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Year End Closing

The purpose of this document is to provide a recommended course of action for closing the general ledger accounts in the DockMaster software accounting system.

Step 1: Ensure that all periods for the year are closed

Go to General Ledger -> Administrative -> Open/Close G/L Accounting Periods

  1. Enter the Company ID to close. The periods in the grid are in the format/syntax of yymm.  Scroll down until the year being closed is displayed.  Close all periods through yy12, where yy is the year being closed.

This can be done one month at a time, beginning with the earliest month or by selecting an open month greater than other open months.  If a month is attempted to be changed with months before it still with the status of Open, a message will be displayed as shown below.

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Click Yes,  if appropriate, then click the Save icon.  If the message below displays, make a note of the types of transactions that remain unposted and click OK.

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The year-end closing process cannot continue until all transactions are posted.  For help with this error message, please read the GL – Closing Accounting Periods document**.**

Step 2: Enter adjusting entries

After all periods in the year contain the Closed status, submit requested financial reports to your tax professional.  At minimum, print the Trial Balance, AP Aging, AR Aging and WIP reports after the last period of the year is closed. After receiving any adjusting entries, go to General Ledger -> Administrative -> Open/Close G/L Accounting Periods and enter the Company ID.  Re-open Period yy12.  Click Save.

Enter and post the adjusting entries, then change the status of yy12 back to Closed. After the final adjustments are made, run a final Trial Balance, Balance Sheet and Income/Expense Statement then close the year.

Step 3: Close the year

Go to General Ledger -> Administrative -> Year End Close

  1. Enter the Company ID to close.
  2. Select the Year-End Accounting Period to Close. This is in the yymm  Click the green process icon.

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All accounting periods must be closed, or a message will be displayed, as shown here:

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Closing the year rolls all temporary accounts (revenues, expenses, gains, losses) into the Net Income Account, resulting in the temporary accounts being returned to 0.00.

IF NET INCOME (CLOSING ACCOUNT) DIFFERS FROM RETAINED EARNINGS

The balance in the closing account (Net Income) will need to be moved to the Retained Earnings account as of the first month of your new year.  The closing account number can be found in the company table by going to General Ledger > Maintenance Functions > Company Table:

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The Closing Account is the account to which all the balances for the income and expense accounts are closed out. The balance in this account needs to be reclassified to the Retained Earnings account in the beginning of the new year by creating a journal transaction.

**If at any point you run into any issues, feel free to email [email protected] for assistance.**