Hello,

I attended the webinar today on year end processing. It was very helpful, but I have a few additional questions.

We use the Bank Rec subledger module, is there anything different we have to be aware of when running the year end function in Bank Rec or the timing of when we do that? Or can we effectively run BR year end anytime after we have created the next fiscal year in GL?

Also, our year end close process typically takes about 2 months to complete (our year end is March 31/10). During the webinar today it was recommended that the current year be closed as soon as possible in GL in order to minimize risk of batches being retrieved and posted into wrong years, etc. The Post to Prior function would then be used to post any batches related to 09/10 fiscal year.

I understand that once we've created the Next Fiscal Year in GL, we can then enter transactions through AP and AR with current year and next year dates and GL will put them into the appropriate batch buckets for either this year (09/10) or next year (10/11). However, once we close the current year, the Next Year Batches button is no longer available therefore all batches become "current" batches. At that point, would we still have the ability to enter AP and AR transactions for dates prior to March 31 and post them through GL using Post to Prior Period(09/10) without anything getting messed up? Or are we better off leaving the current (09/10) fiscal year open in GL until all of our subledger processing has been complete such that the only remaining transactions to be posted in GL would be year end adjusting entries which could then be entered after we closed the year by using the Post to Prior function. I hope this makes some sense.

Thanks kindly,
Tanja

Hi Tanja,

1) Year End in BankRec does not do too much - just resets the batch number and next posting sequence to 1. There are other processes that deal with clearing reconciled transactions. You can run Year End in BankRec at any time that is desirable, and typically that would be when the Next Year in Ledger has been opened.

2) When you are ready to post transactions to your fiscal year 2010/11, that would be the time to run the Create Next Fiscal Year function and open that year. Since that fiscal year is starting in a week for you, I presume that this has already been done. You would then have the 'current' year 2009/10 available as well as the 'next' year 2010/11.

In April 2010, you will be within your 'next' fiscal year. But presumably you will still have transactions to post in AR, AP and other sub-ledgers that belong in the 2009/10 fiscal calendar. These will get directed to the proper batch when retrieved to Ledger.

Your question is when to run the Close Current Fiscal Year function. How long do you think you would have to wait for all the 2009/10 transactions from all sources to be retrieved and posted in Ledger? Is that two months? Or is it two months to get your Year End auditor adjusting entries?

Yes, if you have Closed fiscal year 2009/10 then you can 'post to prior year' to affect this year, and posting deals with amounts correctly and won't mess anything up. It probably is not ideal to be doing volumes of batch processing using this function, not because it cannot be done but more because of the potential of accidentally posting to the 2010/11 year by mistake.

There is no rush to close your 2009/10 fiscal year. It is probably best to keep it open until all of your sub-ledger processing is complete. But don't keep 2009/10 open when all processing is done and all you are waiting for is the auditor's adjusting year end corrections. These entries are best posted to prior year, after 2009/10 is closed.

Excellent, thanks very much for your reply.

We have not yet created the next fiscal year in GL as I was waiting for today's webinar to ensure I did it correctly. I forgot that you can create the next fiscal year without having to actually close the current year.

Based on the above, it would make sense for us to close 09/10 once all of our subledger processing has been complete (likely mid-April barring late invoices), and then to process any year end adjustments (arising from audit process) through GL as prior year adjustments. But we can run the year end function in AR, AP and BR anytime on or after Mar 31 even if we still have to process subledger transactions related to 09/10 as it is at the GL level that the transactions will be batched and allocated to the correct fiscal year - correct? As we don't currently use the stats in the subledgers, there isn't any real requirement for us to run year end in subledgers right on March 31, but would that be ideal? We already have transactions to enter to next fiscal period but could hold off on those for another week and just run year end on all subledgers on the 31st. As long as we have created the next fiscal year in ledger, the subledgers don't really care if the year end process has been run in the subledgers, is that right? It just means that the batch numbers and stats won't be reset, correct?

Thanks very much!
Tanja
Tanja

Hi Tanja,

If your sub-ledger processing would complete around mid-April, then that would be a good and typical time for Closing 2009/10.

If you know you have to process transactions in AR, AP or BR with dates in the 2009/10 fiscal year, then it usually is advisable to hold off on closing the sub-ledger year, and thus also hold off on closing the year in Ledger. But don't wait until you are 100.00% that nothing more is coming - 99.9% is enough. And closing a sub-ledger would not prevent you from further posting and retrieval into the correct Ledger fiscal year, it's just not ideal.

Again, there is no rush to close the year in Ledger. And there is no problem in entering and posting April transactions in your subledgers, provided that the Ledger 2010/11 fiscal year is opened, so that retrieval into Ledger puts them in the right batch. That is the purpose of the 'soft year end' within Ledger.

Others reading this thread may also have comments - please do share.

If you have no use for the YTD statistics in the subledgers, then you can close them whenever you would like the batch numbers to be reset to 1. You just need to keep in mind that the YTD and other period statistic buckets in the various subledgers are based on when the transaction was posted after the year end function was run in the subledger. These buckets are not date sensitive (Dakota Software's Toolkit will recalculate the numbers if they become important to you.) There is nothing that prevents a transaction being enterd in the subledger for any date, unless you have prevented people from entering transactions against closed periods in the general ledger (a recently introduced feature in all the subledgers).