---
title: "Going live · Builder's guide · Chappell AI"
description: "A business that already trades starts on GAAPcore with one opening balance, dated in a conversion period that ends on the cut-over date."
url: https://chappellai.us/guide/12-going-live/
---

Builder's guide · Section 12

# Going live

A business that already trades starts on GAAPcore with one opening balance, dated in a conversion period that ends on the cut-over date.

## The opening balance

The opening balance (`/v1/ledger/opening-balances`) is a document with sections. Each section creates real subledger records that later documents can settle:

| Section | What it creates |
| --- | --- |
| GL | Balances for accounts that have no subledger |
| Bank | Each bank account's balance at cut-over |
| AR, AP, credits | Open customer invoices, vendor bills and unapplied credits, which can later be collected or paid |
| Inventory | Stock on hand by product, location and cost, as FIFO layers that can later be sold |
| Received not invoiced, WIP | Receipts awaiting a bill; production in progress |
| Fixed assets, leases | The asset register and lease schedules at cut-over |

Build it as a draft, check it with `preview`, then `post`.

## Prove it

Immediately after posting, show the tie-outs: each control account against its subledger, each bank against its statement. This is the first thing an accountant will ask to see.

## Three go-live lessons

-   **Open assets and leases from their own schedule.** Create the register first, read its schedule at cut-over, and open from those figures, rather than typing totals into the ledger. The register then ties from day one, and later depreciation runs continue the same schedule.
-   **Clear go-live items the way the business did.** If you import the months after go-live as summaries, pay and collect the opening items against themselves on their due dates. Otherwise every aging report will show go-live bills as hundreds of days late.
-   **Validate an import completely before sending it.** Parse the file, report every bad line by number, guess nothing (dates are `YYYY-MM-DD`), and check that the totals agree. GAAPcore makes the final check, but the user should never meet a refusal that the file itself already showed.