Summary
This article describes how to start a new fiscal and or a calendar year.
Description
Cause
Resolution

Situation 1: Fiscal year is also the calendar year (1 Jan to 31 Dec).
- Select Setup > Settings... > Company > Information to check the Current Year Dates.
- If the current fiscal year coincides with the calendar year (January 1 to December 31), then the program will automatically start the fiscal and calendar year on the same date.
- Select OK to close the Settings window.
- Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity.
- Make sure the Integrity Summary window mentions Data OK at the bottom.
- If data integrity is not OK, review How to solve "Data inconsistencies have been detected" in the Integrity Summary window
- If the company is still in History mode, review: How to exit history mode?
- You can start the new year by changing the session date to the first day of the new fiscal or calendar year. See Method 2 in Situation 2 below
- Or you can click Maintenance > Start New Year...
- If the option to start a new year is not available, review The Start New Year option is greyed out from the Maintenance menu
- On Sage 50 - New Fiscal and Calendar Year window, select Yes to make a backup.
- When the backup is complete, select OK on the Sage 50 - Information window that tells you the years were created successfully.
- Select No when asked if you want to clear the old data.
- Close the Checklist window.
- Close the Daily Business Manager window. Now the new fiscal or calendar year has been started
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 to verify the data integrity again.
Situation 2: The fiscal year is different than the calendar year (Fiscal start is not January 1).
Method 1
Option 1: Rolling your payroll year forward (use to start the new Calendar year only)
- If you roll into a new calendar year, all YTD payroll will be reset to zero.
- Once this is done, the program will not automatically calculate the payroll taxes for the prior calendar year.
- Make a backup of your data.
- If using Sage Pro, Premium or Quantum: Make sure user is logged in as single user with administrative rights.
- Select Maintenance > then Start New Year.
- Select Calendar year.
- Select OK.
Option 2: Steps for rolling your fiscal year forward (Starting the new fiscal year only)
- If using Sage Pro, Premium or Quantum: Make sure you are logged in as single user and have administrative rights.
- Make a backup of your data.
- Verify the fiscal year information: Select Setup > Settings > Company > Information to view the details.
- Confirm the current fiscal start and end date.
- Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity.
- Make sure it shows Data OK at the bottom.
- Print out any year-end reports you need.
- Select Maintenance > Start New Year.
- Select OK.
- When prompted to clear old lookup data, select No.
- Close the Check List and the To do list that can appear depending on the settings.
- Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity again.
- Make sure it still shows Data OK at the bottom.
- You should check Setup > Settings > Company > information again to make sure you have moved your dates forward.
- The current dates should match the new dates.
- Sage 50 has automatically moved your net loss or profit into retained earnings.
- If you still need to make any adjustments in the prior year, Sage 50 allows you to do this by changing the transaction date to the prior year.
Method 2
It is possible to move into the New Year by selecting “change the session date” to the first day of the calendar or fiscal year.
- Select Maintenance > Change Session Date....
- Enter the first day of the new calendar or fiscal year.
- Option to click on the drop-down menu, the last option is the first day of the New Year.
- On Sage 50 - New Fiscal and Calendar Year window, select Yes to make a backup.
- When the backup is completed, select OK on the Sage 50 - Information window that tells you the years were created successfully.
- On the second Sage 50 - Information window, select No when asked if you want to clear the old data.
- Close the Checklist window.
- Close the Daily Business Manager window.
- Now that the new fiscal and or calendar year has been started, repeat steps 3 and 4 to verify the data integrity again.
- Note: If an accountant's copy backup is restored in the accountant's edition of Sage 50, the company file will be restricted which means that a new year cannot be started
For more information preparing your Year-End, please visit our Year-End Center at Sage City