Can I split a fiscal year that's longer than 12 months?
Description
Cause

Incorrect settings for the fiscal year period.

Resolution

Sage 50 doesn’t offer the ability to split a fiscal year into two. But, there’s a workaround.

Work around (a manual JE to close the year that didn't close automatically)

Scenario (to explain with real dates):

  • The fiscal year was Apr 1 to Mar 31
  • Data has already moved into the new calendar year
  • Transactions have been made in Jan and Feb
  • Now, in Feb, required to change fiscal year-end date back to Dec 31
  • There needs to be a fiscal year close on Dec 31 - Jan 1
    • Normally, at the closing of the year-end (YE), a journal entry (JE) is entered automatically. This isn't a posted reviewable JE. This JE clears the revenue and expense accounts and put the difference into retained earnings. This process is automatic. Now, we have to do this manually
  • Move the fiscal end date forward to the next Dec 31 instead of back to the desired Dec 31
    • refer to Related Resources for the required steps

Fix:

  1. Print an income statement (IS) or a Trial Balance (TB) for Dec 31.
  2. Post a manual Journal entry on Jan 1 to clear the revenues and expense accounts to retained earnings.
  3. Optional (but recommended) steps:
    • if there were any transactions posted on Jan 1, modify them and make the date Jan 2 instead. This way, an income statement for the month of January can be from 2-31 not to include the huge YE manual close on January 1 that would throw off the January income statement. As well, the IS for the year would have not to include this day of January 1
Steps to duplicate
Related Solutions

How to change the fiscal year-end date?