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What Is the Procedure to Follow to Close the Year in the General Ledger Program?

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The end of year procedure of the General Ledger application is automatic when closing the last accounting period.

To run the end of year procedure prior to the end of the year, each accounting period must be closed up until the end of the year.

Important : It is strongly recommended to take a backup copy before starting the procedure, to retrieve that copy in a new company that will be used as reference and enter the regularization. The procedure can be found in FAQ number 310 How to restore a backup copy to a new company folder.

Procedure to follow

  1. In the Input menu, select General Ledger, then End of Period.

  2. When the backup warning window is displayed, click OK.

    The window outlining the procedure to follow is displayed. From this window, it is possible to print the user's guide by clicking Open the guide.
  3. Click Next.
    The End-of-Period window is displayed.
  4. In the Date box, enter the date to display on the reports, usually the last day of the fiscal year.
  5. Select a type of list from the Update List From Previous Periods group box.
    • Only Print New Transactions: Prints a list of transactions for the last period only for those that were added since the closing.
    • Print Complete Lists: Prints a list of all transactions for the last period, therefore the ones entered before and after the closing of the period.
  6. In the List of Accounts with Transactions group box, select the desired options.
    • Print Inactive Accounts: Includes inactive accounts in the list. An account is said to be inactive when there is no transaction entered in relation with the account during the course of a period.
    • Page Break after Each Account: Each account will be printed on a new page.
  7. In the Retained Earnings window, Number box, enter the account number in which benefits (or losses) are entered. This account must be of Capital category.
  8. When Cost Analysis is active, the Reset Project Balance to Zero window is displayed allowing you to reset opening for Income and Expense accounts when projects are used as extensions in the chart of accounts.
  9. In the Transfer Budgets window, select the desired options.
    • Transfer Current Year Balances: Select this option to transfer account balances for the current year in a budget column. Then select the column(s) where to transfer them.
    • Transfer Amounts in Budget Columns: Select the destination of the amounts for each column. Amounts found in the selected budget column will be overwritten.
    • Increase Budgets: Select the column for which amounts are to be increased or reduced. Enter the change in percent for each category and for each column if needed.

      Specific Increase: Modify amounts by account instead of by category.

      Hint: The Budget Transfer Wizard command starts the Budget Transfer Wizard. The wizard ensures a successful transfer. Only the specific increase will need to be done.

      The Budget Column Headers window is displayed.

  10. Rename budget column headers to reflect the new fiscal year.

    Note: When the Budget Transfer Wizard is used the headers are already changed.

    The Transfer Reconciliation window is displayed.

  11. Select the account for which to keep outstanding entries to be carried over to the new fiscal year (for example, Bank category accounts).

    The Annual List of Accounts with Transactions window is displayed.

  12. Select Print Annual List of Accounts with Transactions to print an annual list of accounts with transactions for the range of period and accounts specified in the Periods and Accounts boxes.

    The Optional Reports window is displayed.

  13. If appropriate, select the report templates to print and select Fiscal Year-end.

    The Summary window is displayed.
  14. Confirm your selections by clicking Finish.

  15. At the Do you really want to run fiscal year-end procedure? question, click Yes to continue the fiscal year-end procedure. Click No to cancel.

  16. When asked whether you not you wish to back up General Ledger data, answer Yes.
    The Fiscal Year window is displayed.

  17. Enter the fiscal year and click OK. The backup process launches.

  18. At the Do you want to confirm report printing setups individually? question, click No to confirm printing once for all reports. Click on Yes to confirm printing for every report
  19. To ensure that the fiscal year-end procedure was successfully completed, verify that the current period is 1 in the Company Information window, under the General Ledger tab.

Receiving the Accountant's Adjustments

After analyzing financial statements, the accountant or auditor can transmit adjustment entries. Adjustment entries have to be done in the reference company created using the backup copy made before running the fiscal year-end procedure.

L'inscription de ces écritures s'effectue dans la copie d'archives de la Comptabilité créée pendant la procédure de fin d'exercice.

Procedure

  1. Open the company ZGL_CompanyName_FiscalYear.

  2. Enter the accountant's adjustments.

    Note : When adjustments have been recovered using the Import Changes from Accountant command, they do not have to be entered.
  3. Print a cumulative trial balance and verify that it is identical to the accountant's adjusted trial balance. (Report menu, General Ledger, Financial Reports).
  4. Make another backup copy in order to archive a full data copy at the end of the fiscal year.

  5. Close the company ZGL_CompanyName_FiscalYear (File menu, Close Company).

    Note : AIn order to keep a backup copy of the company's data when closing it, it is not recommended to run the fiscal year-end procedure in the reference company ZGL_CompanyName_FiscalYear.

  6. Open the current company.
  7. For each balance sheet account posted by an adjustment entry, adjust the opening balance to be identical to the accountant's adjusted account balances. (Input menu, General Ledger, Accounts).

  8. Only the opening balances for Retained Earnings in the major accounts have to be adjusted.

    Note : The difference between the total of the adjusted income and expense accounts represents an operating income when income exceeds expenses or an operating loss when expenses exceed income. The opening balance of the Retained Earnings account can be easily obtained using an opening trial balance or an opening balance sheet provided by the accountant.
  9. Print an opening trial balance. The trial balance is available via Report, General Ledger, Financial Reports. The current company's opening trial balance must be identical to the accountant's opening trial balance.