Balances

Balances represent amounts on Balance Sheet accounts carried over from previous reporting periods. Consequently there can only be Balance Sheet account balances. Balances provide a way of decoupling reports between different reporting periods from each other.

Attributes

• entity: The Entity associated with the balance. Defaults to the entity of the logged in user.
• exchangeRate: The Exchange Rate of the Transaction object that originated the balance amount. Defaults to associated entity’s default exchange rate.
• currency: The Currency of the Transaction object that originated the balance amount. Defaults to the entity’s reporting currency.
• account: The Account associated with the balance.
• reportingPeriod: The Reporting Period the balance pertains to.
• transaction_no: The transaction number from the Transaction object that originated the balance amount.
• type: The string representation of the Balance model balance_type attribute.
• transaction_date: The date of the Transaction object that originated the balance amount.
• transaction_type: The type of the Transaction object that originated the balance amount. Defaults to Transaction::JN.
• reference: More information about the Transaction object that originated the balance amount.
• balance_type: The side of the double entry the balance should be posted. Defaults to Balance::DEBIT.
• balance: The balance amount. This may or may not be the amount of the originating Transaction depending on its clearance in its reporting period. It is entered in the Balance’s currency, and stored in the reporting currency at the Balance’s exchange rate. Reading it gives the stored amount, so a new value given to an existing Balance must be in its own currency.
• is_posted: A boolean to mirror the Transaction model isPosted attribute because like some Transactions Balances are Clearable.
• is_credited: A boolean to mirror the Transaction model isCredited attribute because like some Transactions Balances are Clearable.
• cleared_type: The string representation of the Balance model because like some Transactions Balances are Clearable.

Constants

• Balance::DEBIT: The debit side of the double entry in the sense of the balance of an asset.
• Balance::CREDIT: The credit side of the double entry in the sense of the balance of an liability.

Methods

• Balance::getType($type): The human readable type name of the given balance type.
• Balance::getTypes($types): The human readable type names of the balance types in the given array.
• $balance->toString():The string representation of the Balance object instance.
• $balance->attributes(): Presents the balance’s attributes as an object. Useful for debugging.

Repairing Balances

Before version 7.0, a Balance saved without a reporting_period_id could be attached to the next financial year. This affects entities whose year_start is not 1, for Balances saved between January and the month before year_start. Such a Balance is missing from the reports of its own year, and appears in those of the year after.

To list them, run:

php artisan ifrs:repair-balances

Add --entity= to check a single Entity. Listing changes nothing. A Balance that was given that reporting period on purpose looks the same, so review the list before moving them:

php artisan ifrs:repair-balances --apply

A Balance is left where it is, and shown as blocked, if either reporting period is closed or the year it belongs to has no reporting period.

Auditing Balances

Before version 7.2, saving a foreign currency Balance translated it by its exchange rate again, and a transaction could be cleared by up to 1 more than its amount. Fixing the package does not repair what is already stored. To list what needs checking, run:

php artisan ifrs:audit-balances

Add --entity= to check a single Entity. The command only reads, and lists:

• Foreign currency Balances saved after they were created. These are candidates, not errors: a Balance that was legitimately re-entered looks the same, so check each one against its source.
• Transactions and Balances cleared by more than their amount.

There is no option to repair these, because a Balance’s original amount has to come from its source, and how to put an over clearance right is a decision for the entity’s accountant.

Constraints

• NegativeAmount: Balance amounts cannot be negative.
• InvalidBalanceTransaction: Transaction type must be one of Transaction::IN, Transaction::BL or Transaction::JN. See Transactions for details of Transaction Types.
• InvalidBalanceType: Balance type must be one of Balance::DEBIT or Balance::CREDIT.
• InvalidAccountClassBalance: Income Statement Account cannot have balances.
• InvalidCurrency: Account type can only accept balances of the same currency as their own.
• InvalidBalanceDate: Balance transaction date cannot be later than the first day of the balance’s reporting period unless the entity has mid_year_balances set to true. It is checked when the Balance is created, or when its date or reporting period changes. (See Entities).
• ClosedReportingPeriod: A Balance cannot be added to a closed reporting period, and the amount or reporting period of a Balance in one cannot be changed.