My first year end is due at the end of this month and, despite having a good look around the quickfile postings, I am struggling to find a good, simple to understand (and idiot proof!), guide on the steps you have to take close the year end in the books in QF.
Would be most grateful for some solid pointers to help in this area please…
There’s never a one-size fits all approach for year-end. Generally it’s worth consulting with an accountant to get this right, it can have a significant bearing on your tax liability.
I have decided that my year end will close on 31st March each year. So, am I right that the year-end close procedure in QF will automatically clear out all the P&L balances to zero and ‘snapshot’ the closing balance sheet amounts as at 31/3/14. After it has run, I should see the closing balance figures as my new start ones from 1/4/14 – correct? With 31/3/14 being the final day of my financial year, when is the earliest I can close the year off using QF? I will have 4 months of trading up to this point, where will all the sales and purchase invoice records go and will they still be accessible?
Yes the year-end tool will journal the P&L balance to ‘Retained profit’ on the balance sheet. The journal will be created on the last day of the accounting period.
If your year ends on the 31st of March then the year-end tool can be used any time after that date. Nothing will happen to any of your existing invoices but a lock will be applied to prevent them from being modified or deleted.
Just a thought - can you tell me please will the sales invoice numbering be re-set to ‘000001’ when the year end close tool is run or do they just carry on incrementing?
carry on incrementing
OK. Not quite ready to close the year in QF but today is ‘day 1’ of my new financial year. Am I ok to raise and send invoice for today’s work? The close job is clearly date driven - does it look at the issue dates of invoices and, if so, I assume April-dated invoices will not figure in my year-end close?
Yes you can issue new invoice, based on invoice date it would be counted in relevant period
I ran the year-end tool for my year-ending 31/3/14 and all journals looked spot on. You mention the account lock facility - do I have to manually set this to 31/3/14 and click save? When done, will this then block all invoices dated 31/3/14 or earlier from any further modification? Is the saved lock date then cast in tablets of stone and not changeable?
You have save it can be reverted if required, it not the end of the world
I successfully did my year end in QF to 31/3/14. The account lock is set and saved to 31/3/14 and with this in place, I assumed it would not be possible to modify invoices with a date of 31/3/14 or before. However, if I go into all invoices view and search for those dated Mar 14 and inspect one of them, there is still the modify button available to me, suggesting I can still change things… a bit contradictory…any thoughts/comments?
It wont save changes
It won’t allow you to save the invoice, but I have recommend that the modify button be hidden completely for those invoices in a locked period.