Accounts, Starting a New Year

Before the Year End

Starting from the “Accounts Menu”…

· Click the “Set-up” button

· Click the “Financial year” tab

· Check the current value of “Last year of nominal ledger totals”

· Click the “Add year” button to increase this to the current year plus two (i.e. up to a year or two in the future – more than two simply wastes space).

At the Year End

1. Reconcile all of your Bankbooks so they exactly match your real life bank statements up to the date of the period end (see “Accounts, Bankbook”).

2. In the Cashbook, use the “Signpost” button’s option to set a “Filter” to check for any un-banked or un-reconciled transactions before the date of the period end. It is quite likely that such transactions really should be un-reconciled or un-banked, but ensure that this is the case rather than that you’ve simply forgotten to finish them off (see “Accounts, Cashbook, Search, Sorting & Filters”).

3. In the Sales Ledger, use the “Signpost” button’s option to set a “Filter” to only show un-reconciled items, then use the “Binoculars” button to sort them by date. Check that all un-reconciled items preceding the date of the period end really should be in the Ledger. Use the “Bin” button to delete all mistaken or duplicated entries. Repeat this process in the Purchase Ledger (see “Accounts, Sales & Purchase Ledgers, Sorting, Searching & Filters”).

4. If you are a General Insurer then run the Transferable Commission routine (see “Accounts, Period End, Transferable”).

5. Use the “Lock Down” procedure to fix all the data, described above, that should now be in good order (see “Accounts, Period End, Lock Down”).

6. Run as many printed reports as you can and store them safely.

After the Year End

1. Reset the “Lock Down” - After the year end you may need to temporarily reset the “Lock Down” procedure’s date to allow late purchase invoices (i.e. dated in the old year) to be entered, after which you should immediately re-instate the correct year end lock down. Make a note of all of these changes to justify the discrepancies they will cause in the printed reports taken at the year end.

2. Run the “Period End” - After a month or so, when you’ve completed all of the checks, procedures and reports described above, and are certain you’ve received all outstanding purchase invoices for the old year (e.g. a Credit Card statement might arrive 14 or more days after the year end) then you should make the “Lock Down” permanent by running the “Period End” procedure (see “Accounts, Period End”).

3. Adjusting Old Invoices - You may freely add new invoices in the new year. You may also make new Cashbook Reconciliations to reconcile invoices in both the new and old years (as you’ll simply be settling the old invoices, not changing them). However once you’ve implemented the “Period End” you will not be able to adjust invoices in the old year. Instead, to increase an old invoice’s value you’ll need to create an invoice manually in the new year for the increased amount. You do likewise to decrease one, except you create it as a credit rather than as an invoice (see section on “Creating an Invoice Manually” in “Accounts, Sales & Purchase Ledgers, Invoices”).