How to move from the simplified regime to organised accounting

What is it for?

A taxpayer under the simplified regime (which determines profit by coefficients) moves to organised accounting when it opts for it or exceeds the limits. This applies mainly to sole traders (Personal Income Tax (IRS), category B): companies are already required to keep organised accounts (Corporate Income Tax Code (CIRC), art. 123, no. 1), as the help on the company's Organized accounting field says. The Migration to organised accounting assistant guides that move: it gathers the company's opening trial balance, helps balance it, shows the turnover alerts and creates the opening entry on the effective date.

When to use it?

• When the company leaves the simplified regime and starts posting under organised accounting on a set date, usually 1 January.
• Do not use it to bring in the balances from a previous program for a company that already kept organised accounts: use Import opening balances.
• Do not use it to decide the regime: the decision and the deadlines for opting are the certified accountant's. Pending validation by a certified accountant: conditions and deadlines for moving from the simplified regime to organised accounting and the tax treatment of the move.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Configure › Migration and imports › Migration to organised accounting. It opens the list of the company's changes of regime; click New. In a company with none, the list says “No change of regime yet. Carregue em Novo para preparar, passo a passo, a mudança do regime fiscal de uma empresa.” (click New to prepare, step by step, a company's change of tax regime).

Before you start

• Your profile is Certified accountant or Administrator. Accountant and Auditor do not see the menu; neither does Administrative.
• The company's chart of accounts has the accounts of the opening trial balance and the equity account that receives the difference. fiscaldoo proposes 561 Resultados transitados (retained earnings); the choice of account is the certified accountant's.
• You know the effective date: the date from which the company posts under organised accounting. The assistant proposes one, 01/01/2027 in the demo (Suggested effective date). Pending validation by a certified accountant: how the effective date is suggested and whether it can be another one.
• You have the company's opening trial balance: the accounts and balances at the effective date. If the company already has journal entries, the Generate lines button builds the lines from the accounts; in an empty company, type the lines.

How to use it

1. In Migration to organised accounting, click New. The record shows the company, the Taxpayer (Company or Sole trader (ENI)), the Effective date, the Responsible, the Opening journal and the Balancing equity account, which comes with 561 Resultados transitados. In the demo it was changed to 511 Capital subscrito (subscribed capital), as if the whole difference were capital. In a company, account 51 only holds the capital in the articles of association and the rest goes to another equity account. In Opening trial balance, click Add a line and type each account with its balance: in the demo, 121 Depósitos à ordem with €10,000.00 debit and 111 Caixa with €500.00 debit. Instead of typing, Generate lines builds the lines from the balances the company already has, grouped by Origin (“Banks and cash”, “Customers and suppliers”, …) and, for customers and vendors, one balance per partner: in “Empresa Demonstração, Lda” it gave a trial balance with €263,539.84 debit and €13,212.71 credit, still to be balanced. In an empty company there is nothing to generate. Lines typed by hand get the Manual origin.
2. Click Verify trial balance. With the trial balance out of balance the window says “Invalid Operation. The opening trial balance does not balance. What happened: debit 10500.0 and credit 0.0 differ by 10500.0. How to fix it: correct the lines or press “Balance with equity” to put the difference in equity.”
3. Click Balance with equity. It adds the line “Equity (balancing)” on account 511, as a credit, with the difference: €10,500.00. Confirm with the certified accountant that the difference really is equity (capital, reserves and profits) and not a balance still to be posted. Pending validation by a certified accountant: putting the opening trial balance difference into equity.
4. Click Verify trial balance again: the state changes from Draft to Trial balance verified and the Create opening entry button appears. Click Check turnover alerts and read the Turnover alerts table: the Volume de negócios (turnover) for this year and the two previous ones, category B income, the Turnover limit (€200,000.00 in the demo) and the VAT exemption alert. In the demo, all were Within the limit, because the company has no activity. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the limits used in the turnover and VAT exemption alerts.
5. Click Create opening entry. The question says “The opening entry is created and posted and the migration becomes final. Continue?” Click Confirm.
6. The state changes to Done and there are no more buttons. The record stays as a record.

Expected result

• A journal entry in the Opening entries journal, posted, with the effective date and the reference “Opening - migration to organised accounting 01/01/2027”. In the demo, ABR/2027/00001, with these lines:

  Account	Debit	Credit
  111 Caixa	€500.00
  121 Depósitos à ordem	€10,000.00
  511 Capital subscrito		€10,500.00
  Total	€10,500.00	€10,500.00

• The migration state is Done, and it can no longer be changed. Before confirming, Back to draft and Cancel are available on the record.

• The regime is recorded on the company. On completion, the company record has Organized accounting filled in and Organized accounting since with the effective date (in the example, 01/01/2027): see Settings › Users & Companies › Companies, in the PT Localization tab (see Company tax details).

• The effective date 01/01/2027 is in the future relative to the day of the demo: the journal entry was accepted all the same.

Important notes

The confirmation is final

After Confirm, the opening entry is posted and the migration is complete. If the trial balance was wrong, the journal entry is corrected like any other posted journal entry (reversal or adjustment), not through this record.

• Balance with equity only appears while the trial balance is out of balance.
• The Verify trial balance and Check turnover alerts buttons do not write anything to the ledger: they only change the state and show the tables.

Common problems

“The opening trial balance does not balance”

• Symptom: when clicking Verify trial balance, the “Invalid Operation” window says that debit and credit differ.
• What to do: check the lines against the original trial balance and correct the wrong balance; if the difference really is equity, use Balance with equity.

The equity account is missing

• Symptom: with the Balancing equity account empty, Balance with equity says “Choose the equity account. What happened: there is no balancing account. How to fix it: fill “Balancing equity account” (for example 561, retained earnings).”
• What to do: choose the equity account the certified accountant indicates (fiscaldoo proposes 561) and click Balance with equity again.

I want to undo the completed migration

• Symptom: once Done, there are no buttons.
• What to do: the record offers no button to undo it. Talk to the certified accountant before trying to correct the opening entry. Pending validation by a certified accountant: how to correct a change of regime already completed.