Hello Microsoft Dynamics GP Community! The time has flown by and the end of the year is just around the corner. The phone may be buzzing a bit more than usual due to the Year End Closing (YEC) processes being performed by a great number of our GP Partners and Customers.
When should the Year End Close for General Ledger be done?
The Year-End Close process for General Ledger should be done after you have completed the Year End close process for all other modules. (See KB 888003 for the suggested order to close the modules.)
What does the Year End Close Process do and /or affect?
The GL Year-End Close process closes all Profit and Loss accounts to the Retained Earnings account. All the balances for Balance Sheet accounts are rolled forward to the new year by having Balance Brought Forward (BBF) entries created. All GL open records (GL20000) are moved to the historical table (GL30000). The Fiscal Year is marked as historical. Inactive GL accounts are removed. And if marked to be included, data in the Analytical Accounting module is moved to history in the AA tables and BBF entries are created for AA dimensions.
What steps should I take to close the year?
The best documentation we have available for the Year-End close process is documented in detail in the following KB that we suggest to print and follow:
888003 - Year-end closing procedures for General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888003
The document is a great checklist for all aspects of YEC activity for GL, including some valuable FAQ information at the end of the article which addresses common customer concerns.
Key points to remember:
• Make a backup! If you receive any errors during the year-end close process, make a screenprint of the error message, and restore to your backup immediately.
• Have all users out of Dynamics GP when you perform the YEC process.
• Perform the YEC process at the server.
• Follow the checklist and suggested order to close the modules as listed in KB 888003. Review the FAQ section at the end of this document for common issues.
• By far the greatest numbers of support cases we see have to do with the Account Posting Types (ie. Balance Sheet or Profit & Loss) not being set correctly before the YEC takes place. The sheer number of accounts companies have makes a manual check of the Balance Sheet/Profit & Loss settings before the YEC a very time consuming and labor intensive activity. However, this is essential process to avoid an unwanted balance getting closed or carried forward or an incorrect Retained Earnings amount getting generated.
• To help avoid such surprise, it is always a good idea to establish a TEST company from the very latest copy of the LIVE data. This allows the user to perform a test trial run of the GL close in the TEST Company first and determine if there will be any unexpected errors or warning messages during the close (such as running out of processing space or getting a message to Move Data to History in the Analytical Accounting module first). It also lets the user gauge how long the actual close will take. The resulting YEC report can then be reviewed for accuracy and account balances can be verified by the accounting team. If the close is not correct in the TEST company, the user can then adjust the Account Posting Type settings in the LIVE company and help avoid post-close account adjustments (or SQL corrections) that may raise inquiry in future audit-type activity.
• The second most common case we see in Support is the user not letting the YEC process run to completion. As there is not a progress bar notification during the YEC closing process, the system might appear to hang or stop processing because the end user is not hearing the reassuring sound of data crunching from their hard drive letting them know the process is still running . This is mostly because the majority of the YEC activity is being performed at the SQL server, where the table data is getting created, cleared and moved at a rapid rate. The closing user must insure that they WAIT OUT THE FULL CLOSING PROCESS until the YEC report is printed in its entirety and the year has been decremented on the YEC window to avoid issue. The full report print out is the very best indication that the process has been completed.
• Another issue the user needs to be careful of is to not select the 'Close Year' button again on the YEC window instead of just closing the window by selecting the corner 'X' on the window. Although the user is likely to get prompted by a default warning (open batches exist or the next fiscal year has not been created) that will allow them to stop the close, we do see several incidents where the second closing is accidentally started in error and then stopped by the user. This often leaves invalid data in the tables as well as incorrect historical year assignments that may need to be corrected with SQL data-fixing activities. In this circumstance it is best to immediately restore to the backup made before the close and restart the closing process again for the correct year and insure the second close-out is avoided.
• I said it once, but I'll say it again: “BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!!”
We do stress that Backups be made (and kept in a separate location) for the pre-close and post-close company databases. This recommendation is just in case something does go wrong during the close that may not be immediately recognized by the accounting team afterward. Having the pre/post close databases will allow the user to recreate the close again in a TEST environment and better determine if there was a processing issue during the close or if there was faulty data present in pre-close environment that has just recently been detected in the LIVE data.
• Please note that there is not a utility or SQL scripting option available to “re-open” a closed year through the regular support channels to make a historical year change. Unfortunately, we have been seeing more instances of Bootleg-type of SQL scripting being made available to users to re-open the closed year independently. We need to stress this is not a very good idea and is definitely not recommended or even supported through our regular support channels.
Microsoft does offer a ‘GL Year-End Undo' service for closed years. As this is a billed consulting service, it is provided on a case-by-case basis and usually offered as a last-ditch effort to correct closed year issues or to perform audit adjustments to closed years. If needed, please make the request through a regular support case or contact the Partner Advisory Team at PAT@Microsoft.com . (Please note that Partner Advisory Hours (PAH) will be decremented to pay for the service.)
• One additional GL YEC item I would like to point out is an issue we have been seeing in regards to Multicurrency. If you are not using Multicurrency and NOT closing to divisional accounts, you need to not only insure that Close To Divisional Account Segments is not selected in the General Ledger Setup window (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu | Tools | Setup | Financial | General Ledger), you need to insure the GL Setup Table (GL40000) holds this distinction correctly. If you mark and unmark it, the SQL table may still hold the incorrect setting for this checkbox, which causes issues with the non-Multicurrency version of the YEC report and the Retained Earnings amount may display incorrectly (even though the actual YEC JE was created correctly).
In order to avoid such result in this circumstance, you can run the following SQL script against the company database to insure the GL40000 is set correctly before the close:
update GL40000 set DIVACTSG = 0
• Last, the YEC report cannot be regenerated unfortunately. If the user needs to regenerate this report the best option would be to restore the backup made immediately prior to the close into a TEST environment, repeat the close and regenerate the report from the alternate database. The report should be identical to the actual YEC report.
Assistance for General Ledger Year End Close
Microsoft Dynamics GP Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dynamicsgp/
Microsoft Dynamics Community - https://community.dynamics.com/product/GP/default.aspx
Microsoft Dynamics Support - https://mbs.microsoft.com/support/newstart.aspx
Assistance with year-end close issues directly related to General Ledger should be logged under the following support topic so you get routed to the correct support team:
-Support Topic: General Ledger
--Sub-Topic: Year End Closing
Please be sure to enter a detailed description of the issue you have or a screen print of the error received.
Resources:
A few additional KB articles that point out other common issues for the YEC process in GL are:
864913 – Changing the posting type on an account after you close the year in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/864913
871679 - How to set up an adjusting period in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871679
850615 - How to use divisional retained earnings accounts in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/850615
850741 - Error message when you try to perform the year-end closing process in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP: "Retained Earnings account not found”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/850741
857582 How to clear beginning balances for unit accounts in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/857582
856550 – Error message when you try to post a transaction in General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP after the year is closed: “Year End Close is still in process and batches cannot be posted”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/856550
2452542 - Inactive GL Accounts deleted during Year-End Close process for General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2452542
*** Check out the 2012 Year-End Video using this link: ***
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=c85f0cbf-ac8e-4a1b-9350-10c24a6f0746
Also be sure to check back to the Year-End Schedule post for current posted blogs related to Year-End Closing for Dynamics GP.
In closing, we hope that you have found these Blog posts on the Year End closing processes useful and informative. I also hope you all have a wonderful end of 2012 and are excited for the new challenges of 2013 as we are in support.
Regarding our YEC bogs, we welcome and enjoy ALL feedback you have to provide on the content and are always looking for ways to make next year's material even more useful. Have a great year-end!
Thank you!
Cheryl W. | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Financials Support