Frequently Asked Question

The G/L year-end process is not an overly complicated process. In fact, it only really takes a few minutes.

Here are the basic steps to follow:

1. WARNING: Only proceed AFTER you've posted the year-end adjusting journals provided by your accountant. DO NOT run this process and then post transactions later. That only will cause you unnecessary grief.
   
2. It never hurts to make a backup just in case. The system does provide an archive process, but better safe than sorry.
   
   
3. Now that you've posted the final year-end adjusting journals, change the accounting periods so that they reflect the year you are closing. This is done in the General Ledger > F2 > Setup > Accounting Periods. For example, if the year was 01/01/20 - 12/31/20:
   
   
   
4. (Optional) Use the General Ledger > F2 > End of year > Print pre-closing report to see the closing entries, including retained earnings.
   
   
5. Use the General Ledger > F2 > End of year > Archive G/L data to create a company ID to store the G/L (nothing else gets stored here) as it looks right now. This will allow you to go back and see what your G/L looked like for that fiscal year. It will ask for a 2 character ID that will be used for the new company to store the data.
   
   
6. Use the General Ledger > F2 > End of year > Post closing entries to summarize all Balance Sheet accounts, clear out the P&L accounts, and create a Y/E journal for the retained earnings account. This will also allow you to set the budgets. After selecting:
   
   
   1. Enter the fiscal year that you are closing (2020 in our above example);
   2. The new accounting periods for the year will be displayed. They should be right so you can answer N to re-enter and then select your current period (same screen as Accounting periods above);
   3. Select how you want budgets handled. If you don't use budgets, option 2 is your best choice.
   4. Select a printer for the Y/E closing register. Don't worry if you have a printer issue, the system creates a copy in the Print reports from disk automatically.
      
      
7. Go have a coffee. You're all done.

What about the sub-ledgers? These should have been done as part of your monthly process using the System functions > Close period by package. If you aren't familiar with that function, check out this video: