GL Administrator Year End Report overview

General Ledger > Administration > GLA Reports > GLAY

Function acronym: GLAY

Use this report to create a new Chart of Accounts for the new year and carry a balance forward amount for Assets and Liabilities accounts.

Perform year-end processing for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Inventory Control at about the same time. You should complete this at the end of the fiscal year, but before you complete any postings for the new year.

The Chart of Accounts for the current year remains in place with all balances intact. For each year a company is in business, a separate Chart of Accounts exists. As a result, you can make modifications in the Chart of Accounts from year to year without affecting the Chart of Accounts for previous years.

Caution: 
GL Administrator Year End Report does not clear out any balance fields. It simply calculates a balance forward amount from the period balances for each Asset and Liability account and carries it forward to the new Chart of Accounts. This calculation does not occur for Income, Expense, or Clearing accounts, which start at zero.

You must perform GL Administrator Year End Report before posting into the new year to create the new Chart of Accounts. If you do not perform GL Administrator Year End Report, the new Chart of Accounts is not created, and you are not able to post transactions into the new year. You can post adjusting entries into the previous year before distributing profit after the new Chart of Accounts is created.

Note: All users must be signed off the system when you perform this year-end process.

All adjusting entries update period balances. For Asset and Liability accounts, the balance forward amount is recalculated and automatically carried forward/replaced in the new year Chart of Accounts. This allows unlimited adjusting entries to be posted into the previous year although all adjusting entries must be posted before profit is distributed. You can post up to 13 previous periods.

You cannot begin to enter budget information for the upcoming year before you run GL Administrator Year End Report. a warning message is displayed in GL Budget Setup when you create new budget records, but you are allowed to continue. You will not, however, be able to report on the new budget through GL Financial Statements Report. You are able to use GL Financial Statements Report to report on the new budget once you have run GL Administrator Year End Report and created the new Chart of Accounts.

You must distribute profit through GL Administrator Distribute Profit Report before you finalize the Chart of Accounts for year end. If you need to make adjusting entries after profit has been distributed, rerun the GL Administrator Distribute Profit Report function. The recalculated profit replaces the profit previously posted to the Retained Earnings accounts.

Note: If you set up new General Ledger account codes through GL Account Setup for the new year and they duplicate existing account codes for the current year, GL Administrator Year End Report updates the forward balance on existing account codes when the new chart of accounts is created. GL Administrator Year End Report adds new General Ledger account codes to the new Chart of Accounts if the account codes do not duplicate existing account codes.

Once you complete GL Administrator Year End Report and all postings for the previous year, maintain SA Administrator Options-Financials to adjust the valid open periods.

If your company uses a 13-period fiscal year, you must enter new ending dates in SA Administrator Options-Financials before you post into the new year. If you do not specify new dates, all transactions are automatically posted to the General Ledger Suspense accounts.

Before you generate the final financial statements, make sure you complete the following two tasks:

  • Distribute profit
  • Complete all adjusting entries to the previous year.
Note: If you run GL Administrator Year End Report before the end of the year to post entries that affect the upcoming fiscal year, set the Current Fiscal Year field in SA Administrator Options-Financials-Fiscal Year back to the current year to finish posting entries for the remainder of the year. The postings you make from that point forward are not included in the forward balance for asset and liability accounts. Run GL Administrator Year End Report again on the first day of the new year before any transactions are posted for the new year. This refreshes the forward balances and increments the fiscal year.