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Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
Policies and Procedures - Organisation PARTNER
Page 1 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Purpose
This documentation will guide users through the information required in order to successfully go through the
Year End procedure for Sage Pastel Accounting (Partner or Xpress) software.
Scope
The year-end procedure itself is fully automated, and prepares your company for processing in the new
financial year.
Unlike many other accounting systems, you can still post adjustments and accruals to the previous year once
you have run the year-end procedure. So in effect, running the year-end is therefore not time critical, in that
you can still run your year-end without waiting for all financial transactions to be done.
However, you cannot process customer sales documents and supplier purchases documents to the previous
financial year. You must therefore ensure that you have processed all customer and supplier documents for
the current year before running the year-end procedure. Journal and cashbook transactions/adjustments can
be left for after the year-end.
Before performing the year end procedure, please take the time to read all instructions below so that the year
end process can run as smoothly as possible.
Critical Notes
Before the Year End Procedure, you need to be aware of the following:
• Backup – Ensure you have made at least 2 working backups of your company data - to different
locations.
• Data Integrity -Perform a Data Integrity (verify data only) check prior to running year end to ensure
your data is free from errors. Further details below.
• Periods - Do not change the dates of your current year periods to next year. The year-end procedure
does this for you.
• Period 13 - You can use period 13 to post next year transactions, and thereby delay the year-end
procedure for up to a month at most. (Please note that period 13 is now available in Sage Pastel
Xpress also).
• Supervisor Access - You have sole access to your company data and are logged into Partner as a
supervisor
• Retained Income Account - This account exists in your General Ledger.
• No Open Batches Exist - Documents 'on hold' for users who have multiple period access are not
considered to be open. You must update all open batches before running the year-end procedure.
However Sales Orders, Purchase Orders and Quotations processed before the year-end procedure are
carried over to the next year.
• Last Period Processing - You have processed transaction into last period of the current financial year.
If there are no transactions in the last period of the current year, the system warns you, since in all
probability you should not want to run the year-end. However, you can continue if you wish to.
IMPORTANT NOTE -
It is very difficult to predict how long the year process may take to completed as a number of variables such
as, size of the data, PC hardware specifications as well as available system resources will impact on the
duration of the process.
A common occurrence that tends to happen during the Year End process is that the system appears to hang
when processing the acctrn.dat (transactions), acchisth.dat (history header), acchistl.dat (history lines)
files. Please note that these files are often very large and although the system seems to not be responding it is
actually processing away as intended.
It is vital that you are patient during this process as shutting Partner down forcefully (i.e. by using ctrl-alt-del)
will almost certainly corrupt your company data files. Resulting in you having to restore your company backup
in Step 1.
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
Policies and Procedures - Organisation PARTNER
Page 2 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Preparing for Year End Check List
It is absolutely imperative that you prepare thoroughly before you process the year-end. The following checklist
will help to ensure that you have done all the necessary preparation work.
TASK DETAILS
Update Open You cannot process the year-end if you have open batches in your company data. (To
Batches determine whether you have any open batches simply click on View….Open batches
from within Partner). Note, however, that invoices on hold, outstanding sales orders,
purchase orders and quotations will not prevent the year-end from running.
Backup Your We cannot overstate the importance of this step. You should keep this backup and
Company never overwrite it. As a precautionary measure, make at least 2 sets of backups and
store them in different physical locations. If there are any issues with running the
year-end procedure you will need this to restore your data and reinitiate the process.
It is also recommended that you run a data integrity before making this backup.
Copy the Company This step is optional, but highly recommended. If you have enough disk space, you can
to a New Company create a new company as a copy of your company prior to the year-end. This is useful
because you can continue to do queries on transactions and balances, which are more
than two years old. If you decide to do this, we suggest that you change the
password(s) on the copied company to prevent you from inadvertently posting entries
into that company. Note that this procedure is not sufficient as a backup – if your hard
disk fails you will loose the data of both companies. You can do this within the Year-end
Assistant.
Make Printouts We recommend that you make at least the following printouts before running the year
end:
Trial balance for the year.
Balance Sheet for the year.
Detailed ledger for all accounts and all periods.
Customer and supplier age analysis reports.
Any other reports you deem necessary.
Create a If this is the first time you are running a year end, ensure that you have created a
Retained Income retained income GL account. The system posts the profit or loss for the year to this
Account account.
Steps to ensure that the Retained Income account is created/setup correctly:
Search for the Retained Income account. If it exists then ensure that it is
allocated to the B15 - Retained Income Balance Sheet Financial Category.
If it does not exist, create this account by clicking on New, then typing in an
account number and description and allocating it to the Retained Income
Financial Category.
Just below the setting for Financial Category is the setting for Report Writer
Category. If you make use of the Report Writer then you should select the
applicable category here; if you do not make use of the Report Writer then you
can leave this setting as defaulted.
Now that everything is set correctly you can click on the disk icon on the data
remote to save your changes and close the screen.
Foreign Currency If you use the Multi-Currency add-on module, you must run a foreign currency
Revaluation revaluation prior to running the year-end.
Disk Space and It is important to check that the available disk space is sufficient to run the year-end.
Memory There should be at least disk space available equal to the size of your data directory.
Furthermore, please ensure that the available conventional memory (i.e. the “Largest
Executable Program Size”) is 585K.
How do I check on my computer what my free memory is?
Go into your MS DOS prompt and simply type in MEM and press Enter.
This will show you all the memory used. The third line from the bottom reads “
Largest Executable Program Size”, this setting must be at least 585k. If it is
anything less than 585k,then you may experience problems during the
year-end, such as memory errors or hanging problems.
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd Published: 21/05/2009
Policies and Procedures - Organisation Page 2
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
Policies and Procedures - Organisation PARTNER
Page 3 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Processing One of the routines you usually perform before the year-end procedure, is a stock
Inventory Count count. It is not necessary to complete all the options in the inventory count assistant
before running the year-end. If you perform a snapshot before the year-end, you can
always complete it after running the year-end. You can adjust stock quantities in the
last period of last year via inventory journals.
How to perform the Inventory Count Process
Perform a Snapshot as normal. You may then continue processing invoices.
If after processing year-end you are ready to proceed with the Inventory Count,
then you simply go back into Process…Inventory Count, and enter in the
physical quantities (it is important that you remember to enter the physical
quantities as it was before running the year-end).
If you then have any differences to update it is imperative that you go to
Process…Inventory Journals, and adjust these quantities in last period of
last year and not in any period of the current year.
Preserving Budgets Budgets are transferred to the correct year automatically during the year-end
at Year End procedure. Please refer to the section “what the year-end procedure does” for further
details on exactly how the processing is done.
If you want the current budget values before the year-end to remain as the current
budgets after the year-end, copy the values for this year's budget to next year's before
running the year-end procedure. This is done through the Edit…. Budgets menu.
Unmatched When you process to open item accounts you allocate payments and receipts to original
Payments invoices. After you have run the year-end you will be able to allocate payments/receipts
to the previous year's outstanding invoices.
What Running the Year End Procedure Does
The year-end procedure automatically sets up the company for processing in the next year. During this
procedure the following processing is done:
PROCESS EXPLANATION
Updates General Ledger For income statement accounts, current year balances move to last year. For
Balances balance sheet accounts, last year balances consolidate as one total, and the current
balances move to last year. Current year balances are set to zero. Current budgets
move to last year budgets, future budgets move to current budgets, and next year
budgets become zero. The system posts the profit or loss for the year into the
retained income account.
Updates Customer and Last year balances are consolidated into one total, this year balances move to last
Supplier Balances year and last year's closing balances are transferred to this year as opening
balances. This year balances and sales / purchases values become zero.
General Ledger, The system deletes last year transactions. This year transactions become last year
Customer, and Supplier transactions, and the system creates a new, empty transaction file for the current
Transactions year. Invoices on hold have their period set to period one.
Updates Inventory Costs, Closing stock quantities become opening stock quantities in the New Year. The
Sales, and Quantity respective costs of these items are also carried forward.
Values
Periods The years are incremented by one year in the period table, and period end dates are
adjusted if necessary, for example, for leap years. The current period for single
period users is set to one.
Moves Period 13 If you set period 13 as the first period of the new year, the system transfers period
13 transactions and balances to period one of the new year.
Invoice History and Open Invoice history and open item history are not deleted by the year-end procedure. To
Item History delete these you must run the Delete History / Clear Files function.
Procedure
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd Published: 21/05/2009
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Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
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Page 4 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
To run the Year End Procedure simply follow the instructions below:
• In Sage Pastel click on the Change…Year End menu option. When prompted for a password simply type in
your supervisor password and click on 'OK'
• The Year End Assistant will display on screen providing you with the option to create a backup. If you have
not already done so please click on the 'Backup' option to create a backup. Otherwise, click on the 'Next'
option to continue if you already have a backup.
• The assistant will then prompt you to optionally copy your company to another company. As stated
previously it is highly recommended that you use this function.
• Please be aware that this does NOT replace the need to do a backup.
• If you have chosen to copy the company, please specify a name for the new company and tick
the option to 'Run the Year End in the new company' option.
• If you have chosen the option to create a copy company you will be prompted to change the password of
you original company so that you do not inadvertently post transactions to the incorrect company in future.
After acknowledging the message click on 'OK' to continue.
• The Assistant reminds you of the minimum reports you should run. If you still need to run these reports,
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Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
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Page 5 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
cancel the Assistant to do this and then return to the Assistant thereafter: Click 'Next' to continue.
• The assistant then reminds you exactly what the Year End procedure does. Click 'Next' to continue.
• Finally you are prompted with a confirmation message before the system performs the procedure. At this
point click on the 'Process' option to run the Year End procedure.
• Once the system has completed the Year End process successfully, a “Year End Complete” message will
appear. Click on 'Ok' and then 'Finish' to close the Year End Assistant. If you do not receive confirmation
that process has completed successfully, please restore from a backup and run the Year Procedure again.
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd Published: 21/05/2009
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Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd SUPPORT TECHNICAL BULLETINS
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Page 6 Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
Year End Procedure - Sage Pastel Accounting
• Once the Year End Assistant is closed, the system will log you into your company data. To ensure your
company data is setup for the current financial year, click on the menu option Setup….Periods and verify
that the period dates are correct.
• It is strongly recommended that at this time you run another data integrity check. To run a data integrity
check you will need to be logged in as a supervisor and have sole access to your data. To initiate this
process simply:
• Click on File….Data Integrity.
• If you have not already made a backup please do so before proceeding. If you do have a current
backup then please click on 'Next' to continue.
• Ensure the 'Verify Data Only' option is ticked and then click on the 'Process' button.
• If errors are revealed by the Data Integrity, please report these to us by emailing support or
advising your local Sage Pastel Consultant.
Processing Last Year Transactions After Running Year End
As mentioned earlier in this documentation, you will be able to create transaction or make adjustments for the
previous year, but you will not be able to create Customer or Supplier documents for the previous year. To
process a Journal entry for last year you'll need to do the following:
• Go to the relevant Cashbook / Journal.
• Click on Settings button (bottom right hand corner).
• By checking / un-checking the 'this year transaction' option you will be able to switch between this year
and last year processing. Last year will be displayed in red at the bottom of screen. However this year and
last year transactions cannot be posted in the same batch and the option to last year or this year will be
grayed out if a batch already exists.
If you require further assistance or information, please contact our support department. If you do not have a
support contract, please contact your local Sage Pastel Consultant or sales@sagepastelsoftware.com.au
Document information
Document No: 493
Last Reviewed: 21/05/2009
Revision No: 663
Approved By:
Software Alliance Group Pty Ltd Published: 21/05/2009
Policies and Procedures - Organisation Page 6
