Starting a New Fiscal Year

Make sure you complete each of the month-end tasks.

For more details, visit the Month-End Procedures section of this guide.

If you track stock quantities and values, you should perform an inventory count when all transactions affecting the inventory for the fiscal year have been entered.

1. Go to the Inventory Command Center and click Count Inventory
2. If you have inventory at multiple locations, filter the list as required
3. Click Print to print the Inventory Count Sheet
4. Manually count your inventory and note down the quantities on the Inventory Count Sheet
5. In the Count Inventory window, type the actual quantities of the inventory items in the Counted column. If an item is held in multiple locations, enter the stock held at each location. Any discrepancy between the counted quantity and the on-hand quantity appears in the Difference column
6. Click Adjust Inventory. If there are differences between on-hand and counted values, the Adjustment Information window appears
7. If you use the same account to track all item inventory adjustments, you can select a default adjustment account here. You can also leave the default Adjustment Account blank to enter a unique adjustment account for each line item in the next window
8. Click Continue. The Adjust Inventory window appears, displaying a line item for each adjustment you entered in the Count Inventory window
   • If you entered a default adjustment account, that account appears in the Account column for each line item
   • If you didn’t enter a default adjustment account, enter an account against each item listed
9. Click Record to update your inventory

NOTE: You can also add an optional reason for the adjustment in the Memo column on the Adjust Inventory window.

Once you have completed your year-end tasks, you can send your accounting data to your accountant.

You can send your accountant any reports they have requested or send them a copy of your entire Company File. Below are two common scenarios.

Scenario 1

You and your accountant are in two different locations, and you need to send them your company file so they can revise it and send it back to you.

When you send your file, you should NOT work on it. There is now a copy of it, and if your accountant makes revisions, it will not reflect these changes on the file that’s still on your computer.

You should wait till your accountant sends back the company file; then, you may continue to work on the updated copy.

Scenario 2

You and your accountant are in two different locations, and you need to send them your company file so they can review it (not make any changes).

In this case, you don’t have to worry about stopping work in your company file; you may proceed to work since your accountant is only viewing it and not making any changes.

Ways of Sending Your Company File

• Use a USB Flash/Thumb Drive to copy your backup file to, and bring this to your accountant
• Use Dropbox to Upload your backup, and then create a “Public Link” for it and send the Public Link to your accountant
• Any other online Cloud-type storage of your preference

For more details, visit the Company File Backup section of this guide.

Your accountant will likely provide you with some adjustments, such as journal transactions that can be manually entered into AccountEdge.

To record adjustments:

1. Go to the Accounts Command Center and click Record Journal Entry

The general journal number and transaction date appear by default, but you can change these if necessary.

NOTE: If your company file is set to 13 accounting periods in the fiscal year, assign your adjustments to the 13th period by entering an asterisk (*) before the date, for example, *9/30/2017.

2. In the first Memo field, enter a comment to describe the transaction, for example, Depreciation–Motor Vehicles (optional).
3. Each row of information entered in the scrolling list is a line item. The line item details are identified in the journal adjustments provided by your accountant.

For each line item:

• Type the account number (or name), or select it from the account list
• In the Debit and Credit fields, enter the debit or credit amount for the line item
• In the Job field, enter the job number for the line item (optional)
• In the Memo field, enter a description of the line item (optional)

4. Click Record to record the journal entry

Make a backup of your company file after entering adjustments and store it safely.

For more details, visit the Company File Backup section of this guide.

Before starting a new fiscal year, make sure you have:

• Completed steps 1–5 of the ‘Starting a New Fiscal Year’ procedure
• Entered all transactions and adjustments as instructed by your accountant

When you start a new fiscal year

• The previous fiscal year’s monthly totals for all accounts are changed to last year’s categories. If last year’s amounts already existed, those amounts will be replaced.
• The balance of your current-year earnings account is transferred to your retained earnings account.
• The balances of your income, cost of sales, expense, other income, and other expense accounts are returned to zero.
• Closed sales, closed purchases, paycheck information, and journal entries assigned to closed sales and closed purchases are kept or purged according to your selections in the Start a New Fiscal Year Assistant.

If you share your company file on a network, you should note that this task requires single‑user access. You must be the only user logged into your AccountEdge Company File.

1. Go to File on the top menu bar, select Start a New Year, then Start a New Fiscal Year from the dropdown
2. Follow the on-screen instructions and select your Start a New Year preferences

Once the Start a New Year procedure is complete, we recommend that you optimize and verify your company file.

For more details, visit this guide’s Checking your Company File for Errors section.