Managing the Accounting Year

An accounting period is a conventional extent of time in which accounting functions are executed, unified and reviewed including a calendar year or fiscal year. It can start on any day of a calendar year but has twelve consecutive months at the end of which account books are closed. The accounting period is useful in all operations of business because all stakeholders analyze the company’s functioning through its financial statements that are based on a fixed accounting period. Usually the accounting period involves a fiscal year which may vary based on local practices.

The Accounting Year is the accounting period of a single year with consecutive twelve (12) months in it in general. However it may vary depending on the installation date of the GINESYS software.

If the installation is done on in the middle of the accounting year, some time in August, then for the first year - the accounting period in that installation would be August - March.

In India, the government's financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Proﬁt & Loss Account ledger Credit/Debit amount is visible for Current financial year and Last financial year both.

What can be found in this article?

Managing the Accounting Year#Adding Accounting Year

Managing the Accounting Year#Editing Accounting Year

Managing the Accounting Year#The Closing and Opening process of Accounting Year

Managing the Accounting Year#Using the Open button

Managing the Accounting Year#Using the Close button

Managing the Accounting Year#Transfer Ledger Balances button

Prerequisites

The user's role must have the privileges for Add application operation enabled for the Accounting Year feature in Admin - Organization - Periods through Roles in Ginesys Web - Admin - Security.
The users have separate Open and Close permission for more flexibility in usage. This separate permission ensures, user is able to access the options depending upon the role being assigned. It a security check to ensure sanctity of financial data (From version 11.137.0 onward).

Step-by-step guide

The Add button in the Accounting Year grid view allows the inclusion of new years as and when required. On clicking the button, the Add Accounting Year window opens up to include all relevant details of an accounting year. The new record can then be saved and reflected in the master.

The following fields need to be filled in:

Field Name	Field Description

Field Name	Field Description
Start Date	The Start Date is a pre-populated field disabled for the user. It is populated according to - `End Date of the last (max) accounting year created + 1 day`
End Date	The End Date is a pre-populated field however the user is able to modify it. It is populated as the `31st March of the upcoming year`. Note: It is based on this value that the end dates of each month within that financial year is calculated.
Year Name	It is a mandatory field and allows easy identification of the years.
Save	The `Save` button saves the additions made.
Close	The `Close` button closes the window after asking for confirmation. Note: Closing Accounting Year is a `background process`.

Prerequisites

The user's role must have the privileges for Edit application operation enabled for the Accounting Year feature in Admin - Organization - Periods through Roles in Ginesys Web - Admin - Security.

Step-by-step guide

Selecting an Accounting Year
Go to the Action > Edit.
The Edit Accounting Year window opens.
The user can edit any of the details in the window, provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

IMPORTANT

Accounting Year can only be edited if the year is open.
Accounting Year Name is a mandatory field and cannot be left blank.
Year Name is only editable field.
The Year Name cannot be duplicate.

On selecting an Accounting Year and clicking the Open option, it asks for a confirmation of the action and then in the Processing Status section, it shows the progress of the opening. It also displays a message to show how it was completed - successfully or with validation errors.

Alert

Last closed accounting year needs to be opened first.
If any subsequent accounting year is closed, then intermediate year cannot be reopened.
A message is displayed - Subsequent Accounting Year(s) are not open hence not possible to open the selected Year. First open the latest Closed Accounting Year.
Opening of Accounting Year clears Closed By & Closed on values for the respective accounting year.

On selecting an Accounting Year and clicking the Close option, it asks for a confirmation of the action and then in the Processing Status section, it shows the progress of the closing. It also displays a message to show how it was completed - successfully or with validation errors.

Alert

Selected accounting year can only be Closed when it is currently in Open state.
Closing of Accounting Year will transfer OU wise Ledger balance, for all the assets and liabilities type of ledgers, for the connected OU. If opening balances already exists for the next period, those old opening balance will be deleted and then transfer.
Closing of Accounting year will mark the Accounting year status as closed for the connected OU.
Closing of Accounting year will store the login user name as Closed By User and system date time as Closed by date time for the connected OU.
Accounting year prior to the one, user is trying to close, should be closed. Otherwise the following error message will be displayed - Previous Accounting Year in not closed yet. Please close the previous year and try again.
Status of all Financial month for the selected year should be closed. Otherwise the following error message will be displayed - Please Close all the Financial Months before proceeding to close the Accounting Year.
Ledger for 'Profit & Loss for B/S Posting' has to be defined in the company profile. Otherwise the following error message will be displayed - Please provide default Profile Profit & Loss for B/S Posting ledger in the Company Information window.
Accounting year after the closing year has already been created. Otherwise the following error message will be displayed - Please create next Accounting Year before closing the selected Accounting Year.
There should not be any mismatch in Release Status for accounting entries between posted financial transactions and their respective entries in this module.

To go back to the main page click on Managing (financial) Periods in Ginesys Administration