Changing Last Month of Fiscal Year

Changing Last Month of Fiscal Year (Short Reporting Period)

To change the Last Month (LM) of the Fiscal Year (FY), determine answers to the following questions:
Current FY (Setup-->Company Information)
Current LM (Setup-->Company Information)
Desired FY
Desired LM
Short Reporting Period

The first two items are easily determined by inspecting the Company Information in the company file. Changing the Last Month of a Fiscal Year will result in a short reporting period. The desired short reporting period should be known; it should have been discussed and planned with an accountant. This is not an arbitrary change.

The short reporting period begins with the first month of the current Fiscal Year, and ends with the new Last Month, which may be in the preceding Fiscal Year. For example, a Fiscal Year of 2009 with a Last Month of May, would comprise the months June 2008 through May 2009. You would be interested in P&L reports for these months. If you wanted to change the Last Month to December, you would need to change the Fiscal Year to 2008 in order to report P&L for June 2008 through December 2008. If you left the Fiscal Year as 2009, and changed the Last Month to December, AccountEdge will purge data from January 2008 through December 2008, removing P&L information for June 2008 through December 2008 in the process. Therefore in this example, you will need to change the Last Month to December, and change the Fiscal Year to 2008, which will purge data from January 2007 through December 2007. Now, June 2008 through December 2008 will become the short year, and P&L information will still be available for this period.

Procedure

1. Make a backup of the company file
2. Note the first month and year of the current FY
3. Note the new LM and year
4. The LM and year determine the FY you will use, and as a result, the short reporting period; the FY may be the preceding FY
5. In Start a New Fiscal Year, enter the year you just determined in the previous step
6. Enter the new LM
7. Complete the Start the New Fiscal Year process
8. The company file is in the short reporting year; reports should be made for this as yet, unreported period
9. Use the Start a New Fiscal Year procedure to put the company file in to the desired FY

Examples

• The current LM is Jan and FY is 2009 (Feb 2008 to Jan 2009), and the desired LM is Dec of FY 2009
• • The short reporting period is Feb 2008 to Dec 2008
• The current LM is Sep and FY is 2009 (Oct 2008 to Sep 2009), and the desired LM is Dec of FY 2009
  • The short reporting period is Oct 2008 to Dec 2008
• The current LM is Dec and FY is 2009 (Jan 2009 to Dec 2009) and the desired LM is Sep of FY 2010
• • The short reporting period is Jan 2009 to Sep 2009

Procedure Applied to Examples

• The current LM is Jan and FY is 2009 (Feb 2008 to Jan 2009), and the desired LM is Dec of FY 2009
• • The short reporting period is Feb 2008 to Dec 2008

1. Backup company file
2. First month and year of current FY is Feb 2008
3. The new last month is Dec
4. Since we are changing LM to December, the short reporting period will be Feb 2008 to Dec 2008
5. Start a New Fiscal Year, entering 2008 as the FY, and December as the LM
6. The company file is now ready to report the short year; complete the short year reports
7. Start a New Fiscal Year to enter FY 2009

• The current LM is Sep and FY is 2009 (Oct 2008 to Sep 2009), and the desired LM is Dec of FY 2009
• • The short reporting period is Oct 2008 to Dec 2008

1. Backup company file
2. First month and year of current FY is Oct 2008
3. The new last month is Dec
4. Since we are changing LM to December, the short reporting period will be Oct 2008 to Dec 2008
5. Start a New Fiscal Year, entering 2008 as the FY, and December as the LM
6. The company file is now ready to report the short year; complete the short year reports
7. Start a New Fiscal Year to enter FY 2009

• The current LM is Dec and FY is 2009 (Jan 2009 to Dec 2009) and the desired LM is Sep of FY 2010
• • The short reporting period is Jan 2009 to Sep 2009

1. Backup company file
2. First month and year of current FY is Jan 2009
3. The new last month is Sep (2009)
4. Since we are changing LM to September, the short reporting period will be Jan 2009 to Sep 2009
5. Start a New Fiscal Year, entering 2009 as the FY, and September as the LM
6. The company file is now ready to report the short year; complete the short year reports
7. Start a New Fiscal Year to enter FY 2010