Changing Years

[sycsmith]

Hi all,

Just a quick question about changing the year in which you are working.

We operate Sage 2011 Pro V17 and run a financial year of Jan - Dec. Obviously at this time of year we still have work to do on the 2015 accounts before we can sign the year off.

What I wanted to know was if it is OK to change the financial year to 2016 so that I can set my budgets, run P&L's etc, without affecting the 2015 data and still being ok to run the year end for 2015 when the time comes.

I was originally told when we first had Sage installed to stay in the same financial year until it was signed off and closed but this has proved a real pain.

Hopefully a very simple 'yes' but thought I'd check before cracking on with it!

[brucedenney]

Just to be clear. You are talking about doing a year end not changing the financial year.

You can do this a few days or weeks into the new year. Sure after the accountants have gone over things. There may be adjustments but they can be entered retrospectively.

[sycsmith]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the delay in posting again! Work commitments eh?

What I have done - possibly incorrectly - is to change the year from 2015 to 2016 using Settings / Financial Year.

I've done this in order that I can run financial reports, etc for 2016. I wanted to set budgets for 2016 but assume that these will be lost when I have to change back to 2015 to enter any accountants adjustments, corporation tax payment, etc.

Is what I have done a big no no? If so, it seems quite ridiculous that you would have to wait a good way into the year to be able to sign off the previous year before entering budgets and being able to run current financial reports like P&L and P&L v Budget.

Is there a way to work safely on 2016 whilst still not having completed and signed off 2015?

Many thanks for your help.

[brucedenney]

You need to complete your year to move on to the next year, you do not need to wait for the accountants adjustments, they will only alter the opening balances and you can post them later in the year.

I think what you need to do is to change the financial year so you are back in last year, then do a year end so you are in this year.

[sycsmith]

Thanks Bruce,

I had always been led to believe that you shouldn't run the year end until everything had been entered which possible meant you could go many months into the following year before being able to close the previous one.

Year end being run now as we speak!

[brucedenney]

With an open item accounting system you can do it any time after the year end, the only thing you need to be wary of are any late bills that are dated in the previous year that arrive after you have done year end.

Normally these just do not happen or if they do they are such small amounts it doesn't matter and you lust put them in the next year, but if they are significant, you should let the accountant know and they should make a provision for them.