In this blog, Moneybird Expert Wubbo Staal from AdminXper explains how to approach this in five steps.

1. Open a Moneybird account
2. Set up the categories
3. Record last year’s closing balance
4. Check the closing balance
5. Lock the previous financial year

1. Open a Moneybird account
Easily create an account via the Moneybird website. Fill in your company details completely and go through all verification steps. Then choose what you want to do with your bank. Open a Moneybird Payment Account or link your existing account, usually via Ponto. This way, your transactions are imported automatically.

2. Set up the categories
Next, you can start setting up the categories*. The easiest way to do this is by using a balance sheet and profit and loss statement from a previous period. Do you already have the figures for the previous financial year, either final or as a draft? Then have them at hand.

On this balance sheet and profit and loss statement, you will find all the categories you need. Then, go back to settings and categories and click add. First, check which categories you can already select that were pre-created in Moneybird. This saves time as you can simply select them.

If all went well, you have now created quite a few categories. Now you can create the remaining categories by adding an individual category at the bottom.

* Incidentally, this is another name for categories: “general ledger accounts”.

3. Record last year’s closing balance
Once all categories have been created, you can start recording the closing balance. Suppose you use Moneybird starting January 1, 2026. In that case, you take the closing balance of December 31, 2025.

Now go to incoming, add, and click on journal entry. For the reference, enter for example “closing balance 2025” and for the date December 31, 2025. Now you can add all categories with the correct amounts as they appear on your 2025 closing balance. Then click save. The closing balance is now recorded, which automatically means the 2026 opening balance in Moneybird is also correct!

Don’t have a final closing balance yet? That is not a problem. Record the draft closing balance (with some important categories such as the bank account balance) and once the previous financial year is finalized, you can adjust the closing balance again.

Below I mention a few specific items:

Accounts Receivable: (outstanding invoices to customers): I find the simplest method is to create a separate category here called “accounts receivable 2025”. If you receive invoices in 2026 that relate to 2025, record them in this category from the bank. Do the same for accounts payable (invoices you need to pay).
Investments: you can record these using the assets module in Moneybird or by using an Excel overview, for example.
VAT: record the outstanding VAT from 2025 in the VAT category, “VAT previous financial years”. This way, you maintain a clear distinction from the 2026 VAT position.
General ledger account numbers: many traditionally trained bookkeepers and accountants like to work with general ledger account numbers. For example, telephone costs might look like this: “4020 telephone costs”. This is certainly not wrong, but it is also not necessary, and my preference is not to do this.

4. Check the closing balance
An administration is, of course, nothing without checking it. We also still regularly make mistakes, and you see them simply by checking. So, check now if the correct closing balance is set up properly in Moneybird. You do this by going to Reports and Balance Sheet and selecting the correct year (in this case 2025). You should now see the same figures on this balance sheet.

5. Lock the previous financial year
This is a very important step that is often forgotten, which causes problems. In Moneybird, you can lock a period directly in the settings. Now lock the period up to and including December 31, 2025.

This prevents the date from being set to 2025 if, for example, you record an old invoice from 2025. This is not good, because the closing balance will no longer be correct and you will no longer have a balanced administration, which causes a lot of hassle.

Once these steps are completed, your accounting is set up correctly and the switch has been properly processed from an accounting perspective.