Change financial year to new year end date

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Follow the steps

To go through these steps we'll use the example where our current financial year starts in April 2020 and is due to end in March 2021. However, we want to extend it to end in June 2021, to give us a 15 month year.

To get the correct year end date of June 2021 we need to make sure the start date is 12 months earlier, in this case July 2020. This table shows the changes we need to make:

Year	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	21	21	21	21	21	21
Month	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Current	Start											End
New				Start											End

 

Don't worry this is easy to do. Let's go through it now:

1. Check your data is in good health.
2. Back up your data.
3. Click Settings then click Financial Year and click Change.
4. Click Yes then click Yes.
5. Set the financial year start month as 12 months earlier than the new end date then click OK.
6. To confirm click Yes then click OK then click OK.

That's it, your financial year now has the correct end date. There are now just a few postings to make to ensure your accounts are in order for this financial year.

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View the brought forward Trial Balance

Advancing your financial year start date means that there are now brought forward values in your profit and loss nominal codes. These must now be moved into month one of the new year. In our example, this means we need to move the balances for April, May and June into July.

Year	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	21	21	21	21	21	21
Month	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Current	Start											End
New	B/fwd	B/fwd	B/fwd	Start											End

 

You can run the brought forward Trial Balance report to identify these values:

1. Click Nominal codes then click Trial balance.
2. Select Preview in Output then click Run.
3. Select the period Brought forward then click OK.
4. Print or save a copy of the report.

 

TIP: If you need a copy of the Trial Balance for month one for your records, you should run it now.

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Move the brought forward values

Now you know the brought forward profit and loss values, you can post a reversing journal to move them into month one.

Year	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	21	21	21	21	21	21
Month	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Current	Start											End
New	B/fwd	B/fwd	B/fwd	Month 1											End

 

1. Click Nominal codes and click Journal entry.
2. Enter a Reference and then in Posting Date enter the day before the new month one, in this example 30/06/20.
3. Using the brought forward Trial Balance, enter the values in the Journal Entry window to clear the brought forward balances for the profit and loss nominal codes.
   For example, if a debit balance appears on the report, enter this as a credit.
4. To balance your journals post the remaining value to Retained Earnings nominal code, 3200 by default.
   For example, if after entering all the profit and loss nominal values, the balance is 3,500.00 Dr (debit), enter a credit of 3,500,00 for the nominal code 3200.
5. Click Save.
6. Enter a new journal, using the first day of the new financial year, in our example 01/07/20. Enter the values in the Journal Entry window as they appear on the brought forward Trial Balance, and click Save.

That's it, you've now extended your financial year. As a final check, we recommend you run a brought forward Trial Balance to make sure there are no profit and loss values.