How to process a month end

Summary

The following steps are will take you through what to do on you month end step by step allowing you to proceed will you next monthly accounting period

Additional 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.

1. Financial Period Check

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

• Go to Reports & Parameters
• Select Set New Financial Period
• Set the financial period to the one you wish to close.

2. Sales Ledger

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

Printing the Daybook Listing & Accepting it.

• Go to the Sales Ledger Main Menu
• Select Daybook Listing
• Select 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 VAT records.

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

Print an Aged Debt List

• Go to the Sales Ledger Main Menu
• Select Aged Debtors Listing
• Select Print Debt List then tap F5 then F2. Type "Y" in the fourth parameter down ("Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period").
• Tap Esc twice.
• If you want a breakdown of the debts then type "1" into "Breakdown From Period" else leave this set to 0. Tap F2 to print the Debt List.

Print a Specific Month Cost Centre Report

• Go to the Sales Ledger Main Menu
• Select Maintenance Options
• Select Centre Maintenance
• Select Print Monthly Turnover
• Select Specific Months Report and enter the month to produce the report for i.e. 06 - June or 10 - October.

3. 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:

Printing the Daybook Listing & Accepting it.

• Go to the Purchase Ledger Main Menu
• Select Daybook Listing
• Select 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 VAT records.

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

Printing an Aged Creditors List

Go to the Purchase Ledger Main Menu Select Aged Creditors Listing

• Select Print Debt List then tap F5 then F2. Type "Y" in the fourth parameter down ("Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period").
• Tap Esc twice.
• If you want a breakdown of the debts then type "1" into "Breakdown From Period" else leave this set to 0. Tap F2 to print the Creditors List.

Printing a Specific Month Cost Centre Report

• Go to the Purchase Ledger Main Menu
• Select Maintenance Options
• Select Centre Maintenance
• Select Print Monthly Turnover
• Select Specific Months Report and enter the month to produce the report for i.e. 06 - June or 10 - October.

4. Reports & Parameters

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

Printing VAT Audit & Cashbook

• Go to the Reports & Parameters Main Menu
• Select Reports
• Select Monthly Audit & Cashbook.
• Select Normal Monthly Audit. Tap Enter to use the Current Accounting Period as the month to audit.

This forms another very important part of your VAT records (VAT Audit) and also provides a cashbook. When you have a complete printout, tap Enter to accept the audit.

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

Tap 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.

5. Nominal Ledger

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

Printing a Trial Balance

• Go to the Nominal Ledger Main Menu
• Select Trial Balance
• When the report is on the screen, tap 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 VAT Outstanding.

Printing the Profit & Loss Report

• Go to the Nominal Ledger Main Menu
• Select Run Profit & Loss Report
• Select Print the Audit Trail & Cleardown and accept it.

Printing the Balance Sheet

• Go to the Nominal Ledger Main Menu
• Select Balance Sheet
• Select Run Balance Sheet
• Select Print the Audit Trail & Cleardown and accept it.

6. Reports & Parameters

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

The VAT Report need only be run if required.

Printing VAT Reports

• Go to the Reports & Parameters Main Menu
• Select Reports
• Select VAT Reports
• Select Print End of Quarter VAT Report if required. The figures here should be checked against the Daybook Listings and the VAT Audit Trails to ensure accuracy.

Final Financial Period Change

• Go to the Reports & Parameters Main Menu
• Select Set New Financial Period
• Move the Financial Period on to the next month in the financial year.

7. 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" - Yes).

Clearing down

• Go to the Sales Ledger Main Menu.
• Select Cleardown
• Tap F2 to cleardown all the complete documents. 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 & Parameters. It is nevertheless useful to have a full system backup.

8. 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" - Yes).

Clearing down

• Go to the Purchase Ledger Main Menu.
• Select Cleardown
• Tap F2 to cleardown all the complete documents. 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 & Parameters. It is nevertheless useful to have a full system backup.

See also

• What should I consider at month end?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

Month, end, daybook, audit, debt list, nominal, update