Current FY

[janewmtc]

Hi, I have just taken over as Treasurer of a local charity and I'm updating the accounts, which are in a bit of a mess.  I have finished the data entry to get the information up to date and want to run some reports however it seems that the 'this year' is 2016 in MYOB.  I have found posts about closing off the year and suspet that this hasn't been done and will need to be to solve the issue however, I don't fully understand the implications of doing this.  

I am not conviced that the accounts have been entered correctly over the past couple of years and think that I may need to go back and adjust some entries, especially allocating 'jobs' to entries so that I can report on them - would I be able to do this once the year is 'closed off'?

I should add that I have AccountRight v16.0.1.  On a side note, this version seems particularly 'old fashioned' is there anything that I can upgrade to without having to pay?

Thank you 

[IanChait]

Hi @janewmtc

Good luck in your role as Treasurer. 

The software version you have allows you to report on Last Year, Current Year and Next Year. As your file is in 2016, you can report on 2015, 2016 and 2017. To report on 2018 you will need to close off the year, and then again to get to 2019. Once you close a year, you cannot record entries or make changes in that year.

Before closing a year, always make a backup. You can then  restore the back up if you need to make changes in that year. So, I would recommend backing up the file and labelling it 2016/17 backup. You can then restore this back up to make entries in both the 2016 and 2017 years. When restoring, give the data file a new name, and ensure you don't overwrite your current file. Close the year twice in the current file, moving it to 2018 as the current year. You can then work on 2018 and 2019 in this file.

Once you finalise any adjustment in the 2016/17 file, you should compare the final 2017 Balance Sheet to that in the current file, and make adjustments to agree the opening Balance Sheet figures for the 2018 year. You will not be able to change the P&L. 

With regard to your query regarding free software, those times are over. Most have moved to a subscription model which covers the costs of the new features. As a charity, you should be able to join the Connecting Up programme and get a 30% discount from MYOB. Then upgrade your current V16 file and use the new features. 

If you don't have Payroll, a Standard Version will be around $30 -$40 per month with the discount, while Plus which has payroll will be $60-$70. per month.