When you first open a client’s Chart of Accounts (COA) in Drake Accounting 2025, the software will either update the COA automatically from Drake Accounting or it will prompt you to set up a new COA. Make sure the COA is set up by entering all beginning account balances before beginning bookkeeping in Drake Accounting 2025.

Overview to Updating a Client’s COA

There are three situations that can occur when updating a client's COA into Drake Accounting 2025:

1. If the Drake Accounting COA has been closed out for the year:

   • A full COA update brings forward both the account structure and balances from the prior year.

   • Drake Accounting will automatically do a full Chart of Accounts update when the Client has been brought forward from the previous year.

2. If the Drake Accounting COA is corrupt, but has been closed out:

   • The account structure is brought forward with zero balance on each account.

   • You can enter beginning account balances until you make your first journal entry.

   • Once you enter an account balance, that account balance can be modified only by a journal entry.

3. If the Drake Accounting COA cannot be closed out:

   • Only the COA account structure can be updated.

   • Once the prior year bookkeeping has been closed out in the prior year, go to Accounting > Update Prior Year in Drake Accounting 2025 to bring forward those balances.

1. Year End Close has Already Been Done in Drake Accounting 2024

If you have done a Year End Close in Drake Accounting 2024 and are updating the client into Drake Accounting 2025, you do not need to go to Accounting > Update Prior Year in Drake Accounting 2025because the COA will automatically come over.

• If you do this and then go to Accounting > Update Prior Year in Drake Accounting 2025, the clients that are available to be updated will be highlighted in a dark gray, as shown below, which means the COA has already been updated.

  

• Updating it again will cause the amounts in the COA to be what they were in Drake Accounting® 2024 when doing the Year End Close.

• It will bring over the posted transactions from the 2024 software.

  • The COA screen will be overwritten, but the update would not replace any of the transactions.

• The following message will appear:

  

• Choose Yes if you are certain that you want to re-update the bookkeeping.

2 or 3. Year End Close has NOT Already Been Done (or cannot be done) in Drake Accounting 2024

If you have not done a Year End Close in Drake Accounting 2024:

1. Update the Client from the 2024 software into Drake Accounting 2025 (Client > Update Prior Year).

2. After you are finished with all the 2024 bookkeeping in the 2024 software, complete a Year End Close by going to Accounting > Year End Close.

3. Once completed, in Drake Accounting 2025, go to Accounting > Update Prior Year.

4. Select the appropriate data path.

   • If the needed data path is not listed, click Browse.

5. Select the DrakeAccounting2024 folder.

   • Do NOT go into the folder. Selecting something from within the folder will result in a message: Installation path is invalid. Unable to find DrakeAccounting2024.exe in the selected path. Please select a valid installation path.

6. Once the correct path is selected, if a client's bookkeeping is able to be updated, it will be listed in white, to indicate that their COA has not been brought over yet.