# How do I enter historical transactions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [March 29, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163 "2018-03-29T01:02:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/1 "2018-03-29T01:02:44Z")
How do I enter old purchase/sales invoices without affecting my current bank/cash balances? ---
**Author:** ![Tut](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/tut/32/3286_2.png) [@Tut](https://forum.manager.io/u/Tut)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/2 "2018-03-29T01:16:44Z")
Purchase and sales invoices do not affect cash or bank transactions. They affect _Accounts payable_ and _Accounts receivable_. Your bank or cash accounts would not be affected until you enter payments and receipts to discharge your debts or record receipts from your customers, posting to A/P and A/R. But why do you want to do this? Did these happen before you started using Manager? ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:32am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/3 "2018-03-29T01:32:03Z")
Yes I have a ton of transactions where i’ve bought inventory & assets and only just now deciding to use Manager. I want to be able to see who/where I’ve bought from & sold to so I can track returning customers and reliable suppliers. But if i add as a purchase/sale invoice it shows up as # days overdue…yet these were paid at the time (before Manager) ---
**Author:** ![Tut](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/tut/32/3286_2.png) [@Tut](https://forum.manager.io/u/Tut)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/4 "2018-03-29T01:44:08Z")
You have two choices: 1. Figure out what all your account balances would have been the day you started using Manager. Set the start date under Settings. Enter your starting balances on that date and forget the prior transactions. Businesses change accounting systems all the time, usually at the beginning of a financial period. See these Guides for information about setting starting balances: [Manager Cloud](https://guides.manager.io/9812) [Manager Cloud](https://guides.manager.io/5494) [Manager Cloud](https://guides.manager.io/7227) 2. Laboriously enter every single transaction from the beginning, including all your bank/cash payments and receipts. You can’t just pick and choose what to enter or nothing will be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/5 "2018-03-29T01:52:11Z")
1. There are no starting balances for suppliers or customers…they’ve all paid in full 2. I’m not picking and choosing what to enter. I just want to know if there is a way to discharge the # of days overdue that shows up when you enter sales/purchase invoices…without having to spend/receive money? ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/6 "2018-03-29T01:57:07Z")
I can’t just “forget the prior transactions” they include inventory I still have on hand and other assets. ---
**Author:** ![sharpdrivetek](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/sharpdrivetek/32/34244_2.png) [@sharpdrivetek](https://forum.manager.io/u/sharpdrivetek)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/7 "2018-03-29T03:32:02Z")
you cannot simply enter financial transactions which would not affect your balances in an accounting software. if you just want to have a record of your prior transactions, enable and use Folders in Manager. you can create any number of folders and attach files to them. create a consolidated data in a spreadsheet or directly attach a copy of your documents in the folder. [https://guides.manager.io/9816](https://guides.manager.io/9816) ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 3:37am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/8 "2018-03-29T03:37:43Z")
I’m starting to think manual accounting was the better way. All i want to do is input ALL the business transactions i have already made prior to today into Manager so that I can keep track of customer and supplier transaction history from Day 1 to now and beyond but my current bank balance will not support ALL those transactions because they affected the bank account prior to today. If i enter them all in and show them all as paid my bank balance will be negative in the thousands… All i want to know is…is there a way to record these past transactions so that 1. they don’t show as unpaid invoices and 2. so that they don’t affect my start date bank balance which is today’s date. YES or NO? Don’t say anything else other than those 2 options…please. ---
**Author:** ![Tut](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/tut/32/3286_2.png) [@Tut](https://forum.manager.io/u/Tut)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/9 "2018-03-29T03:54:52Z")
No ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/10 "2018-03-29T03:58:16Z")
See now that was much easier and quicker… ---
**Author:** ![Brucanna](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/brucanna/32/1960_2.png) [@Brucanna](https://forum.manager.io/u/Brucanna)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/11 "2018-03-29T04:23:15Z")
> [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](#): > > is there a way to record these past transactions so that 1. they don’t show as unpaid invoices and 2. so that they don’t affect my start date bank balance which is today’s date. Sort of Yes, if you create a second Manager Business just for those transactions, so that you can “see who/where I’ve bought from & sold to so I can track returning customers and reliable suppliers” history. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhiannon\_Murphy](https://forum.manager.io/u/Rhiannon_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 4:29am UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/12 "2018-03-29T04:29:19Z")
Thank you Brucanna… ---
**Author:** ![Ealfardan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.manager.io/ealfardan/32/63166_2.png) [@Ealfardan](https://forum.manager.io/u/Ealfardan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2023, 3:12pm UTC](https://forum.manager.io/t/how-do-i-enter-historical-transactions/15163/13 "2023-01-18T15:12:12Z")