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Today I want to follow up on a previous podcast and tell you about the Year End Wizard that's part of Peachtree Accounting Software. As many of you know, you can only keep two years (24 accounting periods) open in Peachtree. Then you have to close the oldest year and archive that year in order to move forward into the coming year.
The Year-End wizard walks you through the process of closing out your first open fiscal year, payroll tax year, or both. At every point in the process, the wizard makes your options clear and tells you the consequences of every action you might take. Before you launch the wizard, there are a number of tasks you should perform.
These include
1 - Printing out any unprinted items such as invoices and payroll checks
2 - Clearing the Waiting on Bill from Vendor check box in the Purchases/Receive Inventory window for any outstanding vendor purchases.
If you start the wizard before performing this task, the wizard will not be able to proceed. You will have to exit the wizard and clear the check box before you can complete year-end close. You may also want to purge inactive records before you start the wizard, though this can be done at any time, including after year-end close.
Purging records is accomplished with the Peachtree Purge wizard. Also, while the wizard requires that you back up your company data during the close process, you can do so before launching the wizard if you prefer. In either case, back up of company data is highly recommended.
Year-End Wizard - Close Options
In this window the wizard asks you which open years you want to close. Depending on the available options, you can close either the displayed fiscal year, the displayed payroll tax year, or both the fiscal and the payroll tax years.
The Wizard includes three option buttons:
1 - Fiscal and Payroll Tax Years
2 - Fiscal Year: The wizard will display the appropriate beginning and closing dates for the year.
3 - Payroll Tax Year: The wizard will display the appropriate beginning and closing dates for the year.
Depending on your current accounting period and how your fiscal and payroll tax years are structured, not all of these options may be available. Peachtree will always allow you to close only the appropriate year or years based on your accounting structure, so do not be concerned if all close options are not available to you at one time.
Note: If you have been working in Peachtree for a number of years and have never closed a payroll tax year, the wizard will recommend that you close your fiscal and payroll tax years together. This will close more than one payroll tax year and bring your fiscal and payroll tax years in sync.
To select the desired close options, do the following:
Start the Peachtree Year-End wizard, and click the option button corresponding to the year or years you want to close. When finished, select the Next button to continue the year-end close process.
If you are closing an open fiscal year or years, Peachtree displays the Print Fiscal Year-End Reports window.
If you are closing an open payroll tax year or years, Peachtree displays the Unprinted Items window.
Note: When you select Next, the wizard will determine if you have any purchases still waiting on bills from vendors. If so, the Cannot Proceed window will appear, telling you that you must go to the Purchases window and clear the Waiting on Bill from Vendor check box for each of the purchases before you can continue with year-end close.
If you don't have any outstanding purchases but you do have items such as invoices and payroll checks that haven't been printed, you will see the Unprinted Items window. It will list all items that still need to be printed. At this point you can select Cancel to close the wizard and then print out these items, or you can select the Next button to continue without printing the items.
Year-End Wizard - Print Fiscal Year-End Reports
In order to assure that you have a proper audit trail for your company, it is strongly recommended that you print all fiscal year-end reports. You won't be able to print them once the year-end close process is complete. The report names and reporting periods for each are listed in the table appearing at the center of the window. All reports are preselected in the Peachtree Year-End wizard for printing.
You have two options:
1 - If there are any reports you don't want to print, in the Print column clear the check boxes corresponding to those reports. This will unselect the reports, and they will not print.
Note that you can use the Check None button to clear all the check boxes or use the Check All button to select all check boxes. When finished, select the Next button to proceed. Peachtree will display the Back Up Company Data window.
2 - If you want to print the listed reports individually instead of having the wizard do it for you, select the Cancel button. The Year-End wizard will close, and you can then print all reports. Note: When you click Next, all chosen reports will print to your default printer, so you should check paper or change printers, if desired, before proceeding.
Year End Wizard-Internal Accounting Review
This window of the Year-End Wizard (available in Premier and higher versions) allows you to run an Internal Accounting Review before you close the year. The Internal Accounting Review checks your company for common transaction mistakes and transactions or conditions that do not adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Since you are about to close the year, this is a good time to run the Review and fix any issues that may be revealed. While it is highly recommended that you run the Internal Accounting Review now, it is not required.
Year-End Wizard - New Open Fiscal Years
In this window, the Peachtree Year-End wizard lets you review the accounting periods in your current open fiscal year and next fiscal year. If you need to restructure your company's next fiscal year for tax purposes, you can change the date range of the accounting periods in that year. However, since Peachtree automatically adjusts the dates of the accounting periods, it is generally not necessary to make changes to them yourself.
Note: There are rules governing changes to the date range of accounting periods. If in doubt, consult your accountant before making any changes.
To see the date ranges of the current open fiscal year accounting periods, select the Current Fiscal Year option button. The table at the right side of the window shows the dates of each accounting period in the year. This display is read-only, meaning you can only review the dates, not change them.
To see the date ranges of the next fiscal year accounting periods, select the Next Fiscal Year option button. The table at the right side of the window shows the dates of each accounting period in the year. To change the end dates of any of the displayed accounting periods, click the accounting period whose date you want to change. In the To column, the end date appears in the form DD/MM/YY, and a Calendar button appears next to the date.
Either type in the new To date or click the Calendar button, and then select the new date from the drop-down calendar that appears. When you change the To date, the From date in the next accounting period automatically changes also. When finished, select the Next button to continue the year-end close process.
Peachtree displays the Confirm Year-End Close window.
This window of the Peachtree Year-End wizard lets you confirm the year or years that you will be closing. The first two boxes in the window display the fiscal year and payroll tax year or years that will close. The second two boxes display the two open fiscal and payroll tax years that will be open once the close is complete.
If you have chosen any year-end close options that you think inappropriate, choose the Back button to return to the wizard window where you want to make changes to chosen options. If you're satisfied that you are ready to proceed with year-end close, select the Next button. Peachtree will display the Begin Close-Year Process window.
Year-End Wizard - Begin Close-Year Process
When you see this window, you are ready to start the year-end close. In the Peachtree Year-End wizard, click the Begin Close button. The close process begins. A progress bar appears at the bottom of the window with the legend "Now Closing..." The progress bar shows in real-time the percent of the process that has been completed. When the process is complete, Peachtree displays the Congratulations! window.
Warning: Once the year-end close process starts, it is imperative that you don't cancel the Year-End Wizard. Do not turn off your computer during the close. Since the close process may take a while to complete, you may want to start the process at the end of your business day, making sure you leave the computer running.
What do you want to do next?
When you see this window, the year-end close process has been completed successfully. The window displays the fiscal and payroll tax years you have just closed your company's new open fiscal and payroll tax years your company's current accounting period. To close the Year-End wizard, click the Finish button.
I hope you find this information helpful. If you have questions or comments, please send me an email at jayne@quickbooksgal.com. You can also visit our website: http://www.custmbiz.com/.
Well, that’s it for now. I appreciate your time and hope you will join me again next time for another in our PeachPodCast series.
I’m Jayne Miller, The QuickBooksGal and Your PeachtreePro. Thanks for listening.
Jayne Miller, is the owner of Custom Business Solutions, is a consulting firm in Reno, NV that specializes in providing bookkeeping and software support.
