Down To Earth - FAQ

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 Fiscal Year End

Have you forgotten what I do at the end of the fiscal year? It's easy to do.  What are the steps you take and in what order?  Which applications have a fiscal year end procedure?  All are frequently asked questions from our busy customers.

The fiscal year end is made as easy, flexible, and as automatic as possible to cover every business's accounting needs. Below are the procedures suggested for the end of the fiscal year for DTE steps for General Ledger Year End, General Ledger Year End adjustments, and Accounts Payable. 
(Note:  Auditor adjustments may dictate your unique office procedure.)

This process copies the chart of accounts and sets up the new accounting periods, automatically. (But you must manually change February for Leap Year.)

Ready to close?  When you are ready to actually close the last period and year and bring balances forward, follow the same procedure as above except select the Close  function and Yes  to bring balances forward.

Don't forget! Change the Control value for CURFISCALYR within Company Maintenance to reflect your new year after you have brought balances forward.

Working in Both years?  Select "Change accounting year" from the Maintenance menu column to go back and forth between years while both are open.  Remember the default processing year is controlled by the CURFISCALYR Control.

General Ledger Year End Accounting Adjustments

Once your accountant has provided you with the desired adjustments, entry and adjusting the current year is very easy.  You'll simply "back into" the previous year and last period, adjust, then close the period and year again. 

• Within General Ledger, select "Close/open year" from the Miscellaneous menu column and this time, enter the previous fiscal year.
  
• Choose  Open  for the Function  field value, No to copy accounts; No , don’t bring balances forward, and <Enter> through the default retained earnings account number.  
  
• Now still within General Ledger, select "Close/open period" from the Miscellaneous menu column and enter the last period of the previous fiscal year to Open.
  
• Enter, proof, and post the adjustments to the account numbers as instructed by the accountant.  Reprint the necessary financials and other reports as year end.  Repeat adjustment entry as many times as necessary.
  
• Close the last period as you would normally.  Then close the year as noted above, as you have in the past.  Be sure to select the Close  function and Yes  to bring balances forward.  This action also adjusts your current Retained Earnings account.
  
• You can say Yes to copy any newly defined accounts. (No existing accounts are changed, only those that don't exist in the new year.)  

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 Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable is commonly the first application that requires the new accounting periods and chart of accounts defined for a new fiscal year to verify an account number entered.  When you enter the new year's distribution dates, you get the message, "No control record for year on file" if that year is not defined.  Before Down To Earth can validate, you must create the new periods and chart of account numbers.  

• Select "Close/open year" from the General Ledger Miscellaneous menu column. The current fiscal year beginning and ending dates display.
  
• Select Neither for the Function, Yes to Copy accts to new year, No, do not Bring balances forward, and <Enter> through the Retained earnings account number.  Then confirm.

 (See General Ledger Year End, above for more details.)

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