Skip to content
logo Knowledgebase

Financial year-end procedures in Sage Accounting

Created on  | Last modified on 

Summary

How to close and transition into the new financial year with Sage Accounting.

Description

At fiscal year-end, produce the necessary reports, change your year-end date, and lock down the fiscal year to prevent transactions in the completed year.

Resolution

 NOTE:  Sage Accounting no longer requires a manual year-end journal entry. The trial balance carries over the previous year's profit and loss, displaying income and expenses as retained earnings.

Here are the steps to complete the year-end process:

Update transactions

  1. Ensure you've entered all of your transactions up to and including the last day of the year.
  2. Check for any financial adjustments, month-end postings, and reconciliations. Ensure all entries for the financial year are complete.

Generate reports

  1. Create your annual reports from the Reports menu.
  2. For the year-end process, run these reports with the corresponding financial year-end dates:
    • Balance Sheet
    • Profit and Loss - Standard
    • Trial Balance
  3. Consult your accountant about printing additional reports. To learn more, check out the article on Printing year-end reports or watch the video.

 NOTE: You can access these reports after the year is closed.

Update the financial year-end date

  1. Once you’ve printed the reports, update the financial year-end date to start the new financial year.
  2. From the top menu, go to Settings then Business Settings.
  3. In the Financial Settings section, choose the option Financial Settings.
  4. In the Year end Date field, enter or select the last day of your new financial year.
  5. Set a lockdown date in the Year End lockdown field to prevent accidental entries for the previous year.
     CAUTION: 

     

    Don't modify the Accounts Start Date. It reflects when you started using Sage Accounting or entered Opening balances and not your Fiscal Year end Start Date.
  6. Select Save.
  7. Click Yes to confirm the year-end lockdown changes.

 NOTE: When generating the Trial Balance report, select the As of option and date, then check Summarize Retained Earning Values to see current year balances. If you don't check this option, the trial balance will display balances from the start of the account to the selected date.

 To learn more, watch the video Sage Accounting - Financial Year end procedures