# Handle an opening balance correctly

Category: Billing

Before you start: confirm the correct school and role. Use approved source records; perform live changes only within your assigned authority.

The opening balance is a cutover tool, not a tuition-rate field.

- Enter a positive opening balance only when creating a new family and the family already owes a verified amount from before The BEE Suite cutover date.
- Leave it blank or `0` for a new family with no prior debt, normal weekly tuition setup, new invoices, or an existing family.
- Leave it `0` if historical open invoices will be entered or imported separately; otherwise the same debt is counted twice.
- Never enter the weekly tuition rate as an opening balance.
- Never use a negative opening balance. Record a verified credit, agency payment, refund, or adjustment through the family ledger with its source and approval.
- Stop and reconcile the ledger if you are unsure whether the amount is debt, a payment, or a credit.

The intake form blocks negative opening balances and blocks adding another opening balance to a matched existing family.

## Verify the result

Prior debt appears once and is supported by cutover records.

## If something goes wrong

Never enter weekly tuition or a negative amount as opening debt. Wait for pending actions; reopen the record before retrying an uncertain save or send.

Source: sources/BILLING_ADMIN_SOP.md — Opening Balance: Use Once Or Leave Zero. Prepared October 8, 2026. SOP snapshot e06ad8d5; current source corrections are identified above. Written procedure; not a recording of a completed live action.