Importing your accounting (FEC)
The FEC is the regulatory file that contains the journal entries of a financial year. In Simon, it mainly serves to take over an existing accounting: leaving an old piece of software, recovering the work of a firm, or continuing a financial year started elsewhere.
The goal is not to copy lines. Simon checks the file, takes over the useful journal entries, keeps the debts and receivables still open, and prepares the rest of the file in the application — so that the migrated accounting then behaves like an accounting born in Simon.
When to use it
The FEC import is for you if you are migrating from another piece of software, if your chartered accountant sends you the FEC of the last financial year, if you start mid-year with journal entries already posted, or if you receive a more recent FEC to complete an already-imported history.
Conversely, a company starting from scratch generally doesn’t need it: create the file and dive straight into entry, bank import and document processing.
Preparing the file
Ask for a complete and final FEC for the period to take over. It can be supplied on its own or in a ZIP archive that also contains the supporting documents. Before launching the import, make sure above all that the file does correspond to the company in the file, that the period covered is the one you want to take over, that the financial year is closed if you only target the opening balances, and that the documents are present if you intend to attach them.
Simon reads the usual FEC formats and catches the common variants of encoding or separator. If the structure is not compliant, the import stops: the correction is then made at the source, in the original software.
Choosing the right migration mode
Simon handles the FEC in three ways, depending on what you want to do with it:
| Situation | Mode | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Migration with preservation of the history | Detailed migration | Takes over journals, accounts, journal entries, third parties, open debts and receivables. |
| Previous financial year closed, only the balance matters | Opening balances | Calculates the balances at the end of the FEC and starts the file the next day, with opening balances. |
| Complete an already-performed import | Update | Adds the missing journal entries and flags inconsistencies, without rewriting the imported history. |
What Simon takes over
Depending on the file’s content, the migration can cover the chart of accounts and the journals used, the journal entries (sales, purchases, bank, manual journal entries, opening balances), the third parties identified in the auxiliary accounts, the unsettled supplier debts and customer receivables, the movements of the bank journals, the fixed assets identifiable in the asset and depreciation accounts, and the supporting documents supplied with the FEC.
What is ambiguous is never decided silently. Simon asks you for confirmation case by case: a poorly identified auxiliary account, an unusual journal, a bank without an IBAN, or a fixed asset whose duration remains to be validated.
The process
- Upload the FEC, or the ZIP archive that contains the FEC and the documents.
- Simon reads the file and checks the consistency of the journal entries.
- You validate the important mappings: journals, accounts, third parties, banks.
- Simon imports the journal entries according to the chosen migration mode.
- The documents are attached to the journal entries when the mapping is reliable.
- You check the result before continuing.
The checks bear in particular on the debit/credit balance, suspicious duplicates, the period covered, unknown accounts, documents not found and the business points that require a decision.
The supporting documents
When the documents accompany the FEC in the same ZIP, Simon tries to attach them to the journal entries from the references, amounts, dates and readable information in the files. A document recognized without sufficient certainty remains to be processed — it is not lost: you will attach it later or classify it as an internal document.
The open debts and receivables
A FEC often contains supplier or customer invoices unsettled at the time of export. Simon keeps them as open items, so that subsequent payments can be reconciled normally. This is an essential point of the migration: it avoids taking as new invoices that already existed before the arrival in Simon.
The fixed assets
When the FEC contains fixed asset and depreciation accounts, Simon can propose fixed assets to create. Reread each proposal — designation, acquisition date, amount, depreciation already applied, remaining duration. If you have a separate fixed asset statement, import it too: it gives a more reliable base than the journal entries alone.
After the import
Before resuming the day-to-day work, check at the very least the imported period, the general balance, the supplier and customer accounts still open, the bank accounts, the fixed assets and the documents left unattached. Once these checks are done, you can chain into the bank imports, the current documents and the returns.