# Opening Balance Opening Balance is the due or the advance balance of the students the school needs to update into the system before they can use the Veda billing system and generate the invoices.
How to add an opening balance? Ans: There are two ways that the opening balance can be added. 1st of all make sure you have created a fee name called. “Previous Due” to add the dues to this fee topic. a) Direct from the system Go to the option “Opening Balance” under “Setup”, select the fee named “Previous Due” which you have just created and select the required class and section. After you have selected them, a view appears where you can see the list of the students, then you can add the due amount or the advance amount accordingly. b) From the CSV file Go to the option “Opening Balance” under “Setup”. To download the CSV file go to the “Import File” option on the top right side of the page and you can see an option where you can download the file. In the following file, enter the details of the students like code or Student Previous code, anyone is enough. Then add the total due amount, if there is an advance amount you should add the minus (-) sign before the amount. Save the file and upload it on the same view from where you have downloaded the file.
Can opening balance be changed once it has been added? Yes, it can be changed once it has been added. However, after generating the invoices and after you made transactions in the billing we don't suggest changing it, as Opening Balance is meant to be entered only once and correctly in the system.
To add opening balance we need to change the fiscal year or not? Ans: If the school has only one fiscal year running currently then we do not need to. If there are multiple fiscal years in the school then we always need to activate the previous fiscal year (whichever is previous to the current fiscal year) and add the opening balance.