How to advance the fiscal or calendar year

CAUTION: Use caution when working with the below product functionality. Always create a backup of your data before proceeding with advanced solutions. If necessary, seek the assistance of a qualified Sage business partner, network administrator, or Sage customer support analyst.

Situation 1: Fiscal year is also the calendar year (1 Jan to 31 Dec).

1. 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.
2. Select OK to close the Settings window.
3. Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity.
4. 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?
5. 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 
6. On Sage 50 - New Fiscal and Calendar Year window, select Yes to make a backup.
7. When the backup is complete, select OK on the Sage 50 - Information window that tells you the years were created successfully.
8. Select No when asked if you want to clear the old data.
9. Close the Checklist window.
10. Close the Daily Business Manager window. Now the new fiscal or calendar year has been started
11. 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)

1. If you roll into a new calendar year, all YTD payroll will be reset to zero.
2. Once this is done, the program will not automatically calculate the payroll taxes for the prior calendar year.
3. Make a backup of your data.
4. If using Sage Pro, Premium or Quantum: Make sure user is logged in as single user with administrative rights.
5. Select Maintenance > then Start New Year.
6. Select Calendar year.
7. Select OK.

Option 2: Steps for rolling your fiscal year forward (Starting the new fiscal year only)

1. If using Sage Pro, Premium or Quantum: Make sure you are logged in as single user and have administrative rights.
2. Make a backup of your data.
3. Verify the fiscal year information: Select Setup > Settings > Company > Information to view the details.
4. Confirm the current fiscal start and end date.
5. Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity.
6. Make sure it shows Data OK at the bottom.
7. Print out any year-end reports you need.
8. Select Maintenance > Start New Year.
9. Select OK.
10. When prompted to clear old lookup data, select No.
11. Close the Check List and the To do list that can appear depending on the settings.
12. Select Maintenance > Check Data Integrity again.
13. Make sure it still shows Data OK at the bottom.
14. 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.
15. 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.

1. Select Maintenance > Change Session Date....
2. 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.
3. On Sage 50 - New Fiscal and Calendar Year window, select Yes to make a backup.
4. When the backup is completed, select OK on the Sage 50 - Information window that tells you the years were created successfully.
5. On the second Sage 50 - Information window, select No when asked if you want to clear the old data.
6. Close the Checklist window.
7. Close the Daily Business Manager window.
8. 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

Sage 50 Canadian Edition Year-End Center

Chat with support

Can I post to a previous year after I roll to the new fiscal year?
Error: "An error has occurred while moving current year to last year. As a result, the new fiscal year could not start. Please restore from backup or run Advance Database Check."
My fiscal year (or calendar year) has advanced too far