How to close the fiscal and/or payroll year

Need assistance completing your Year-End? Prefer to have someone complete the process with you to reduce downtime? Refer to Sage Expert Services (SES) for help.

 

For hands-on instruction for closing a year, see Closing your fiscal and payroll years.

1. Definitions

• In Sage 50, only two fiscal years can be open at any time
  • When you need to open a new fiscal year, you have to close the oldest open fiscal year
  • In the Year-End Wizard, Sage 50 closes one year at a time
• The fiscal year is the year in which general ledger transactions take place
  • Each fiscal year has the same number of accounting periods, the number of which are established when setting up the company
• The payroll year will always match the calendar year (January - December) in which payroll transactions take place
• If the fiscal year doesn’t follow the calendar year, you can close the fiscal and payroll years separately
• Fiscal years can be closed when you’re done with all transactions and any reports for the year
  • Except for financial statements and general ledger reports, which can be printed at any time

2. Close Fiscal Year Checklist

1. Enter all adjusting entries.
2. Print all necessary reports.
3. The Year-End Wizard is a single-user task; have all other users close the company.

3. Running the Year-End Wizard

1. Click Tasks, System, Year-End Wizard.
2. Verify the currently open years, then click Next.
3. Select an option in the Years to Close:
   • Fiscal and Payroll Tax Years: required if the fiscal year follows the calendar year
   • Fiscal Year: close the fiscal year only
   • Payroll Tax Year: close the payroll year only
4. Click Next.
5. If any purchase invoices are Waiting on Bill, you’ll be unable to proceed; to correct this:
   1. Close the Year-End Wizard.
   2. Click Lists, Vendors & Purchases, Purchases.
   3. Change Date Range to All Transactions.
      Note: If you have a sizable company database, it is recommended to check one period at a time to prevent the program from locking up.
   4. Click Waiting On Bill twice to bring the invoices marked as such to the top of the list.
   5. Double-click the first invoice.
   6. Uncheck Waiting on bill.
   7. If there’s no Invoice No., enter one.
   8. Click Save.
   9. Click Close.
   10. Repeat Steps 5-9 for each invoice as needed.
   11. Close the list and restart the Year-End Wizard.
6. If there are unprinted items (invoices, checks, 1099 forms, etc.) you’ll receive a warning; if you wish to print these before closing the year, close the Year-End Wizard and do so; otherwise, click Next.
7. Select which, if any, year-end reports you wish to print, by checking Print on the appropriate line.
8. Click Next.
9. If you wish to perform an internal accounting review, click Internal Accounting Review; if not, or once that’s complete, click Next.
10. Back up the company:
    1. Click Back Up.
    2. Set the backup options as desired.
    3. Click Back Up.
    4. Click Save.
    5. Click OK on the backup size message.
11. When the backup process is complete, click Next.
12. If you wish to make an archive copy of the company, check Archive Company and enter an Archive Name; if not, or once done, click Next.
13. (Closing fiscal year only) You’ll be able to change the period dates for the next fiscal year.
    Note: This isn’t recommended, and should be done at the direction of your accountant only.
14. Click Next.
15. The wizard will display which fiscal and/or payroll year will be closed, and which years will be open once the wizard completes.
16. Click Next.
17. It’s recommended to allow the data verification process to run, but uncheck Run Data Verification if desired.
18. When ready to begin the year close, click Begin Close.
    Note: Once the closing process begins, it can’t be stopped and shouldn’t be interrupted, as doing so will result in data damage. If the process is interrupted for any reason, restore the backup from Step 10 and redo the Year-End Wizard.
19. When the process completes, a results window will be displayed; click Finish to complete the wizard.
20. Verify what was the first open year has been closed, and what was the second open year is now the first open year, by clicking Tasks, System, Change Accounting Period and viewing the open periods.

4. After the Year-End close

• Once a year is closed, changes can’t be made in that year, and forms and most reports can’t be printed
• Financial statements and most General Ledger reports can be printed for closed years, however
• Unprinted transactions (that is, transactions that haven’t been assigned a reference number) can be printed at any time.
  • See How to reprint transactions from closed years
• Transactions can be viewed from the various transactions lists, by changing the Date Range to All Transactions
• Running the Year-End Wizard doesn’t remove the old data
  • A purge will need to be run to remove the old data and reduce the company size, see How to Purge data
    
    Note: Purging is recommended once the company data size exceeds 300,000 kb, or 300 mb; the company size can be checked by clicking Help, Customer Support & Service, File Statistics, then checking the Grand Total at the bottom of the list.