AFN-GeneralLedgerEOYGuide

Transcription

1 Blackbaud, Inc. This publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Blackbaud, Inc. The information in this manual has been carefully checked and is believed to be accurate. Blackbaud, Inc., assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions in this manual. In no event will Blackbaud, Inc., be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect or omission in this manual, even if advised of the possibility of damages. In the interest of continuing product development, Blackbaud, Inc., reserves the right to make improvements in this manual and the products it describes at any time, without notice or obligation. The Raiser s Edge, MatchFinder, ParaGon, RE:Alum, RE:Event, RE:Member, RE:Queue, RE:Tribute, RE:Volunteer, RE:Zip, RE:Open, and Blackbaud are registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc. All other products and company names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective holder. AFN-GeneralLedgerEOYGuide

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3 General Ledger End of Year Guide In This Guide General Ledger End of Year Process What the Procedure Accomplishes End Of Year Considerations Prep Work Completing the Procedure Optional Procedures Warning Messages and Solutions Wrap Up Questions and Answers

4 2 CHAPTER 1 General Ledger End of Year Process Closing the fiscal year with Blackbaud s General Ledger is a two-step process. First, the End-of-Year Report must be run. After the report has successfully validated your data, run the close fiscal year procedure to complete the process. Please read this guide completely before you begin the end-of-year procedure. The end-of-year procedure is typically run a few months after the end of the current fiscal year. This allows you time to complete your annual audit and make any adjustments your accountant may suggest. What the Procedure Accomplishes Running the General Ledger end-of-year procedure: Automatically calculates the net/surplus deficit for each fund and transfers this amount into the appropriate fund balance account. Calculates the fiscal year-end closing balances for all balance sheet accounts and creates an opening balance for these accounts for the next fiscal. Sets the income statement account balances to zero. Calculates the increase/decrease in net assets and calculates the ending net asset balances for the year. Permanently restricts journal entries to the closed fiscal year. Because transaction detail is not deleted during the end-of-year procedure, printing hard copies of your general ledger detail for the fiscal year is no longer a necessity. End Of Year Considerations Becoming familiar with the following issues will help you decide when to close your fiscal year. Unlimited fiscal years can be left open in the system. Unlimited fiscal years can be defined in the system. Closing a fiscal year permanently restricts journal entries to any of the fiscal periods contained in the fiscal year you are closing. Closing a fiscal year does not delete any transaction detail. Other options are available for summarizing and deleting transaction detail for the fiscal year. You can soft close a fiscal period, which restricts journal entries to a fiscal period, but allows the period to be re-opened later for journal entries. Running the end-of-year procedure hard closes all periods for the year being closed and prevents any further posting to these periods. You can run the end-of-year procedure at any future date. Prep Work Complete these procedure prerequisites to achieve a smooth, error-free closing. Post to the General Ledger from all of your Blackbaud systems.

5 G ENERAL LEDGER END OF YEAR GUIDE 3 Post all current year batches from the Post module. Verify that a fund balance account has been defined correctly on the Funds tab in Configuration. Review the closing method for each fund to ensure the fiscal year-end close will produce the desired results. Verify your net asset allocations have been properly distributed. You can verify this by choosing File, Edit FAS 117 Balances from Utilities and Housekeeping. In Configuration, verify your next fiscal year has been defined in you system. Make sure all users have exited and signed out of all General Ledger modules. Make at least three backups of your data and store two offsite in a fireproof container. Completing the Procedure Completing the end-of-year procedure is a two-step process that requires first running the End-of-Year Report and then running the close fiscal year procedure. Both options are accessed from the Utilities and Housekeeping File menu. Running the End-of-Year Report automatically starts a series of checks and balances to determine the procedure prerequisites have been met. If they have not, an error report is generated. You can re-run the End-of-Year Report until a successful report is produced. A successful report must be produced before you can close the fiscal year. The End-of-Year Report will contain the following information: A list of each fund and project (if applicable) and the net surplus/deficit amount to be posted to the fund balance accounts defined on the fund records. The net asset code summary, which lists the net decrease/increase for the three net asset classifications. A list of any open current year batches. Backups are essential elements in completing the end-of-year procedure. They protect your data in case of power failures, surges, or other interruptions in processing. Running an end of year report 1. From Utilities and Housekeeping, select File, Close Fiscal Year.

6 4 CHAPTER 1 2. You will receive a warning message to make sure other users are logged out of the system. Click Proceed and the Close Fiscal Year screen appears. 3. Mark the Run End of Year Report option and click OK. 4. The report will show on the screen. Make sure you print a copy for your records by choosing the print icon located on the Preview screen. Closing a fiscal year 1. From Utilities and Housekeeping, select File, Close Fiscal Year. The Close Fiscal Year screen appears.

7 G ENERAL LEDGER END OF YEAR GUIDE 5 The checkbox labeled Permanently Lock FAS 117 Balance should be marked to produce FAS 117 compliant statements for the fiscal year. Before selecting this option, review the beginning net asset balances by selecting File, Edit FAS 117 Balances in Utilities and Housekeeping. Failure to mark this box prevents future FAS reporting for the year you are closing. 2. Mark the Close Fiscal Year option. 3. Click OK. The following screen appears. The Permanently Lock FAS 117 Balance checkbox does not appear once you lock your FAS 117 balances. 4. Verify closing the fiscal year and click Yes to continue. The next screen appears. 5. Click OK. 6. If the validation is successful, click Yes to continue.

8 6 CHAPTER 1 7. Click OK to continue. The following screen appears. 8. If you are currently integrating with any of Blackbaud s 16-bit applications, including all DOS applications and The Raiser's Edge, click Yes to continue. This will automatically update the files needed to communicate with the other applications. Optional Procedures Purging a summarized fiscal year prevents comparative reports from being produced in your system for the years you have purged. Use caution while running these options and make sure to back up the database files before you begin. These optional procedures will allow you to summarize transaction detail for a closed fiscal year. You can also purge a fiscal year from your system if the year has been summarize. Summarizing a Fiscal Year Summarizing a fiscal year deletes all transaction detail for the fiscal year. All transactions net into a lump figure for each period. Financial reports can still be created for a summarized year. Only a closed fiscal year can be summarized. 1. From Utilities and Housekeeping, select File, Summarize Fiscal Year. You will receive a warning message to make sure other users are logged out of the system. Click Proceed and the Summarize Fiscal Year screen appears. 2. Verify that the correct fiscal year is on the screen and click OK to continue. The following message appears.

9 G ENERAL LEDGER END OF YEAR GUIDE 7 3. Click Yes to continue. The following message appears. Purging a Fiscal Year Purging a fiscal year deletes all transaction detail and removes the fiscal year from the General Ledger database. Only a year that has been successfully summarized can be purged. Use extreme caution and back up your database before you attempt to purge. Financial statements will not be available for a fiscal year once it is purged. 1. From Utilities and Housekeeping, select File, Purge Fiscal Year. You will receive a warning message to make sure other users are logged out of the system. Click Proceed and the Purge a Fiscal Year screen appears. 2. Verify that the correct fiscal year is on the screen and click OK to continue. The following screen appears. 3. Click Yes to continue. The following screen appears.

10 8 CHAPTER 1 Warning Messages and Solutions Processing time varies depending on you organization s computer hardware and the size of your General Ledger database. Please make sure all users have exited the system before processing. During the end-of-year procedure, messages are displayed if potential problems exist with your data. These messages are designed to guide you through a closing without errors while ensuring the integrity of your data. Warning Funds exist with missing fund balance accounts. Fund 01-UNRESTRICTED OPERATING FUND has one or more invalid or missing posting accounts. The End of Year process cannot be completed until all funds have been assigned a valid posting account. Solution 1. Select the Fund tab from Configuration. 2. Highlight the fund mentioned in the error message and click Edit to change the fund information. 3. Define fund balance accounts based on the posting method for the fund. Warning Your database contains open batches for the fiscal year you are trying to close. Fiscal year cannot be closed because there are open batches for that fiscal year. Solution Go to Journal Entry and post all open batches containing entries with posting dates that fall within the fiscal year you are closing. Warning No new fiscal years are defined in your system. There must be at least one additional fiscal year defined in your system to close properly. The current fiscal year cannot be closed without a consecutive future fiscal year. Use General Ledger Configuration to add future fiscal years. Solution 1. Select the Fiscal Year tab from Configuration. 2. Define at least one additional fiscal year. Please note that unlimited future years can be defined. To avoid this message next year, define more than one fiscal year. Warning FAS 117 does not produce for the closed fiscal year. You have chosen not to lock your FAS 117 balances. Closing a fiscal year without locking the FAS 117 balances will prevent future FAS reporting on the year you are closing. Continue closing fiscal year ?

11 G ENERAL LEDGER END OF YEAR GUIDE 9 Solution 1. Select OK to continue if you will not need FAS 117 compliant statements produced for the fiscal year you are closing. Select Cancel if you require FAS 117 compliant statements for the fiscal year your are closing. Selecting Cancel returns you to the Close Fiscal Year screen. 2. Review your beginning net asset balances through the File, Edit FAS 117 Balances option. 3. Click OK to continue closing the fiscal year. Wrap Up After the end-of-year procedure has finished, run through a session of your system to inspect the changes that have been made to your data. View the Fiscal Year tab from Configuration. Note the status for the fiscal year has changed to closed. Print financial reports and compare them with statements printed before running the end-of-year procedure. Congratulations! You have successfully closed Blackbaud s General Ledger system for your prior fiscal year. Questions and Answers I have closed the fiscal year, now I want to clear out some of the transaction detail from the year. Does closing the year do this? Closing a fiscal year with General Ledger removes no transaction detail from the database. Two options are available from Utilities and Housekeeping to remove excess data from the database. The Summarize Fiscal Year option nets all transactions from a fiscal period into one figure and deletes the transaction detail. You can still run comparative financial reports for a summarized fiscal year. Purging a fiscal year deletes all summary transactions for the fiscal year and prevents comparative reporting for the year purged. Back up your database before you run these powerful procedures! When should I run the end-of-year procedure? Run the procedure at any time after the end of period 12 of your fiscal year. Keep in mind that functionality in General Ledger allows you to leave unlimited fiscal years open.

12 10 CHAPTER 1 When do most people close their fiscal year? Most customers run the procedure only after they have received their yearly audit. This allows audit adjustments in period 12 of the past fiscal year. How do I know if I should lock my FAS 117 balances or not? Your accountant should be able to tell you if you will need to produce the FAS 117 compliant statements for the fiscal year you are closing. I ran the End-of-Year Report and there were a few problems, which I corrected. Is it all right to re-run the report? The End-of-Year Report should be run again until there is a successful report produced. When I run the end-of-year procedure, I have the option to either run the report or run the report and close. What is the difference? The options both provide the same result. Some users like to run the report quarterly to make sure all systems are good. Choosing the option to run the report and close simultaneously runs the report and then continues with the fiscal year close. I am not ready to close the fiscal year, but I want to restrict users from posting to past periods in the General Ledger. Is this possible? You can soft close a period within the General Ledger by accessing the Fiscal Years tab from Configuration. This will prevent users from posting to a specific period. The soft close can be removed at anytime by the system administrator if you need to change it.