You can achieve a smooth end-of-year process with a little time spent on planning and preparation. The following are some things to consider helping make your EOY less stressful.
1. End of year correct Attaché version, end of year webinars and consulting links.
The correct end of year Attaché version
Contains links to End of year Webinars,
The link to book a consultant to do your end of year if you so require.
2. What are your due dates?
Make a list of all your due dates as this will give you the structure for your EOY plan. Items you might consider are:
If your module is Period Based:
When do you need to roll Customers so that you can continue invoicing?
Will you delay rolling Suppliers for late arriving invoices?
When are reports expected by management?
Do you have Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) obligations?
If applicable, when do you need to supply figures to your external Tax Accountant?
Do you have any other reporting obligations to regulatory authorities?
3. When should you 'Roll over' or run end of period and or end of year for your Attaché modules?
You don't need to run end of year for all modules (Suppliers, Customers, etc.) at the same time. You should run the End of-Period and End-of-Year processes in a way that works best for your business.
Date based or Period based accounting
Your decision in this regard will be affected by whether you use Date or Period Based accounting in Attaché.
Date-Based: Technically for modules you run as Date-Based, you don't need to roll them at all. However, to allow for deletion of old data (housekeeping), we recommend that you at least run an End-of-Year.
Period-Based: it is essential to run End-of-Period or End-of-Year due to the way Period Based accounting works. With Period-Based, only transactions entered in the period are counted in that period. Therefore, 'cut-off' - the End-of-Period or End-of-Year process – is strict. Also with Period Based, any documents relating to the next period/year, must not be entered in Attaché until the current period and/or year is rolled. This should be considered when deciding the timing of period/year end for your modules.
Date-Based is more flexible and less work compared to Period Based. Errors or missed transactions are also much easier to fix with Date Based.
If you are currently using Period Based and would like to consider switching to Date Based, please Contact Support via MyAccess portal and reference the title of this article.
Processing EOY modules
Products and Customers modules are generally rolled together. The two most common plans for EOY processing are:
All modules at the same time: Run all modules one after the other. This may not be practical if you are Period Based and need to
wait for documents from suppliers, etcRun Products and Customers together: so that you can keep sending out sales invoices.
Hold back Suppliers, Asset Management and General Ledger:
Delay rolling Suppliers to allow for all invoices to come in (mostly a concern for Period Based).
Asset Management and General Ledger are generally also held back and rolled with Suppliers.
There are other options, for example if you are mostly Date Based, you could roll all modules but hold back GL (and possibly Asset Management). This method allows for easier posting of late arriving transactions.
Archiving your data:
Whichever method you use, you should always take an Archive immediately before running the End-of-Year procedure for a module. This ensures you have an accurate picture of the module as it was at End-of-Year.
The archive you take should be specifically marked by changing the file name so that the name indicates it is an End-of- Year
4. End-of-Year Stocktake
When you carry out your stock take is up to you. It is best to perform a stock take close to the end of the year to ensure your Stock-on-Hand figure for the EOY financial reports is as accurate as possible. See: Run a product stocktake.
5. Update your Bank Reconciliations
While you have probably kept your main trading account reconciliation up to date, there may be other bank accounts, etc., that had a reconciliation or two missed. Get in early and catch these up. Your Bank Reconciliation is one of the main check points to ensure all transactions have been picked up. See the following articles:
If you use the New Bank Reconciliation or are interested in learning about it, see New Bank Reconciliation.
6. General Ledger: check your Chart of Accounts
General Ledger automated postings:
If you have GL automated postings activated, see: Supplier or Customer transactions showing as Pending in General Ledger Automated Postings.
7. Test Reconciliations from Subledgers to General Ledger.
If your subledgers were not reconciled at May month end, then run one of these reports for each module based on whether the module is Period or Date based:
Customers, Reports, Periodical, Customer Aged Trial Balance Summary (Period Based).
Customers, Reports, Periodical, Customer Ageing Summary (Date Based).
Suppliers, Reports, Periodical, Supplier Aged Trial Balance (Period Based).
Suppliers, Reports, Periodical, Supplier Ageing Summary (Date Based).
Products, Reports, Periodical, Product Status (Period Based).
Products, Reports, Periodical, Product Status by Date (Date Based).
Asset Management, Reports, Annual Asset Summary (Period Based).
If each report above does not balance to the module Control Account/s on the Trial Balance, then use this article to find and correct the variance: