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The unbalanced notification indicates a discrepancy between your bookkeeping data and Silverfin. While it may look concerning, it is usually caused by a specific issue that you can identify and resolve yourself. This article sets out the key checks that help you locate and address the root cause.

Table of contents 

Is the account mapping and account type correct?

If the client file uses a mapping list, check whether the account mapping is correct:

  • Are all balance sheet accounts mapped to the corresponding balance sheet accounts in Silverfin?
  • Are all P&L accounts mapped to the corresponding P&L accounts in Silverfin?
  • If they are not, this can create an imbalance between the balance sheet (assets, liabilities and equity) and the profit and loss accounts.
  • Silverfin applies opening balances only to balance sheet accounts such as assets, liabilities and equity, not to income or expense accounts. Classifying accounts correctly is therefore essential for accurate balances and proper roll-forwards.
  • A common mistake is mapping the Dividends Paid account to an Equity type instead of an Expense.

How do I review account types?

Silverfin automatically checks whether your accounts are mapped correctly against what comes in from the bookkeeping software. To review this:

  1. On the client file overview page, open the left-hand navigation panel and click Accounts.
  2. If an account type in Silverfin does not match the type in your bookkeeping software or in your manually uploaded file, it is highlighted in grey in the account type column.
  3. To remap an account, use the Mapping option in the left-hand navigation panel, or remap it directly from the accounts overview. If the account you need is not available, contact your admin user to update the mapping list.

Do the financial years and booking periods match?

  • Confirm that all prior periods are properly closed in your bookkeeping software. Silverfin relies on this to retrieve the Retained Earnings figure accurately.
  • Check whether the sync start date aligns with the start of the financial year. If these dates differ, some data may be missing from the synchronisation, which results in an imbalance. To amend the start date, see How to remove or edit start date of synchronisation?
  • Verify that the book years and booking periods in Silverfin match those in your bookkeeping software. Even a minor mismatch can stop certain transactions from being imported correctly and cause an imbalance. Each transaction has both a booking period and a booking date, and Silverfin uses the booking period, not the booking date, to determine where the transaction is shown.
    If a period is shortened, data is pushed to the next period, because the shortened period is no longer considered full.

Could the opening balances be causing the imbalance?

  • When you work with a sync, Silverfin creates the opening balances only once, when the sync connection is first established. At that point, Silverfin asks your bookkeeping software for the balances as at the sync start date and stores them. From then on, every sync retrieves only the transactions posted after that start date, and the stored opening balances are not touched again. Resyncing the connection retrieves those transactions once more, but it does not change the stored opening balances.
  • This is by design: it protects a financial year that the accountant is currently preparing, so that backdated changes in the bookkeeping software cannot alter that year without proper control. The trade-off when you work with a sync start date is that corrections made to a prior period in your bookkeeping software afterwards can leave the stored opening balances outdated, so they no longer match the current figures there. If you suspect this is causing an imbalance, contact Silverfin Support.
  • Sometimes the opening balance transfer causes the imbalance. Check the opening balance settings in the Periods tab. For more detail, see How can I deactivate the rollforward of opening balances and retained earnings?

Did the imbalance start after a manual upload?

  • If you upload data manually, verify the number formatting in Excel. Minor rounding or formatting issues can accumulate and cause imbalances.
    • Ensure there are no blank rows or subtotal lines.
    • Use a dot (.) as the thousands separator and a comma (,) as the decimal separator.
  • Ensure there are no discrepancies in the source data before you export it from your accounting software.

Could adjustments be causing the imbalance?

  • Silverfin synchronises changes made in your bookkeeping software, but the reverse is not true. Adjustments made in Silverfin are not pushed back to your bookkeeping software. If you make adjustments in Silverfin that should also be reflected in your accounts, you must enter them manually in your bookkeeping software.
  • To avoid adjustments being processed twice in Silverfin, go to the Adjustments tab, click Actions and select Mark all adjustments as posted once they have been entered in your bookkeeping software.

Is there a synchronisation issue?

In some cases there is a sync issue between your bookkeeping software and Silverfin. This can stop certain account changes from syncing properly and leave data missing or outdated.

  • Review the error message carefully. The message often points to something to check in your bookkeeping software, indicates API rate limits or flags credential errors.
  • Consult our Knowledge Base for articles on common errors in specific synchronisations. You may find a quick solution there.
  • If the problem persists or the error message is unclear, contact Silverfin Support for assistance.
  • For more information, see Sync errors in Silverfin: What to do.

What if the client file is still unbalanced?

If the problem remains unresolved and needs to be escalated, send Silverfin Support the following:

  • Client file name
  • Client file URL
  • Error message, if any
  • The specific period in which the issue starts
  • The accounts that are affected
  • The trial balance and transactions for the affected accounts in the first unbalanced period