How to Import Your Accounting History

This guide walks through a full import from start to finish. The import runs as a step-by-step wizard of 7 steps. When your property can import a trial balance only, the wizard has 5 steps: the Units and Vendors steps are skipped, because a trial balance has no per-unit or per-vendor detail.

Before you begin, export your general ledger from your current accounting system as a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file.

Step 1: Open Import History and start an import

1. Go to the Accounting page and click Accounting Settings.
2. Open the Import History tab.
3. Click Start an import (when your property can import a trial balance only, this button reads Import trial balance).

Note: starting an import requires permission to post journal entries. Without it, the button is replaced with a line explaining that the permission is required. A property can start a new import while an earlier one is still committed, in draft, or otherwise on record. The one limit is order: a file cannot be imported if it is older than history you have already imported, and a file whose dates overlap an import already on your ledger is refused, naming the import it overlaps with. Import your files oldest first. Each row also has a Reports menu for downloading its reconciliation reports; it closes as soon as you pick a report, press Escape, or click elsewhere.

Step 2: Upload your file and set the cutover date

4. Drag your CSV or Excel file onto the upload area, or click browse files to choose it.

5. URBI runs AI column detection (this takes a second or two) and shows a summary: the detected layout, date range, and total rows. Review it and click Looks good, or click Adjust to change anything.

6. Set the Cutover Date. Transactions dated before this date are folded into opening-balance entries. Transactions on or after it are imported as individual journal entries, line by line. The opening balance stated for each account in your file is imported too, as explained in the next section.

   Two shortcuts sit next to the date, so you rarely need to type one:

   • Current FY start brings in this fiscal year in detail. This is the default.
   • Previous FY start goes back one more year, so last year arrives line by line as well.

   You can pick any date between the start of your previous fiscal year and today. Dates outside that range are refused, and the screen tells you the earliest date you are allowed to choose. One previous year is the limit: anything older than that belongs in the opening balance.

   What the cutover row looks like:

If your fiscal year settings are not saved yet, the shortcuts do not appear. Set your fiscal year start month in Accounting Details first. 7. Choose the Import Mode: Hybrid (opening balance plus detailed current-year entries) or Trial Balance Only (totals only). When your property can import a trial balance only, Trial Balance is the only mode offered.

8. Click Continue to Map Columns.

Opening balances from your file

Most general ledger exports, including Yardi exports, start each account with a Beginning Balance line. URBI reads that amount for every account, including accounts with no activity in the file. Accounts that appear only as an opening balance still appear on the GL Accounts step, where you can map them or create them.

Each non-zero opening balance is dated the day before the first transaction in your file and posted against Opening Balance Equity. If two accounts in the file are mapped to the same account in your chart of accounts, URBI combines their amounts into one opening-balance entry. A balance mapped to Opening Balance Equity itself is not posted.

Click Preview opening-balance entry on the review step. The Opening balances from your file table shows each account's amount to post in the Debit or Credit column: the difference between the file's opening balance and whatever is already in your ledger for that account, read at the moment you open Review. Each account also shows a status:

• Will post: the amount to post is added as that account's opening entry when you import.
• Already on ledger: your ledger already holds the file's opening balance for that account, so nothing more is posted.
• Nothing to post: the opening balance is zero, or the account is matched to Opening Balance Equity itself.
• Needs an account: match the account on the accounts step first.
• Closed period: the opening date falls in a closed period and there is an amount to post; reopen the period first.
• Posted: the opening entry is on the ledger.
• Will post again: the opening entry was reversed by an undo that stopped partway; retrying the import posts it again. If the opening balances in your file do not net to zero, the difference remains in Opening Balance Equity.

A closed accounting period only blocks the import for an account that actually has an amount to post into it; an account that already matches the ledger or has nothing to post is not held up by a closed period. Commit Import stays off while any row still reads Closed period or Needs an account, and it also waits while URBI is still loading your property's fiscal periods. Reopening that period, whether it was closed or locked, turns Commit Import back on for that row right away, going by your fiscal periods as they stand at that moment. There is no need to rerun or re-upload the import; just return to the review step and commit. URBI never reopens a period for you.

When you import a later file after an earlier import, URBI posts only the difference between the file's opening balance and the balance already in your ledger for that account as of that date, which is what the Amount to post figure shows. Income and expense accounts are compared within the fiscal year.

For receivable and payable accounts, URBI attributes the opening balance to each payer's billing account or vendor when the file's activity shows who owed it. Any remaining amount is posted as one unattributed line with a description from the file. URBI does not create invoices or bills for opening balances read from Beginning Balance lines in your file. Undoing the import removes these opening-balance entries too, including for very large imports. For a CSV export, map your Balance column so URBI can read the opening amounts.

Step 3: Map columns

9. URBI pre-matches each column in your file to a URBI field and shows a confidence badge (exact, fuzzy, or ignored). Review each row.
10. To change a mapping, use the dropdown next to that column. The progress chip at the top right (for example, "8 of 9 mapped") shows how much is mapped.
11. Make sure a column is mapped to Account, meaning the column that holds each account's code. Click Continue once you are happy with the mapping.

If your file has account names but no account codes, URBI refuses it on this step. A warning reads This file has account names but no account codes, the footer shows Still need: Account code, and Continue stays unavailable. Map the column that holds each account's code to Account. If the file has no code column, add one in your spreadsheet, go back, and upload it again. When you choose the corrected file while this import is still open, URBI asks whether to Keep my current import or Start over with this file. Start over discards the current import and begins a fresh one from the corrected file; it works from this refused state.

*A file with names but no codes is stopped here, with Continue unavailable.*

Transactions whose description contains words such as "Total" or "Running balance" are imported. Only true subtotal lines are skipped.

Step 4: Resolve GL accounts

12. URBI lists every distinct account code from your file, including accounts that have only an opening balance, and matches it to your URBI chart of accounts. For any account with no confident match, URBI now proposes what to do (create a new account, recode an existing one, or map it to one that already exists) instead of leaving it blank, so you are confirming or adjusting a proposal rather than starting from scratch. High-confidence matches are applied automatically (shown in green) and locked. AI-suggested matches (shown in blue) can be edited.
13. Any account still marked Needs resolution must be handled before continuing. Click Resolve on that row, then either:
    • Add as new account (the code, name, and a suggested account type are pre-filled from the proposal; you can still change the type), or
    • Map to existing and search your chart of accounts for the right one.
14. Click Continue once every account is resolved.

When a new account's code is already in use

If a new account in your file has a code that another account in your chart already uses, URBI flags that row in red as soon as this step opens, before you press anything. The row shows a Code clash label and reads, for example, Code 2210 is already used by "2210 · Accrued Liabilities". Choose a different code or map to that account. Its Accept button is switched off. A banner at the top of the step counts the clashes and has a Show me button that scrolls to the first one, and the footer reads Resolve 1 code clash to continue (or Resolve 2 code clashes to continue, and so on). Continue stays unavailable until every clash is resolved.

Fix a clash in one of two ways:

• Change code: pick a code nobody else uses and select Stage account.
• Map to existing account: use the account that already holds that code instead of creating a new one.

The row, the banner and the footer clear together the moment the code is free. If you select several rows and use the bulk Accept, URBI skips any clashing row and tells you how many it skipped. The same check also flags a row that maps to an account that has since been switched off or removed, and sends it back for a decision.

*A clashing row is red, Accept is off, and the footer says what unblocks Continue.*

Step 5: Resolve units and income (Hybrid imports only)

15. URBI matches the payer names from your income records to a unit and, where possible, to the specific community member who paid. If a unit has more than one current occupant, confirm which one is the primary payer (single-occupant units are set as primary automatically). If that automatic save fails, the row shows the error with a Retry button and stays unresolved until it succeeds.
16. For a payer URBI has no record of, a former payer who never had an account or a name carried over from before the property was onboarded, choose Attach to unit. URBI creates a separate account in that payer's own name and puts the balance there, so the money stays under the person who actually owes it and is never billed to whoever lives in the unit today. The account stays with the unit even if it changes hands.
17. If the amount does not belong to any single unit, choose General income instead. If the line is a bank memo, a reversal, or a system label rather than a payer, choose Post to GL only. If it belongs with vendor work, choose Move to Vendors.

You can also select several rows at once and apply Accept suggestions, Post to GL only, Move to Vendors, or Exclude from the bulk bar. A bulk action that clears a decision asks you to confirm first, and offers a single Undo right after it runs. It is unavailable, with an explanation, once every selected row already has a payer.

What the choice looks like:

In a trial balance import, this step and the Vendors step are skipped automatically.

Step 6: Resolve vendors (Hybrid imports only)

18. URBI matches the payee names from your expense records to existing vendors, including vendors already on file for service tickets, and proposes creating a new accounting vendor when nothing matches.
19. For any vendor that needs a decision, choose Map to existing (accounting vendors and service-ticket vendors are listed separately) or confirm the proposed new vendor. Only active vendors linked to this property are listed. If a new vendor's name matches an active vendor, URBI offers Use existing vendor instead of creating a duplicate. Archived vendors are never switched back on by an import: pick another vendor, or for an accounting vendor restore it in the Vendor Manager first.
20. Click Continue to move on to review.

When activity in your file shows that a resident or vendor owed money before the file starts, URBI records that opening amount against that resident's billing account or vendor. Any amount URBI cannot tie to a person is recorded as one unattributed line on the account, with the description from your file. URBI does not create invoices or bills for opening balances read from Beginning Balance lines in your file.

Step 7: Review and balance

21. The review screen summarizes what will be posted: the number of journal entries, the opening-balance entries, the fiscal years that will be locked, and how many unit billing accounts will be set. The Opening balances from your file table lists the opening-balance entries for each account.
22. Click Preview opening-balance entry to see the conversion entry for history before your cutover date. What is the Opening Balance Equity? It is the balancing account URBI uses for opening balances, so your imported starting balances stay balanced without re-keying every old transaction.
23. If any entries are held, you must clear them before you can commit. There are two kinds:
    • Unbalanced (debits do not equal credits): click Fix to edit the lines inline until they balance, or Exclude to leave the entry out.
    • Closed-period conflict (the entry falls in a period that is already locked): click Acknowledge & exclude. URBI never re-opens a closed period during an import. To post such an entry, re-open that period manually first, then re-run the import.

If URBI finds anything still unresolved when you click Commit Import (an account, vendor, or unit match that was skipped), it takes you back to the relevant Resolve step instead of failing. Resolve or exclude the flagged item, then continue forward through review again.

24. Once nothing is held, the Commit Import button becomes active. Click it.

Step 8: Commit and watch progress

25. URBI posts the entries in the background. The progress screen shows a live counter (for example, "Posted 748 / 1,205"), a failed counter, and a percentage. You can safely navigate away; the import keeps running.
26. When it finishes, URBI emails a completion report to the property admin and shows a success summary: entries posted, opening balance set, fiscal years locked, and unit balances updated.

27. Click View import batch to see the posted entries, or Go to Journal Entries to view your live ledger.

If a code clash appears after you pressed Commit Import (for example, someone added an account to your chart after you staged the import), URBI stops before posting anything. You land back on the GL accounts step with a banner that opens We stopped the import before anything was posted, and the clashing row is ready to fix. Fix it and commit again.

Undoing an import

Open the Import History tab and select Reverse and reopen on the import's row. Reversing voids what the import posted and sends the import back to Resolving with your file and your decisions kept, so you can fix the problem and commit again without uploading anything. Reversals work newest first: you cannot reverse an import while a later import still depends on it. Reverse your most recent import first, then work backward through earlier ones. The full steps, and what is kept, are in How to Reverse an Import.

While an import is being undone, its row shows Reversing, and the list refreshes on its own so you can watch it finish without reloading the page. Undoing a large import can take a while. If the undo has not finished after about ten minutes, or if it stops, a message says so and names the button to use on that row, for example Retry reversal for an undo that stalled.

If an import stops partway while it is committing, the property is held: no other import can be committed or undone until that one finishes. If an import's undo stops partway after it has already started changing your books, for example after it reopened a period or voided an entry, the property is held the same way: no other import can be committed or undone until that undo is finished. An undo that stops before it has changed anything does not hold up other imports. A message names the stalled import so you can open its Import History row, then click Retry reversal to finish reversing it. Once an import is fully reversed, the property is free to start importing again.

If you retry an undo that stopped partway, the opening-balance entries it already reversed are posted again. The Review step marks those entries Will post again so you can see this before you retry.

Unit and vendor pages show Charged (or Billed) and Paid from the general ledger, so you can confirm that charges and payments net out. The third figure is labelled Balance on unit pages and Balance owed on vendor pages. Amounts a resident owed before the cutover date are attributed to their billing account on the ledger, without creating any invoices for them, so the unit card shows both figures: the ledger balance and the billing account balance.