The Year-End wizard walks you through the process of closing out your first open fiscal year, payroll tax year, or both. At every point in the process, the wizard makes your options clear and tells you the consequences of every action you might take.
Before starting the Year-End Wizard...
Before you launch the wizard, there are a number of tasks you should perform. These include
- Printing out any unprinted items such as invoices and payroll checks
- Clearing the Waiting on Bill from Vendor check box in the Purchases/Receive Inventory window for any outstanding vendor purchases. If you start the wizard before performing this task, the wizard will not be able to proceed. You will have to exit the wizard and clear the check box before you can complete year-end close.
You may also want to purge inactive records before you start the wizard, though this can be done at any time, including after year-end close. Purging records is accomplished with the Sage 50 Purge wizard. Tell me more about the purge wizard.
Also, while the wizard requires that you back up your company data during the close process, you can do so before launching the wizard if you prefer. In either case, back up of company data is highly recommended. Tell me more about making a backup.
Note: Since the close process may take quite a while to complete, we recommend that you start the process at the end of your business day, making sure you leave the computer running. Also, make sure that all other applications are closed before you begin.
Using the Year-End Wizard
The Year-End wizard comprises a series of windows with instructions and options. The first window, the Welcome to the Sage 50 Year-End Wizard window, tells you the date range of your two open fiscal and payroll tax years. Once you've finished reading the text in this window, you can click Next to go to the next window in the series. The windows that make up the wizard are:
Close Options: The Close Options window lets you choose whether to close the first open fiscal year, the first open payroll tax year, or both. Tell me more about this.
Print Fiscal Year-End Reports: This window displays a list of the year-end reports that you might want to print before completing the year-end process. For each listed report there is a check box. You can select the check box next to each report that you want to print. Tell me more about this.
Note: You will see this window only if you are closing a fiscal year or years.
Internal Accounting Review: This window gives you the opportunity to run an Internal Accounting Review on your company before you close the year. If you would like to run the review now, you can click one button to do so. (Sage 50 Premium Accounting and higher) Tell me more about this.
Back Up Company Data: It's very important that before you close the year, you make a backup of company data and customized forms; otherwise, this information will be lost. The Back Up Company Data window creates a backup for you. Tell me more about this.
Archive Company Data: When you archive your company data, you are saving your data and financial statements so you can have access to that information when you need to refer to it for future use, such as providing your financial information for a tax audit. Tell me more about this.
New Open Fiscal Years: Since Sage 50 automatically adjusts the start and end dates of fiscal year accounting periods, it is usually not necessary for you to do this for your next open fiscal year. However, if you do want to change accounting period dates for any reason, The New Open Fiscal Years window gives you the opportunity. Tell me more about this.
Note: You will see this window only if you are closing a fiscal year or years.
Confirm Close: This window tells you the starting and ending dates of the open fiscal and payroll tax years you are about to close. It also tells you what your two open fiscal and payroll tax years will be after closing. Confirm that the information is right; then click Next to proceed. Tell me more about this.
Begin Close-Year Process: At this point, you are ready to begin the close process. To do so, click Begin Close. Tell me more about this.
Congratulations! The open fiscal and payroll tax years you selected have been successfully closed. Tell me more about this.
Starting the Year-End Wizard
- From the Tasks menu, select System and then Year-End Wizard.
- Read the introductory information, and note your company's two open fiscal and payroll tax years.
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To proceed with year-end close process, click Next.
The Welcome to the Sage 50 Year-End Wizard window appears.
Note: Once you select the year or years you want to close, the wizard will determine if you have any purchases still waiting on bills from vendors. If so, the Cannot Proceed window will appear, telling you that you must clear the Waiting on Bill from Vendor check box for each of the purchases before you can continue with year-end close.
If you don't have any outstanding purchases but you do have items such as invoices and payroll checks that haven't been printed, you will see the Unprinted Items window. It will list all items that still need to be printed. At this point you can select Cancel to close the wizard and then print out these items, or you can click Next to continue without printing the items.