• Section: Year End Procedures
  • Last updated: May 20, 2019, 3:21 p.m.

US Year End Procedure

In AccountEdge, the end-of-year procedure involves the following tasks. The tasks are divided into two groups: payroll/calendar and fiscal.

The payroll/calendar tasks should be performed on or just after January 1st, since the payroll year follows the calendar. Until the year-end payroll tasks are completed, you are not going to be able to run payroll for the new year.

The Fiscal year-end tasks can be performed after the end of your fiscal year, when your journal adjustment entries are completed. This process does not need to happen immediately after the close of the year - you should wait until you are positive you have no further transactions/adjustments to record in the previous year.

Payroll/Calendar Year-End Tasks ***W-2/W-3***

These tasks are required if you are processing payroll in AccountEdge Pro, or if you report expenses paid to 1099 vendors.

  1. *UPGRADE - If you own the latest version of AccountEdge, install the AccountEdge upgrade and upgrade your company file.
  2. Create backup of the company file.
  3. Start a New Payroll Year in the company file.
  4. Check for product updates. Product updates include updated payroll tax tables.***
    • Mac OS - Go to your top menu bar and select AccountEdge Pro/NE > Check for Updates.
    • Windows OS - Go to your top menu bar and select Help > Check for Updates.
  5. Load the latest Payroll Tax Tables into the company file (if applicable)
    • Go to your top menu bar and select Setup > Load Payroll Tax Tables/Payroll Updates.
  6. When you're ready, run your payroll reports, generate W-2s, and 1099s.
*** As a reminder, to receive payroll updates, you need to be running the latest version of AccountEdge. For example, AccountEdge 2018 will only be provided payroll tax table updates through January 2019, after that you will need to be on AccountEdge 2019 to receive the updated tax tables. You can check your tax table status by choosing Payroll Updates from the Setup Menu.

Fiscal Year-End Tasks/Checklist

  1. Generate reports.
  2. Enter year-end journal entries.
    • You won’t be able to make any entries in the year once it is closed so this is your last opportunity for adjustments and year-end entries.
  3. Create a backup of the company file, and optionally create (and rename) a copy of the company file for reports.
  4. Mark this duplicate file Read-only to prevent entering new transactions.
  5. Start a New Fiscal Year in the current company file.
  6. Optionally, purge additional old data from the current company file.