Many companies have the same fiscal year as the calendar year; that said, as we are nearing the year-end for 2017, it is a good time to review the year-end closing procedures for Dynamics GP. If you are tracking inventory, usually a date is chosen to perform a count and enter adjustments. If a company is using GP Payroll, all current year processing must be completed, the new tax table updates from Microsoft installed and then the payroll year-end closing steps within GP can be performed.
Closing the General Ledger is necessary in order to have beginning balances on the Balance Sheet. GP has two very useful features that can be used following the year-end close.
If necessary, the last period in the most recently closed year can be open to post adjusting entries that will automatically update the beginning balances and retained earnings.
The closed year can be re-opened. This is very helpful if, prior to the year-end close, a general ledger account was incorrectly flagged as either balance sheet or profit and loss resulting in either an extra beginning balance or one that is missing.
The following is a checklist for closing the General Ledger. If you are using Analytical Accounting, Fixed Assets or Fixed/Variable Allocation accounts, there are additional steps.
Year-end closing checklist
Complete all batch posting for the year you are about to close in the other modules (sales, purchasing, etc.).
Post any necessary entries in General Ledger.
Print an account list to verify the posting type of each account. Remember, if the account type is Balance Sheet, there will be a balance brought forward to the new year. If the account type is Profit and Loss, there will be no beginning balance.
Close the last period of the fiscal year.
Make a backup. This backup is performed on the SQL database server. Although not necessary, it is prudent to create a backup entitled “Year-end 20XX” and save it.
Print a final Detailed Trial Balance report.
Print the year-end financial statements.
Close the fiscal year.
Close all the fiscal periods for all the series.
Following the year-end close, print the Detail Trial balance and review the opening balances.
Dynamics GP: Year-End Closing Procedures for Payroll
If you use Dynamics GP for processing payroll, before you begin processing payroll in the new calendar year, you must first update the tax tables. Microsoft provides this update a couple of ways. **Note: it is always recommended to make a backup of your database before proceeding with any update.
Canadian Payroll customers must first complete all payroll for the current year, then work with their IT department to install the tax update from Microsoft on the server, then anywhere else that GP is installed. The update on the server not only updates the thresholds for EI and CPP but also installs the new basic exemptions. Once the server and all workstations have been updated, then, from within GP, the payroll year-end process is performed to transfer all current year (in this case 2017) payroll data to history. All year to date information for an employee is set to $0.00 and ready for the new year. The next step would be to generate the T4s when you are ready to process them.
US Payroll customers must also complete all payroll as well as any payroll procedures for the month and quarter end, for the current year, then install the year-end update. The next step is to create the Year-end Wage file.
Microsoft has detailed checklists for both Canadian and US Payroll year-end closing procedures. It is best to review them each year as the process may change.
The team at Rimrock is here to ensure a smooth year-end close process for all of our clients to help you jump-start a successful new year. If you need professional support from Rimrock Corporation, please visit Dynamics GP Support.