Changing Accounting Years
After closing the year in General Ledger, you can change your accounting year.
A calendar year runs from January through December, and contributions are tracked by calendar year so that you can give IRS statements to contributors.
A fiscal year is an organization's accounting cycle and can cover any twelve month period, not necessarily a calendar year. For example, many schools use a fiscal year beginning in July and ending in June. This way, the school can report revenue and expenses in accordance with the school year.
You can change from fiscal year to calendar year anytime, but you cannot change the financial year if you have open transactions. When changing the fiscal year, all transactions are changed to reflect the new fiscal year. ACS also creates closing month entries for the new year.
If you interface General Ledger with Contributions, you can operate Contributions on a calendar year even if using a fiscal year in General Ledger.
If the year is changed from a calendar year to a fiscal year or from a fiscal year to a calendar year, print a balance sheet to make sure all accounts are still in balance. Changing the fiscal year makes the current posting period the first month of the new fiscal year.
Changing Your Financial Year From Calendar to Fiscal
- Under Advanced Tools, select the Settings tab.
- In the drop-down list, select General Ledger and click Go
.
- Click Change G/L Period, then select Fiscal.
- Under Month and Year, select the start of the fiscal year, then click OK. You can also use this method to change the post month back to a previously closed month.
- When the confirmation message displays, click Yes.
Changing Your Financial Year From Fiscal to Calendar
- Under Advanced Tools, select the Settings tab.
- In the drop-down list, select General Ledger and click Go
- Click Change G/L Period, then select Calendar.
- Under Year, select the correct year and click OK.
- When the confirmation message displays, click Yes.