SHOPKEEPER > ACCOUNTING

Closing the Year with Jewelry Shopkeeper

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See the last page if you were thinking of waiting a while before closing

the month.

To close the year just run the same steps as for closing a month.

The Jewelry Shopkeeper will roll the period over from 12 to 1 and you're

ready to continue with the new year.

However, since it is the year-end it is a good idea to be especially

thorough with the month-end procedures.

Step 1: MAKE A BACKUP. Keep this backup, write the date on it and

take this backup set out of circulation. Put it in your

vault and never re-use this set of tapes or diskettes.

If you have a CD-writer/burner we suggest that you make your

month-end and year-end backups onto a write-only CD as opposed

to a read-write CD. You should backup the entire COMPLINK.JS

folder with your CD software which saves the data files and the

entire program. The one-time CD's are very inexpensive and are

protected because they be overwritten like CD/RW (read-write)

CD's can.

If you ever need to review your year-end status in the future

you can simply restore the COMPLINK.JS folder onto another

computer and the data and the corresponding program version

will be installed even if you have updated in the meantime. (Be

sure not do to restore that onto a computer with a live copy

of Shopkeeper running since that would erase it. Use a home

computer or another non-essential computer.)

If you normally use a tape backup program and do not have a CD

writer drive then we suggest that you make another year-end backup

onto regular diskettes using the backup feature built-in to the

Jewelry Shopkeeper. This is option 3 from the black and white

Command Menu. It's difficult to predict the number of diskettes

this will need so have several available.

Step 2: RUN END OF YEAR REPORTS. Since some reports cannot be

recreated once a month has been closed and you've

continued on to the next month's business, it is a good

idea to print them out and put them in a binder. While

this is true of month ends as well as year ends, you are

likely to want to print more detailed reports at the year

end than you would normally do.

A: Complete Inventory Report [choice 6-5-Compressed

Print] This is the detailed report which may be

very long. Also print a report summarized by major

class code.

B: Accounts Payable Report [choice 5-2-4-Unpaid-

Excluding Memo Invoices]

C: Accounts Receivable Aging Report [choice 4-4]

D: Open Layaway Report [choice 1-7 for summary

report or choice 6-2-7 for detail report]

F: Open Credit Slip Report [choice 1-A]

Step 3: CLOSE THE MONTH. Make sure you type the date 12/31/2008

(or whatever the right date is for the year-end) as the Ending

Date. Jewelry Shopkeeper will automatically reset year-to-date

(YTD) totals. The customers YTD sales, class code YTD

sales, in-house-charge customer YTD finance charges and

YTD payments and the Z report to-date sales figures are

reset to zero. Double check that the totals are reset

properly.

Step 4: This is optional but many users like to zero out the

Previous sales figure on the X and Z reports. Choose option

8,6,A for "Update To-Date Figures" and zero the Previous Sales

line. Don't adjust the other two lines. Note that the previous

sales and total sales to date figures on the X and Z report

are not official figures. You can re-zero them whenever you

like without affecting actual sales reports.

Entering Year-End Accounting Adjustments AFTER closing the Year

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It is best to record almost all of the checks, deposits, general journal

entries, etc before you close the month. However, if there are some

adjustments you won't know about for many days, then it's best to

type in what you can now, then close out.

If there are a few checks, check book adjustments, general journal

entries or accounting adjustments that you don't know about yet,

you can enter them after you close, in the following period, using

these steps.

1) Enter the adjustment Write the check, enter the

miscellaneous transaction, deposit or general journal entry

[choice 5-5-1 or 5-5-3 or 5-5-5 or 5-5-7]. Make sure the date

you type is from the prior period (see the ending date). The

transaction screen might warn you that the entry won't hit the

financial reports, but continue on anyway.

2) Change the Chart of Accounts from a Previous Month If

adjustments are made to previous periods, you will have to

manually adjust the chart of accounts. Choose Enter/Edit Chart

of Accounts [choice 8-5-1] and type in the account number.

When the question: Do you want to enter totals for previous

months? appears, answer Yes.

Note that you will have to calculate the figures. For example,

If you are entering a bank charge of $25.00 for the previous

month, you would need to adjust the MONTHAGO 1 figure by

$25.00. If there were already a figure of $51.00 in there, you

would have to adjust this to $76.00.

Notes: Making a value in an asset account a greater positive number

reflects a greater asset value.

Making a value in a liability account a greater positive number

reflects a greater liability (owing more)

Making a value in an operating expense account a greater positive

number reflects more expenses.

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Can I Wait to Close the Year-End / Month-End?

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Yes, you *could* age and print statements at the end of the month and

then wait to reset the month later.

However we don't recommend it because if you reset the month on, say the

15th of January, when you reset, various numbers are posted to the

balance sheet such as invoices payable balances, inventory balance,

accounts receivable balances, credit slip balances, etc..

Those figures could change between 12/31 and 1/15 so you may end up

posting January 15 figures as the closing figures for December.

We think you should just put in as many details as you know (and really

almost all financial data for 2008 should be known be known before the end

of 2008)

If you need a day or two to get the majority of the 2008 figures posted

then perhaps you could hold off entering the first day or two of sales

until you have those figures posted.

Then, later, for the few items you couldn't predict such as how much

depreciation to apply - post them as a transaction retroactively with

the extra steps that that entails. I.e. after posting a previous

month figure you may have to edit both (there are generally two accounts

involved for most adjustments) of the g/l accounts from screen

8,5,1 - 'Enter/Edit Chart of Accounts' and update the balances from the

previous month.