Do I have to close the year in Accounts Payable?

You should close the AP Year and the 1099 Year to ensure your vendor totals and 1099 amounts accumulate correctly. If the years do not get closed in a timely manner, amounts will not be accumulated correctly.

For example, if your AP and 1099 years are 12/31/2019 and you issue checks dated 2021, the payment amounts accumulate into the Next Year totals on your vendors' 1099 Settings and Totals tabs. The accumulated amounts do not recalculate if you later close the years to 2020 or 2021. Because of how the information accumulates, inquiries such as Vendor Totals and reports such as the 1099 Preparation report, will not have the correct totals if you do not close your AP and 1099 years.

• The Close Year task updates the This Year, Last Year, and Next Year columns for your vendor's accumulated totals (Setup, Vendors, Totals).
• The Close 1099 Year task updates the This Year, Last Year, and Next Year columns for your vendor's accumulated 1099 amounts (Setup, Vendors, 1099 Settings).

  Notes:

  • If you maintain 1099 prefix totals when you close the 1099 year, Accounts Payable also updates the Year-to-date, Last year, and Next year prefix totals (Tools, Maintain Prefix Totals).

  • If you do not process 1099s, you are not required to close the 1099 year, however, you will encounter warning messages when recording payments or printing checks when the date is too far beyond the 1099 year.

See the Accounts Payable Help topics: "About closing the year" and "What happens when the 1099 year is closed" for more detailed information on the various fields updated by the Close Year or Close 1099 Year tasks.

Verify the current Accounts Payable year as follows:

1. From the Accounts Payable File menu, select Company Settings, AP Settings.
2. Make a note of the Year ending date and 1099 year ending date boxes. Do not change the dates in this window.
3. Click OK.

If the either year is more than one year behind, close the year(s) to bring them current (see article ID 21730 DocLink: How do I close the year or the 1099 year in Accounts Payable?), then refer to the following articles to correct the totals:

• If the 1099 year was behind, refer to article ID 21507 DocLink: My 1099 totals are incorrect in Accounts Payable
• If the AP year was behind, refer to article ID 26760 DocLink: My vendor totals are not correct in Accounts Payable