How to process a month end

Summary

The following steps will take you through what to do on your month end step by step.

More Information

If you are running the full accounts system there are various procedures you have to go through at the end of a financial period (in Platinum this is one calendar month) to produce your end of month reports and to allow you to close off a period and move into the next financial period.

The majority of these processes will produce printouts. Please make sure your printer is switched on, is loaded with paper and is on line.

Financial Period Check

Check the Financial Period is set to the month you wish to close off.

Go to " Reports & Parameters Set New Financial Period".

• Set the financial period to the one you wish to close.

Sales Ledger

After the last Sales Invoice for the month is complete, the following reports may be extracted:

Daybook Listing

Go to the " Sales Ledger Daybook Listing Print Daybook and Update Nominal".

• This will give an audit trail for the posting to the Nominal Ledger and forms one very important part of your V.A.T. records.

WARNING:  Make sure you have a complete printout before accepting the Daybook.

Aged Debt List

Go to " Sales Ledger Aged Debtors Listing".

• To print a list for all debtors, click <Print>.
• To select a range of accounts or to choose one account, enter the first account to print in the "From Account" field and the "Last Account" to print in the To Account field (bear in mind any accounts falling between these codes will be included in the range).
  • You also have the option to specify a particular "Group" of accounts.
• Click <Print> to print the debt list.

The debts shown will be as at today's date. You have the option to print a debtors listing as at the end of the current financial period, which is useful for checking the Sales Control account at the month end. Just before you print the debt list:

• Select the [Calculational] Tab.
• Set "Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period" to 'Y' for yes.
• Click <Print> to print the debt list. The heading on the print out will read 'Aged Debt List At DD/MM/CCYYY'.

Specific Month Cost Centre Report

Go to the " Sales Ledger Maintenance Options Centre Maintenance Print Monthly Turnover".

• Select " Specific Months Report" and enter the month to produce the report for i.e. '06' - June or '10' - October.

Purchase Ledger

After the last Purchase Invoice for the month has been received and posted onto the system or you have reached an appropriate cut-off point, the following reports may be extracted:

Daybook Listing

Go to the " Purchase Ledger Daybook Listing Print Daybook and Update Nominal".

• This will give an audit trail for the posting to the Nominal Ledger and forms one very important part of your V.A.T. records.

WARNING:  Make sure you have a complete printout before accepting the Daybook.

Aged Creditors List

Go to " Purchase Ledger Aged Creditors Listing".

• To print a list for all creditors, click <Print>
• To select a range of accounts or to choose one account, enter the first account to print in the "From Account" field and the "Last Account" to print in the To Account field (bear in mind any accounts falling between these codes will be included in the range).
  • You also have the option to specify a particular "Group" of accounts.
• Click <Print> to print the creditors list.

The creditors shown will be as at today's date. You have the option to print a creditors listing as at the end of the current financial period, which is useful for checking the Purchase Control account at the month end. Just before you print the creditors list:

• Select the [Calculational] Tab.
• Set "Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period" to 'Y' for yes.
• Click <Print> to print the creditors list. The heading on the print out will read 'Aged Creditors List At DD/MM/CCYYY'.

Specific Month Cost Centre Report

Go to " Purchase Ledger Maintenance Options Centre Maintenance Print Monthly Turnover Specific Months Report".

• Enter the month to produce the report for i.e. '06' - June or '10' - October.

Reports & Settings

The following report needs to be run from the Reports & Parameters system.

Monthly Audit & Cashbook

Go to " Reports & Settings Reports Monthly Audit & Cashbook Normal Monthly Audit".

• Press <Enter> to use the Current Accounting Period as the month to audit.

This forms another very important part of your V.A.T. records (V.A.T. Audit) and also provides a cashbook. When you have a complete printout, Press <Enter> to accept the audit.

PLEASE NOTE:  If you get a message that there is UNPROCESSED DATA for any months, press <Enter> to continue you will then be asked to accept or ignore the report. When you have a complete printout, press <Enter> to accept the audit trail. Go back to the "Monthly Audit & Cashbook" Menu and select "Audit For Months Before a Given Date".

Press <Enter> to use the same dates as for the Normal Monthly Audit and this will process any data which has fallen into previous months so has not been through the Monthly Audit report.

Nominal Ledger

The following reports/processes need to be run from the Nominal Ledger.

Trial Balance

Go to " Nominal Ledger Trial Balance".

• When the report is on the screen, press <F2> to print the Trial Balance. This allows you to check balances on each Nominal Code especially for the major control accounts e.g. Current Bank Account, Cash in Hand, Sales & Purchase Control and V.A.T. Outstanding.

Profit & Loss Report

PLEASE NOTE:  Both options here are print-outs.

Go to " Nominal Ledger Profit & Loss Run Profit & Loss Report".

• Once you have a complete report, move on the next step.

Balance Sheet

PLEASE NOTE:  This option is print-outs also printout only.

Go to " Nominal Ledger Balance Sheet".

• Once you have a complete report, move on the next step.

Reports & Settings

The following reports/processes need to be run from the Reports & Settings system.

The V.A.T. Report need only be run at the end of the quarter, but feel free to look at it as often as you wish!

V.A.T. Reports

Go to " Reports & Settings Reports V.A.T. Reports".

• The month and year that is shown should be the end of the current quarter. Click [OK].

Final Financial Period Change

Go to " Reports & Settings Set New Financial Period".

• Move the Financial Period on to the next month in the financial year.
• Ensure that you press <Enter> to select the new period.

Sales Ledger

The cleardown will clear all transactions from the Sales Ledger which have been fully processed. They are then archived and stored in Document History (provided the "Transaction Archive Parameter" is set to 'Y').

Tip:  This option is not mandatory for the month end procedure, however, if you do perform this cleardown, it is good practice to leave the last quarters history uncleared.

Clearing down

Go to " Sales Ledger Cleardown".

• Press <F2> to cleardown all the complete documents.

PLEASE NOTE:  This routine may take quite a long time to complete, so ensure that you have plenty of time in which to do this. This removes from the system all transactions with zero balances that have had all the necessary analysis done on them and either puts them into the transaction archives or eliminates them into free space. In most cases, they will be archived and can be retrieved using the " Transaction Archives" option in " Reports & Settings". It is nevertheless useful to have a full system backup.

PLEASE NOTE:  If you are on the final month of your year end you will need to close the year off and move into the new year(i.e. be on in the first month of the new year) before you will be able to do the cleardown for the last month. For help on how to do this click HERE.

Purchase Ledger

The cleardown will clear all transactions from the Purchase Ledger which have been fully processed. They are then archived and stored in Document History (provided the "Transaction Archive Parameter" is set to 'Y').

Tip:  This option is not mandatory for the month end procedure, however, if you do perform this cleardown, it is good practice to leave the last quarters history uncleared.

Clearing down

Go to " Purchase Ledger Cleardown".

• Press <F2> to cleardown all the complete documents.

PLEASE NOTE:  This routine may take quite a long time to complete, so ensure that you have plenty of time in which to do this. This removes from the system all transactions with zero balances that have had all the necessary analysis done on them and either puts them into the transaction archives or eliminates them into free space. In most cases, they will be archived and can be retrieved using the " Transaction Archives" option in " Reports & Settings". It is nevertheless useful to have a full system backup.

Information:  If you are on the final month of your year end you will need to close the year off and move into the new year(i.e. be on in the first month of the new year) before you will be able to do the cleardown for the last month. For help on how to do this click HERE.

See also

• Getting Started
• Getting Started - Accounts
• What should I consider at month end?
• Downloading a Platinum Update
• Setting up the Platinum Backup Program
• How do I Process a Year end?
• Clearing any unprocessed transactions at a year end
• Month end Vehicle Integration to Nominal Ledger.
• Stock Integration to the Nominal Ledger
• Reconciling your bank account
• How should I handle takings?
• How do I send a Printout to a File?
• Posting Cashbook entries
• How do I get a Valuation of Vehicle Stock?
• How can I Get a Stock Valuation at a Date?
• How do I Run the VAT 100 Report?
• How do I Process a Year end?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

Month, end, daybook, audit, debt list, nominal, update, AT, V.A.T., period, VAT period