General Ledger Close Month Process

Transcription

1 Overview General Ledger Close Month Process This task performs end-of-month processing for the General Ledger. Posting in any period, past (closed), current or future is allowed. Therefore, if a transaction is missed until after the month is closed, or if adjusting entries need to be made for prior periods, the system allows these entries. I. Close Month Even though the subsidiary applications have already been closed for the current month, it is recommended that no posting be done until the General Ledger is balanced and closed. That is to say, users can be logged in, creating batches, running reports, etc; they should just be made aware that the G/L is being closed and no posting is to be done until notified. Navigate to: General Ledger>Monthly Processing>Close Month Prior to closing the month, the system will perform several verifications. During this process there are several warnings and/or errors that may appear: Subsidiary applications must be closed for the current month, and all G/L batches must be posted. If they have not been closed, an error message similar to the one below will appear. Page 1 of 7

2 All End of Month reports that are required must be printed, if they have not been printed, an error message will display. Bank Reconciliations should be current. This verification will produce a warning if any reconciliations will be behind G/L when the month is closed; however it willl not prevent the closing of the current month. Page 2 of 7

3 To view which reports are required and which have been printed go to Monthly Status. NOTE: If additional transactions are posted that affect the required reports the Printed? flags are reset to No and the reports must be run again before the month can be closed. If the Recurring Entries have not been run for the current month, the system will produce a warning; however, it will not prevent the closing of the current month. Once all errors have been corrected, the month can be closed. Click Close Month. Page 3 of 7

4 The following message will appear: Click Yes to continue. The system will run the following: Purge monthly detail records Create new start-of-month balances for each account balance Update the current month Update the months of financial statement columns One of the features of the DPHS applications is automatic rollback recovery. Rollback recovery automatically recovers the database data to a balanced state when a critical process aborts. There are several balance points for the rollback recovery. If the Close Month process aborts before completion, it rolls back to a balance point, but the process is still in an "active" state. This means Close Month has been started but is not yet completed. There are distinct re-entry points into the process where Close Month picks up if re-started. Postings from subsidiary applications are prevented from updating General Ledger until Close Month is successfully completed. The system will cancel the printing of journals and return an error message that states General Ledger has not completed closing. To determine what state General Ledger is in, run the monthly status inquiry in General Ledger. This indicates if the Close Month process is "active". If the process did not complete, a message indicates at what step the processs aborted and to call DPHS support. There are no recovery steps to be performed, but it must be determined why the process aborted. Contact Data Plus Support and start the Close Month process with assistance. If the Close Month process successfully completes, the Monthly Status Inquiry does not display any messages. There are nine steps or balance points in the Close Month process: 1) Initialize month-to-date postings 2) Initialize month-to-date statistics 3) Journal entry & front desk revenue transfer maintenance 4) Update General Ledger balances & end-of-year processing Page 4 of 7

5 5) Process future transactions from subsidiary applications 6) Update foreign currency historical exchange rates 7) Process statement columns 8) Update statement definitions 9) Reset & update General Ledger parameters record The status of these nine balance points is maintained by the system. They are not accessible or modifiable. The only way to reset them is to complete the Close Month process. The system shows each step as the month closes: While Close Month is processing, most tasks in the subsidiary applications can be performed. The tasks that should not be run are any posting processes, to/from transfers, and Close Month for a subsidiary application. It is best to avoid running any tasks in the General Ledger during Close Month as the data is in a dynamic state and there may be record access conflicts. In summary, if the Close Month process aborts before successful completion, the system does not allow any postings from any applications. Once the process is complete, the following message will be displayed: Page 5 of 7

6 II. Year End If the month being closed is the last Fiscal Period, the process will also close the year. The following warning will appear: Click OK, and when it has been determined that the Chart of Accounts is in order, run the Close Month again and proceed, following each step. The closing entries are created and can be reviewed by running Closing Entries from the Yearly Reports menu. NOTE: It is recommended there be no other activity in the database when the year is being closed. The process will zero out accounts that affect Retained Earnings, and move the balance of those accounts to the Retained Earnings account defined in Parameters. For this reason the system requires the Chart of Accounts List be printed and reviewed to verify the Account Classifications are correct. It is imperative that these Classifications are correct, as the settings will affect Retained Earnings. If the Retained Earnings G/L account does not exist in the system, the system will produce an error similar to the one below. Page 6 of 7

7 The Retained Earnings accounts closed. must be added to the Chart of Accounts before the period can be The system also creates new account balance records and unit balance records for the new fiscal year. The budget records for the new year can be created using the Copy Year functionn in Budget File Maintenance. If there are any further inquiries please refer to our website or contact the Data Plus Support department. Website Data Plus Support Ext 3 support@dphs.com Page 7 of 7