Conversion Balances
A business that starts using Cashbook part-way through its life has no formal starting point for its ledger. This screen, under Settings, takes a start date plus one opening balance per balance sheet account and posts them as a single balancing, GST-free entry — plus its own opening entry for any bank account connected after that date. First run offers a guided path or the single page; every return visit lands on the single page.
Unusually, this prototype was built after the feature. It mirrors the shipped implementation screen for screen so stakeholders can review the real thing without a login.
Path choice + guided setup
No conversion balance yet, so the screen opens on the fork. Guided setup walks the three steps — date, balances, then a read-only review naming exactly what posts and when. Enter everything on one page drops straight into the grid with the draft kept. The .xlsx upload fills the grid in one action.
Open prototype → Primary · returningThe single page
The durable settings surface: date card, grouped balance grid with the live 840 plug row and balanced total, .xlsx upload, per-bank opening-entry cards, and the save bar with its lock offer. Change the start date to raise the date-move warning, then change it again to watch the confirmation re-arm.
Open prototype → Flow · reconcile pageSet opening balance from Reconcile
The other way in. A bank account connected after the start date shows a difference the unreconciled backlog does not explain, so the tile offers Set opening balance. The modal is pre-filled with the whole balance, not the gap. Saving closes the variance and the offer disappears.
Open prototype → State · books lockedLock-date conflict
The books are locked past the journal date. The date card says so before anything is typed, and pressing Save returns the refusal with a Move the lock date link. There is no bypass.
Open prototype →Concept comparison board
The three explored directions (single page · guided setup · opening-balances hub) and why the A + B blend was chosen.
Open board →Why several prototypes?
Prototypes contain only what we want built — no demo-only toggles. When a screen behaves
differently under a known condition (here: whether a conversion balance already exists, and
whether the books are locked), each state is its own file, so the dev team sees exactly how many
screens exist. See PROTOTYPE.md.