Is there an end of year procedure for Solar?

Hi John,

You don't have to perform any action at the end of your financial year. However, if you want to reset the Income and Expense account balances to zero (transferring the net profit to 'Retained Earnings') click menu Setup > Financial Year > Start a new financial year. This is optional, and can be done any time after the year end.

Regards,

Can you switch between the years if you reset it to zero, or do you have to back it up before resetting?

Hi Kirstie,

No you don't have to back up the file before you start a new year. You can switch to the previous year by clicking menu Setup > Financial Year > Revert to the previous financial year.

Cheers,

Hi Mark, I am just trying to understand a little more how it works. How many years transactions are held on the system and do the old transactions ever roll off? How many previous years is it possible to revert back to, or is it just one?

Thanks Dave

Hi Dave,

When Solar Accounts records a new financial year it simply adds an end of year transaction and changes the financial year dates. Therefore Solar Accounts is not limited by the number of years, but by the number of transactions (it can handle at least 10,000 transactions). Once the number of transactions slows your system down too much you will need to create another data file, but most likely that will be after many years of use.

You can revert back any number of financial years. Each time you revert a financial year Solar Accounts just deletes the end of year transaction and changes the financial year date.

Regards,

Thanks Mark,

How obvious will it become when it starts slowing down, and if no action is taken might the data files become corrupted? Is there a way we can check how many transactions there are in the database? Or better still might it be possible for the program to give some kind of advance warning? Plus what if this happens mid year?... would we need to export all the current year data and re-import it into the new data file? Thanks Dave

Hi Dave,

The slowdown is gradual. For example, on my computer (Mac Mini 2.5Ghz with 4GB RAM):

With 20,000 transactions it takes 6 seconds to load the file and 0.9 seconds to create a new transaction.
With 40,000 transactions it takes 8 seconds to load the file and 1.2 seconds to create a new transaction.
With 80,000 transactions it takes 23 seconds to load the file and 3.2 seconds to create a new transaction.

Given this I think it's unlikely you will have to start a new file in the middle of a financial year. The system is designed to not corrupt the data file when there are a large number of transactions. To see how many transactions are in the file, click menu Window > Transactions, then look at the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Regards,

Hi this sounds a great way to recall previous years accounts etc.

But say I have posting for 2011 which had the opening balances shown in accounts section for10/11 accounts, when I wish to put the opening balances in for 2012 do year end 2012 do I just amend the balances in the Edit accounts section? and how does it effect current balances shown in that window?

Can I just amend stock value at year end / Drs & Crs and opening Bank balances etc to reflect the opening accounts for that year and how does it remember the opening balances for the previous years, or have I got the wrong end of a big stick ??

Many thanks

Hi Paul,

If you have entered an opening balance for 2011 and a few transactions for that account dated in 2011, then Solar Accounts will automatically calculate the opening balance for 2012. For example, if the opening balance of the Cheque Accounts is £1,000 and you make a single withdrawal of £400 in the year then the opening balance of the Cheque Account in 2012 will be £600. If your current financial year is 2012 and you change the opening balance to £3000 then Solar Accounts will assume that the opening balance of the Cheque Account in 2011 was £3,400. If you have entered the correct opening balance for 2011 and entered all the transactions in 2011 then Solar Accounts should correctly calculate the 2012 opening balance - you shouldn't need to adjust it.

We recommend that you record end-of-year stock adjustments as described here:
https://www.solaraccounts.co.uk/help/how-to-track-changes-in-stock-level.php
Just like the cheque account, Solar Accounts will calculate the 2012 opening balance of the Inventory account as the 2011 opening balance plus the net effect all the inventory transactions for that year.

Regards,

I look after a number of clients using Solar.

The heaviest user client has used over 3000 transactions per annum over the past 2.5 years which means it will reach 10,000 within the next year.

If I have to open a new data file in this case is there any way of transferring information to the new file to exclude old transactions. The new file would retain nominal accounts, details of customers, suppliers, banks etc. I would not be concerned about transferring balances as I could do this manually. It would also be an opportunity to chuck out dross that tends to accumulate over the years e.g. "dead" customers & suppliers, inactive accounts etc.

Hi Jack,

Here's what you need to do:

1. Open your old business file and click menu File > Export To > Comma Separated CSV File
   2. Select only 'Accounts', 'Customers' and 'Suppliers', then click Export
   3. Open your new business file and click menu File > Import From > Comma Separated CSV File
   4. Click Browse and select the CSV file you created in step 2

Cheers

Hi,

Further to this response.

" You don't have to perform any action at the end of your financial year. However, if you want to reset the Income and Expense account balances to zero (transferring the net profit to 'Retained Earnings') click menu Setup > Financial Year > Start a new financial year. This is optional, and can be done any time after the year end.

Regards,

Mark McLaren (Solar Accounts) - April 14th, 2009 1:39pm BST "

I am using Solar accounts again....my question in relation to the above response is. If you do not carry out the end of year procedure then will your P&L just keep going making the statements incorrect? The P&L should reset to Zero each year with the P&L balance moving to retained earnings on the BS. Therefor this process is surely mandatory?

I am working on some accounts for a friend and whilst my balance sheet reconciles there are some big numbers in the equity section which net of to the correct values. Not sure what's going on here but thinking it's related to the year end procedure.

I will run the close down procedure (for ALL 5 years)when I get home tonight but following this post in 2009 I don't think I have consistently run this procedure in all years which may explain some of wacky numbers. Even though the ultimate total is correct it's making the equity section hard to understand....if that makes sense.

Thanks,
John

Hi John,

Yes if you don't run the year end procedure you will build up a large balance in the Current Earnings equity account. However, the year end procedure simply transfers this balance to the Retained Earnings accounts, so either way you are bound to have a large total equity balance. If this appears incorrect, most likely there the owner has withdrawn funds from the business without recording these withdrawals in the accounts.

The Profit and Loss report isn't affected by the end-of-year procedure - it simply calculates the net change to each income and expense accounts over the year. If you change the opening balance of an income or expense account it does not affect the net change in that year, so it will not affect the P&L statement.

Regards,

Hi Mark,

WRT transaction numbers, does this slowdown apply to the online version?

If so and I transfer to a new file will we then be billed for two businesses as we will necessarily need to refer back to the old file?

Hi Simon,

Yes, the online version works in the same way so if you have, say, 80,000 transactions you may find it useful to create a new data file at the beginning of the next financial year. If this happens, please contact Solar Accounts support and we will update your account to give you free access to your old business records.

Regards,

Hi Mark,

That's good to know thanks.

Quick clarification:
quote Mark <<but by the number of transactions (it can handle at least 10,000 transactions)>>

Was the above a typo? Your subsequent illustrations/suggestions were for much larger volumes. Should that have been 100K?

We are at 8500 and do circa 2000 per year so either I need to think about swapping or I can relax for 50 years :-)

Hi Simon,

No, it was not a typo - just a conservative estimate :)

Regards,