Stage. Import into Chwezi staging; do not post yet.
- Tie-out. Each subledger reconciled to its control balance; variances surfaced.
- Suspense. Unmapped or unresolved balances routed to Migration Suspense with ageing and owner.
- Post opening journal. Through the posting service, balanced by currency, dimensions applied, period state = opening (a special state preceding
open).
- Sign off. Preparer, reviewer, approver — typically Accountant + Controller + CFO / finance lead.
- Go-live. Period state moves to
open at the day after conversion. The opening journal is immutable.
- Post-cutover review. First-close governance is enhanced for the first three months.
Opening journal example (illustrative)
Date: 2026-04-30 23:59
Period: opening
Book: IFRS for SMEs
Currency: UGX (entity)
Source: cutover-pack-2026-04-30 v1.0
Approval: Jane Doe (Accountant); Peter Bamuhigire (Controller); Ssempa Joseph (CFO)
Dr 1000 Cash on Hand 1,200,000
Dr 1100 Bank — Stanbic UGX 25,400,000
Dr 1200 Mobile Money — MTN Business 4,250,000
Dr 1300 Trade Receivables Control 15,600,000
Dr 1500 Inventory Control — Main Warehouse 18,900,000
Dr 1700 Fixed Assets — Land 60,000,000
Dr 1710 Fixed Assets — Buildings 40,000,000
Dr 1730 Fixed Assets — Furniture & Fittings 3,500,000
Dr 1990 Migration Suspense 0
-----------
168,850,000
Cr 1790 Accumulated Depreciation Control 12,500,000
Cr 2000 Trade Payables Control 7,800,000
Cr 2100 Output VAT Control 1,250,000
Cr 2110 PAYE Payable 450,000
Cr 2120 NSSF Payable 260,000
Cr 2300 Salaries Payable 140,000
Cr 2600 Borrowings — Bank Loan Current Portion 10,000,000
Cr 2700 Borrowings — Bank Loan Non-current 45,000,000
Cr 3000 Issued Share Capital 20,000,000
Cr 3200 Retained Earnings 71,450,000
-----------
168,850,000
Suspense: 0 (waiver: not required)
Migration suspense
Migration Suspense (CoA 1990) is a cutover-only clearing. It accepts items that cannot be mapped at cutover. Each suspense item carries:
- Description
- Legacy reference
- Amount
- Ageing target (default: cleared within 30 days of go-live)
- Owner
- Resolution plan
- Status
A non-zero suspense at sign-off requires a formal waiver: scope, value, plan, due date, approver.
Tie-outs (mandatory)
| Tie-out | Source A | Source B | Acceptance |
|---|
| AR | AR control account balance | AR subledger open-item sum | Equal to the cent. |
| AP | AP control account balance | AP subledger open-item sum | Equal. |
| Inventory by location | Inventory control account | Inventory subledger sum | Equal per location. |
| Fixed Assets | FA cost - Accumulated depreciation control | Asset register sum | Equal. |
| Bank | Bank GL closing | Bank statement closing | Equal as at conversion date. |
| Mobile money | MoMo GL closing | Provider statement closing | Equal. |
| Cash on Hand | Cash GL | Physical count | Equal. |
| Payroll liabilities | Payroll GL controls | Payroll schedule sum by liability | Equal. |
| Tax control accounts | Tax GL | Tax-return schedules | Equal. |
Sign-off
Preparer (Accountant) + Reviewer (Controller) + Approver (CFO / finance lead) — recorded in the audit log with timestamps and role context. Approval also includes confirmation that:
- LIFO is not the inventory valuation method.
- Tax-control balances are tied to verifiable schedules.
- Suspense is zero or waiver is documented.
- Conversion date is recorded.
Acceptance evidence
- Cutover pack (per content list above).
- Tie-out reports.
- Opening journal posted and locked.
- Sign-off audit-log entries.
- Gate manifest state:
pass or pass-with-caveats if suspense is waived.
Forbidden patterns
- Trial-balance-only migration where open subledgers exist (blocker).
- LIFO inventory in opening balances under IFRS / IFRS for SMEs (blocker).
- Hardcoded statutory liability balances copied from legacy without tie-out (blocker).
- Suspense waived without sign-off (blocker).
- Posting opening journal outside the posting service (blocker).
Files
SKILL.md.references/cutover-pack.md — full template.references/legacy-source-extractors.md — extractors for QuickBooks, Tally, Sage, Excel.examples/sme-cutover-pack-2026-04-30.md — worked example.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-12. Next review due: 2026-11-12.
Prerequisites
- Load
doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.md before applying this skill.
- Load
governance/finance-accounting-quality-gate.md when the output is a release, client artefact, SRS, SDS, proposal, business plan, or implementation plan.
- Use
doctrine/source-register/ for final statutory, tax, payroll, FX, EFRIS, eTIMS, or authority-template values.
Inputs
| Artifact | Produced by | Required? | Validation |
|---|
| Finance context map | finance-module-audit | Required | Entity, framework, jurisdiction, modules, users, and deployment context are named. |
| Doctrine baseline | Doctrine owner | Required | Doctrine version and reporting framework are stated. |
| Source-register snapshot | tax-statutory-source-register-and-country-packs | Required for final statutory output | Entries are verified-current or reviewer-approved verified-with-caveat. |
| Ledger/posting context | ledger-posting-engine-core | Required when postings are affected | Posting boundary, CoA mappings, control accounts, dimensions, and period state are known. |
Outputs
| Artifact | Consumed by | Acceptance evidence |
|---|
| Skill-specific decision record | Implementer, reviewer, quality gate | Scope, assumptions, chosen treatment, rejected alternatives, and caveats are recorded. |
| Implementation or workflow contract | Software, SRS, SDS, proposal, or business-plan engine | Contract names inputs, outputs, controls, evidence, and failure conditions. |
| Acceptance evidence | Finance quality gate | Tests, fixtures, examples, source links, reviewer sign-off, or evidence-pack references are present. |
| Plain-language explanation | Client, owner, manager, operator | Business meaning is stated before technical accounting treatment where client-facing. |
Decision Rules
- Prefer IFRS for SMEs for typical SME entities unless full IFRS, local law, donor requirements, or client policy requires otherwise.
- Treat every money-touching workflow as ledger, control, reconciliation, evidence, and reporting scope.
- Do not finalize statutory values without source-register support and reviewer status.
- Use business-language output for operators and accountant-language output for ledger, reporting, and audit users.
- Escalate uncertain framework, tax, or statutory interpretations to the required reviewer role instead of presenting them as final.
Acceptance Evidence
- Inputs and outputs above are present or explicitly marked not applicable.
- Relevant quality-gate blockers have been checked and no blocker remains unresolved.
- Examples or fixtures cover at least one happy path and one failure or caveat path for this skill's domain.
- Reviewer role, review date, and open caveats are recorded for release-grade artefacts.
Anti-Patterns
- Treating draft planning assumptions as final statutory or accounting facts.
- Hiding tax, payroll, FX, or authority-template caveats in prose instead of source-register state.
- Producing technically correct accounting output without a plain-language layer for non-accountant users.
- Closing a remediation or implementation item without observable evidence.
Required References
doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.md.governance/finance-accounting-quality-gate.md.docs/reference-manifest.md for declared reference states.- Domain-specific references listed earlier in this skill.
Examples
- Include at least one normal workflow example for this skill's domain.
- Include at least one exception, rejection, reversal, stale-source, or reviewer-caveat example where the domain can fail.
Review Metadata
Last reviewed: 2026-05-15. Next review due: 2026-11-15.
