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.

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.

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

Aged Debt List

Go to the "Sales Ledger" -> "Aged Debtors Listing".

• Select Print Debt List then press <F5> then <F2>.
• For "Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period" set 'Y'.
• Press <Esc> twice.
• If you want a breakdown of the debts then type '1' into "Breakdown From Period" else leave this set to '0'.
• Press <F2> to print the Debt List.

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.

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

Aged Creditors List

Go to "Purchase Ledger" -> "Aged Creditors Listing" -> "Print Debt List".

• Select Print Debt List then press <F5> then <F2>.
• For "Ignore Documents Beyond Current Accounting Period" set 'Y'.
• Tap Esc twice.
• Press <Esc> twice.
• If you want a breakdown of the debts then type '1' into "Breakdown From Period" else leave this set to '0'.
• Press <F2> to print the Creditors List.

Specific Month Cost Centre Report

Go to "Purchase 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.

Reports & Parameters

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

V.A.T. Audit & Cashbook

Go to "Reports & Parameters" -> "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. {{Note|text=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 copmplete 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

Go to "Nominal Ledger" -> "Run Profit & Loss Report" -> "Print the Audit Trail & Cleardown".

• Once you have a complete report, accept it.

Balance Sheet

Go to "Nominal Ledger" -> "Balance Sheet" -> "Run Balance Sheet" -> "Print the Audit Trail & Cleardown".

• Once you have a complete report. accept it.

Reports & Parameters

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

The V.A.T. Report need only be run if required.

V.A.T. Reports

Go to "Reports & Parameters" -> "Reports" -> "V.A.T. Reports" -> "Print End of Quarter V.A.T. Report if required".

• The figures here should be checked against the Daybook Listings and the V.A.T. Audit Trails to ensure accuracy.

Final Financial Period Change

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

• Move the Financial Period on to the next month in the financial year.

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').

Clearing down

Go to "Sales Ledger" -> "Cleardown".

• Press <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.

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').

Clearing down

Go to "Purchase Ledger" -> "Cleardown".

• Press <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.

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Keywords AND Misspellings

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