Period-end tasks

Closing a fiscal year and starting a new one

Closing a fiscal year is an important process in AccountEdge. During this process, a number of tasks are performed to officially close the year that's just ended and to prepare for the new year. Fortunately, AccountEdge takes care of nearly all these processes automatically. In MYOB AccountEdge, you use the Start a New Fiscal Year feature to close your fiscal year and start a new one.

To learn the current fiscal year of your AccountEdge company file, choose Company Information from the Setup menu. This window also displays the last Month in Fiscal Year, the number of Accounting Periods per year and the Conversion Month. (The Conversion Month is the first month you started making entries in AccountEdge.)

Note:  When your fiscal year should be closed

When you've entered all the information that's required for a fiscal year, you're ready to close the year and start a new fiscal year.

You should be sure that all transactions for the year that's ending are entered in MYOB AccountEdge before you begin closing the year. This will help you avoid making adjusting General Journal entries in the new year. Your yearly records will be more accurate, and it will be easier for you to compare your company's performance from one year to the next. If you have an accountant who produces your year-end financial reports, you may need to wait for your accountant to provide any adjusting entries you may need.

Finally, perform the tasks you usually do at the end of a month. (Performing month-end tasks.)

To learn what changes are made to your company file during the Start a New Year process, see "How the company file changes when you Start a New Fiscal Year".

Caution:  Make a backup before closing the fiscal year

It's wise to keep multiple backup copies of your company file at different locations. The reason for this is simple: backups can fail too! If a backup file is damaged, you're in just as much trouble as you would be without any backup at all.

Idea:  Make a reference copy of your company file before closing the year

If your accountant requests an electronic copy of your accounting records, you can use MYOB AccountEdge to create a comma-separated text file that can be read by CaseWare, a client write-up software package that is popular among accountants. (Working with your company file and CaseWare)

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