Closing the Year in General Ledger
You should close the year in General Ledger for year-end.
Before beginning your organization's business for a new year, you should perform year-end procedures at the end of your current fiscal year, regardless of when the fiscal year ends. Working in a new year without closing the previous year causes the balance sheet to appear out of balance until year-end closing is performed.
What does closing the year do?
Closing the year closes all revenue and expense accounts. The balances for these accounts are transferred to the fund principal account associated with each fund in Define Lists. If an account is not associated with a fund, the account balance is transferred to the default fund principal account assigned in General Ledger - Setup. The closing account must be under the Fund Principal heading.
Calendar year vs. fiscal year
If you operate on a calendar basis, perform year-end procedures at the end of December. If you operate on a fiscal basis, perform year-end procedures at the end of your fiscal year. For example, if your fiscal year is July 1 through June 30, perform year-end procedures at the end of June. Whether you use cash or accrual accounting, the last month of the year closes with year end procedures.
Fund principal accounts
If you have only one fund, close all revenue and expense accounts to a single fund principal account. If you have multiple funds, you must close each fund to its own fund principal account. If you have multiple fund codes and close all funds to one account, the general ledger is out of balance when reporting by fund.
You can also print a report of the year-end transactions. You can print this at any time- it always reflects the prior year's closing entries.
Notes on Closing the Year
Transaction entry errors that you made and did not correct properly during the accounting period may disrupt the year-end process. If an error message displays, follow the instructions that display in the window for the appropriate action.
Budget information is not affected during year-end procedures. You can create a budget at any time during the year. When the new fiscal year begins, ACS automatically refers to the new budget.
You cannot close the year if you have open transactions. To see which users have open transactions and correct this, you can add a User column on the Add/Edit Transactions Grid.
Closing the Current Year
- Back up your financial data files.
- Under Manage Records, click the Period End Procedures tab.
- In the drop-down list, select General Ledger Year End Procedures and click Go
.
- Verify that the information displayed in the Closing Period Ending field is correct. If you operate on a calendar year, the closing period ending must read December 2XXX (Month 12). If you operate on a fiscal year, the closing period ending must read Month (the last month of your fiscal year) 2XXX (Month 12).
- In the drop-down list, select a Transaction Source.
- Enter a Reference Number.
- Select the Closing Date.
- Enter an Explanation.
- Select how you want to close your accounts. For your accounts to balance properly, the closing account must be a liability account under the Fund Principal heading in your chart of accounts. Each fund has a different Fund Principal Account
- Close All Accounts to a Single Fund Principal Account — If you only have one fund, close all revenue and expense accounts to a single fund principal account. Click Lookup
to select the closing account.
- Close Accounts to Selected Fund Principal Accounts — If you have multiple funds, close each fund to its own fund principal (or closing) account. For each fund, in the Accounts field, click Lookup
- Close All Accounts to a Single Fund Principal Account — If you only have one fund, close all revenue and expense accounts to a single fund principal account. Click Lookup
- Click Begin Year End.
- Verify the information in the Year-End Verification window and click Continue Year End.
- Click Yes to print the Prior Year Summary Report.
Printing Reports when Closing General Ledger
You can print any General Ledger Report that includes YTD information.
Some suggested reports include:
|
Report |
Reason for Printing |
|---|---|
| Chart of Accounts Detail |
Print this report to make sure each account has the proper fund attached. Be sure to select Include Deactivated Accounts on the Report Options tab. |
| Balance Sheet | Print this report to make sure you are in balance before closing. |
| Year-End Summary Report | At the end of closing the year, you can print the Year-End Summary Report to make sure all accounts closed properly. |
| Balance Sheet (after closing) |
After closing, print this report again to make sure you are still in balance. The balances may not be the same as they were before closing if you have entered transactions for the new year. |
| Transaction Posting Journal |
To see what date the year was physically closed, print this report. he posted data should be the closing date entered (the last date of your calendar year), and the Year should display the year that was closed. |