Summary

Use this checklist to close your agency's fiscal year in the General Ledger and open the new one. It puts the fiscal year-end processes in order and links to the step-by-step topic for each one.

Cirrus uses a soft close. After you run Fiscal Year End Reset, you can still post to the closed year until you lock its periods. Your work in the new year continues while you finish audit adjustments in the old year.

The checklist follows this order:

• Before year-end, create the new fiscal year and build the new budget.
• At year-end, commit every batch, post closing entries, and print year-end reports.
• After year-end, run Fiscal Year End Reset, roll over purchase orders, refresh beginning balances if you post to the closed year, and lock the closed periods.

When Roll adopted budget to current is checked, Fiscal Year End Reset deletes all budget adjustments in the New Active Fiscal Year, including adjustments from Roll Over POs. Accounts in a continuing budget group lose them even when it isn't checked. Run the reset before you roll over purchase orders, and don't change the fiscal year in System Setup to run the reset again.

Step by Step

1     Confirm the fund balance accounts. Do this before year-end.

• Every fund needs a fund balance account. Fiscal Year End Reset closes revenue and expense into it.
• Check the Fund Balance Account field (GL> Utilities> Setup> General tab).
• Use the Fund Balance Account Override on a chart of accounts record to close a fund to a different account.

2     Create the new fiscal year. Do this before year-end.

• Open the Create New Fiscal Year window (GL> Utilities> Create New Fiscal Year). The Fiscal Year field shows the next year. You can't edit it.
• Select Yes in Create Only Active Accounts to leave inactive accounts out of the new year.
  • When you select Yes, the Inactive Accounts Go To field sets the fund account that inactive balances move to.
• Check Copy GL Chart Attachments to copy attachments to the new year's accounts.
• Click Submit and track progress in the Jobs Viewer window.
• If the job stops because a fund has no fund balance account, add one, or delete fund sections you don't use (GL> Maintenance> Section).
• Add any new accounts for the new year after the job finishes. Confirm that go-to accounts in the current year point to the correct accounts in the new year.

3     Build the new year's budget.

• Copy a starting budget with Copy Budget Information (GL> New Budget Info> Copy Budget Information).
• Edit budgets by account in the New Year Budget window (GL> New Budget Info> Edit New Year Budgets).
  • Only accounts with Account is Budgetable checked display.
  • The window is empty if you haven't created the new fiscal year (Step 2), or if the system fiscal year already moved to the new year.
• Import budgets from a spreadsheet with Import Budget. This is an optional step.
  • Save the file as .csv first. The import replaces amounts only for the accounts in the file, so you can import one file per department.
• Enter the final amounts as the Adopted budget. Fiscal Year End Reset can copy the adopted budget to the current budget (Step 7).

4     Commit open batches for the closing year in every module.

• Commit or delete open batches with transactions dated in the closing year, including AP, PR, CR, UB, and PO batches.
• Enter AP invoices for the closing year in their own AP Invoices batches, separate from new-year invoices. Set the fiscal year on the Settings step and check the GL distribution date.
• Checks for both years can go in one Computer Checks batch. Post the checks to the new fiscal year. Don't post checks back to the closing year unless you use cash accounting.
• If you pay by Electronic AP, commit the Clearing House batch. The checks' journal entry posts only then. Find uncommitted batches in the Open Batches window (SS> Utilities> Open Batches).
• Fiscal Year End Reset uses committed balances only.

5     Post closing and adjusting journal entries.

• Post accruals, reclassifications, and other closing entries to the closing year (GL> Journal Entries).
  • To post to adjustment periods 13–15, select Adjustment in Period Type on the journal entry batch's Settings step. Then enter the closing year in Fiscal Year and 13, 14, or 15 in Fiscal Period. The period can't be locked. Fiscal Year End Reset includes periods 13–15, and you can run GL reports for periods 1 through 15.
  • The journal entry date isn't tied to the period. Use the last day of the fiscal year so date-based reports stay consistent.

6     Print the year-end reports.

• Trial Balance (GL> Reports> Trial Balance).
• Balance Sheet (GL> Reports> Balance Sheet).
• Year End Encumbrance (PO> Reports> Year End Encumbrance). It lists open purchase order amounts by fund before you roll them over.
• Outstanding Invoices (AP> Reports> Outstanding Invoices). Use it to balance AP liability for your auditor.
  • Select Fund, Vendor in Group By and JE Date in Date Type.
  • Enter the first and last days of the fiscal year in Date From and Date To.
  • Compare each fund's total with the AP Liability account on a summary Trial Balance.
• Save the reports with your year-end records.

7     Run Fiscal Year End Reset (GL> Utilities> Fiscal Year End Reset).

• The Current Active Fiscal Year and New Active Fiscal Year fields display the years. You can't edit them.
• Check Roll adopted budget to current to copy the adopted budget into the current budget for the new year.
  • Checking it also deletes budget adjustments already in the new year, including those from Roll Over POs.
• Other users can keep working while the reset runs. It leaves out uncommitted entries.
• Click Submit. The reset:
  • Closes revenue and expense balances into each fund's fund balance account.
  • Advances the system fiscal year, so new batches and journal entries default to the new year.
• The reset doesn't create a journal entry. To check it, compare the fund balance changes with the closing year's Balance Sheet.
• If the new year's chart of accounts doesn't exist, the reset stops and the Jobs Viewer shows an error.

8     Roll over open purchase orders (PO> Roll Over POs).

• Decide which purchase orders to roll over. Close the ones you won't roll in a Change Orders batch (PO> Change Orders).
• Pay closing-year invoices on a purchase order before you roll it. If Allow posting one year prior AP invoices to rolled PO's is checked in PO Setup (PO> Utilities> Setup> Purchase Orders tab), you can still pay them on the rolled purchase order after Fiscal Year End Reset.
  • If you close a rolled purchase order line for less than the rolled amount, check the budget adjustment option on the AP Invoices or PO Change Orders Commit step. It reduces the new year's budget adjustment by the unused amount. Both this option and the posting option require Enable adjustment options when closing rolled PO's in PO Setup.
• Every GL account on a rolled purchase order must exist and be active in the new fiscal year. Otherwise, the process stops with "GL Account … does not exist in fiscal year …."
• Most agencies roll over purchase orders a month to six weeks into the new fiscal year, after closing out the old year's orders.
• Select the purchase orders in the Select Purchase Orders step, and review the Proof List.
• In the Commit step, check Create budget adjustments to add the rolled amounts to the new year's budget.
  • If you check it, roll the purchase orders after Fiscal Year End Reset (Step 7).
• Roll over is one-way. You can't move a rolled purchase order back to the old year.

9     Refresh beginning balances after you post to the closed year.

• Run Refresh Beginning Balances (GL> Utilities> Refresh Beginning Balances) any time you post to a year after its reset.
• Also run it if funds are out of balance, or if beginning balances don't match the prior year's ending balances.
• Check Start and select the year in From. The refresh updates that year and every later year.
  • Don't refresh years that are already audited.
• Select the fund balance account in Fund Balance.
• If an inactive account warning displays, click OK. Then run the Trial Balance with Print Inactive Accounts Only checked to find inactive accounts that still have balances.

10     Lock the closed year's periods.

• After the audit adjustments post, lock the closed year's periods (GL> Utilities> Lockout Periods).
• Select the Fiscal Year, check the Locked toggle for each period, and click Submit.