Close a Fiscal Year

Review When Should I Close My Fiscal Year? before proceeding. Before you close the fiscal year, it is recommended that you Rebuild General Ledger Reporting for the year.  

If you have extended the fiscal year past the actual year, you must remove the extended months from the Accounting Period Master before you close your fiscal year. This process will not close the year if there are extended periods.  See Remove Extended Periods from a Fiscal Year and follow the instructions.

General Ledger Trial Balance

NAVIGATION: REPORTS menu > Trial Balance

  1. Run the General Ledger Trial Balance Report for the year you are closing
  2. If your account totals should balance by segment control, such as Fund, AMP, Department, etc., then it is recommended that trial balances should be run and filtered on a segment control for each possible value.
  3. Alternate sort method: Select a Sort Order that would show your Balance Control segment first.
    1. The beginning and ending balance for each summarized fund should be zero.
    2. Do not place a check mark in the segment that is your balance control segment.
    3. Beginning with the last segment, Check Segments to Summarize.
    4. If you do not have an appropriate Sort Order, see User Defined Order Setup 
  4. Review the report to check that your general ledger is in balance.
  5. If the report shows *C* in front of general ledger accounts, the previous fiscal year should be closed.  
  6. If the report shows *R* in front of the general ledger accounts, the current fiscal year needs rebuilt.
  7. Verify if your general ledger is is balance
    1. The final totals for the Begin Balance & Ending Balance columns should be 0.00
    2. If your general ledger is in balance proceed to Review GL Accounts
    3. If the final totals for the Begin Balance & Ending Balance columns do not equal 0.00, you should review your entries to find and fix the error before you continue to close the fiscal year. 

Review GL Accounts List

If you preview or print the GL Account List, you can see all the closing accounts listed on the report.  If you prefer, you may go directly to: NAVIGATION: MAINTAIN menu > GL Account Master to review your account setup.

NAVIGATION: LISTS menu > GL Account List

  1. Run the General Ledger Account List to review the chart of accounts
  2. All Income and Expense accounts should have a Closing Account.
    1. If the account does not have a closing account, the closing process will use the Default Closing Account number entered in General Ledger Settings.  
    2. If the Default Closing Account is also blank, then the closing process will be halted and a list of errors will be reported.
  3. If your account totals should balance by segment control, such as Fund, AMP, Department, etc., then the closing account selected should be in the same Fund, AMP, Department as the profit-loss account that is being closed.

Important:  If your accounts close to different closing accounts based on Fund, AMP, Department, etc., then do not enter a Default Closing Account in General Ledger Settings.  If an account is missing the closing account it will close to the Default, which will most likely not be to the correct segment control.

See General Ledger - Update Closing Accounts to update closing accounts for a range of general ledger accounts.

Close the Fiscal Year

NAVIGATION:  UTILITIES menu > End Year Process

  1. Enter or select the fiscal year you wish to close in Year to Close OR select the MASTER CONTROL Segment to close
    1. If your company does not use "Using Segment Controlled Accounting Periods"
      1. Selecting by Year or Segment will return the Year to Rebuild and Segment as MASTER CONTROL.  
      2. This process will process the selected year for the entire company.
    2. If your company does use "Using Segment Controlled Accounting Periods" but NOT the "Segments Can be in Different Accounting Years",
      1. You may select the MASTER CONTROL segment to close the entire company or you may select a segment to only close that segment.
      2. Every segment will need to be selected and closed separately when not using the MASTER CONTROL segment to close the year.
    3. If your company does use "Using Segment Controlled Accounting Period" AND ALSO the "Segments Can be in Different Accounting Years"
      1. You must select a segment and the year as each segment must be closed separately.  
      2. The MASTER CONTROL segment will not be available to close.
  3. Select a Closing Mode. 
    1. Final Audited Close
      1. The selected Year or Segment will be closed and the Accounting Periods will be locked.  
      2. Balances will be brought forward into the new year.  
      3. Entries into the old fiscal year will not be allowed unless an Accounting Period is unlocked.
    2. Close Year - Leave Open 
      1. The selected year or segment will be closed but the closing year's accounting periods will not be locked.  
      2. Balances will be brought forward and Accounting Periods for the new year will be created.  
      3. Entries into the old fiscal year and the new fiscal year will be allowed.  
      4. The old fiscal year should be closed using Final Audited Close at some point.
    3. Create Next Year Only
      1. The accounting periods for the new fiscal year will be created.
      2. The current accounting periods will not be locked and balances will not be brought forward.  
      3. Entries will be allowed into both years.  
      4. The old fiscal year will need closed using Final Audited Close at some point so that balances are brought forward.

        NOTE:  If the year/segment combination you are attempting to close is not in the browse, then corrections may be needed to these accounts.  Run a trial balance for the period and segment.  Do any accounts have a *C before it?  If so, a previous year has had a change to the activity and will need to be closed first.  An *R indicates that the accounts need rebuilt before closing. If you need assistance, please call the Horizon help desk.
  4. Press CLOSE YEAR on the Quick Links bar
  5. The process will be halted and an error message displayed if the fiscal year needs rebuilt, please see Rebuild General Ledger Reporting 
  6. If there are extended periods in the Accounting Period Master, please see Remove Extended Periods from a Fiscal Year
  7. The process will be halted if closing accounts are missing or invalid.  
    1. Please review the GL Account listing again.
    2. Closing accounts can be added or corrected in the GL Account Master or updated with the General Ledger - Update Closing Accounts tool.
  8. After correcting any errors, run the End Year Process again.
  9. All of the Closing Modes will create the next fiscal year, for the Year or Segment that were closed, in the Accounting Period Master if it has not already been created and the Year or Segment will be rebuilt for the next fiscal year.

Journal Listing Closing Report

This Journal Listing report will include only the Fiscal Year Closing Entries.

NAVIGATION: REPORTS menu > Journal Listing

  1. Change Sort Information to Transaction Date and enter the last day of your Fiscal year in both the Start and End Date fields.
  2. You may enter a First and Last Account number to limit the account range on the report.
  3. Select Only Memo Entries as the Memo Closing option
  4. Preview or Print the report.

General Ledger Trial Balance

NAVIGATION: REPORTS menu > Trial Balance

  1. Run the trial balance for the year again.  This time place a check mark in the "Include Memo Closing Entries"
  2. Your Closing Account's activity will include the Net Income/Loss for the year.  
  3. The Income and Expense Accounts (Profit-Loss Accounts) should have an Ending Balance of 0.00.  If they do go to Check Beginning Balances.
  4. If any Income and Expense Accounts (Profit-Loss Accounts) show a balance, then recheck those accounts in the GL Account Master and fix the Closing Account.
  5. After you have fixed the closing accounts Close the Fiscal Year again.
  6. If Funds or Departments use balance controls, run the Trial Balance again to check that all funds/departments balance after closing.
    1. Select a Sort Order that would show your Balance Control segment first
    2. Beginning with the last segment, Check Segments to Summarize
    3. Do not place a check in the segment that is your balance control segment
  8. Include Memo Closing Entries should be checked
  9. The beginning and ending balance for each summarized fund should be zero.  
    1. If any ending balances are not zero, the fund is out of balance. This will usually be caused by a revenue or expense account that has a closing account set to a different balancing segment.  
    2. Review the Journal Listing Closing Report.  The Memo field shows the account closed from and to.  
    3. Find the accounts that cross segment control, correct the GL Account Master Closing Account and then close the year again.

 Check Beginning Balances

NAVIGATION: REPORTS menu > Trial Balance

  1. Run the Trial Balance for the new year.  
  2. Do not check mark the "Include Memo Closing Entries".  
  3. The beginning balances should match the ending balances from the year before.

Additional Information

In the General Ledger Settings program on the System Information tab under Accounting Period Control:

  1. Using Segment Controlled Accounting Periods
    1. This box should be unchecked if the company only has one Accounting Period to track.  The End of Year Processing and Rebuild General Ledger Reporting programs will only have the MASTER CONTROL option for each fiscal year.
    2. If this field is checked, the system will support multiple Accounting Periods based upon the Master Segment. The purpose is to track the opening and closing of each Accounting Period separately.  A fiscal year should be set up for each Master Segment in the Accounting Period Master.
  2. Segments Can be in Different Accounting Years
    1. If this option is UNCHECKED:
      1. The Accounting Periods dates must be the same for all Segments of the same Fiscal Year.  
      2. For example, all Segments for Fiscal Year 2021 must start 7/1/2020 and end 6/30/2021, or all Segments for Fiscal Year 2021 must start 1/1/2021 and end 12/31/2021.  You cannot have any Accounting Periods for a Fiscal Year that contain different dates
      3. You may run the End Year Process and Rebuild G/L Reporting individually per Master Segment or all together using the MASTER CONTROL option for the Fiscal year.
    2. If this option is CHECKED:
      1. "Using Segment Controlled Accounting Periods” must also be CHECK MARKED in order to function.  If not the program will disregard this option and only the Master Control Segment will be available.
      2. Your Accounting Periods may have different fiscal years, i.e., one Segment for Fiscal Year 2021 could start 1/1/2021 and end 12/31/2021, and another Segment for Fiscal Year 2021 could start 7/1/2020 and end 6/30/2021.  
      3. You must run End of Year Processing and Rebuild General Ledger Reporting individually per Master Segment.
      4. The Master Control period will not be available for this company.
  3. Go back to Close a Fiscal Year information.

12/2024

NEED MORE HELP?  Submit a ticket to the Help Desk or call (814) 535-7810 or (800) 889-3388