Corporations: opening balances
Bring in where your corporation stood before its records in CollabNorth, in four short steps, so the balance sheet starts from the right place.
A corporation reports a full balance sheet each year, not just profit. If your corporation existed before you started using CollabNorth, its books need a starting point: the balances on the last day before your records in CollabNorth begin. Those are your opening balances.
Find them on Tax time: corporations see Set your opening balances until they're entered. You can change them later from the Balance sheet page.
Where to find the numbers
On last year's balance sheet: your corporation's financial statements, or Schedule 100 of last year's T2. If you don't have them, ask your accountant.
The four steps
- Date and bank. The opening date is usually the last day of the fiscal year before you started, such as December 31, 2025. Then the money in the business bank accounts and cash on hand that day, or how much it was overdrawn.
- Money owed. Money customers owed the corporation (unpaid invoices) and bills it owed suppliers. If you already added invoices from before the opening date to CollabNorth, the step shows how much of them was unpaid so you can include it.
- GST/HST, equipment and inventory. What you owed CRA for GST/HST that day, or the refund it owed you. Then the value of equipment, tools and vehicles, and any inventory.
- Shareholder loan and shares. Whether the corporation owed you money (money you put in or costs you paid yourself) or you owed it, and what was paid for its shares.
The last screen shows your opening balance sheet. What's left over is retained earnings: the profit kept in the business from earlier years. It is worked out for you so everything balances. If last year's balance sheet shows a different retained earnings, one of the numbers is probably off.
What happens next
- Records dated on or before the opening date are left out of the balance sheet, because the opening balances already include them.
- When a customer pays an amount owed from before the opening date that isn't an invoice in CollabNorth, record it on the Balance sheet page as A customer paid an amount owed from before your start date. Do the same for old bills you pay.
- Everything after the opening date adds up on its own. See Your balance sheet.
This is general information to help you keep your own records. It is not tax or legal advice.
Based on: CRA guide T4012, T2 Corporation Income Tax Guide and CRA guide RC4088, General Index of Financial Information
Last checked: 2026-10-13