The system does not impose any fixed monthly or quarterly framework; some firms will produce monthly accounts, some quarterly, some perhaps ad hoc. The tasks listed below are given as a suggestion only; you may wish to adapt this to your own requirements.
1. Complete all postings for the period, including any apportionment for private use of cars etc.
2. Check bank statements for any unrecorded entries (such as bank charges or interest) and post any that are discovered.
3. Run Cashbook Enquiry and print a copy of the enquiry for each cashbook/bank account.
4. Run Client Account Reconciliation. Note, this is not a bank reconciliation but a list of all client matters with a client balance grouped by client bank account.
5. Reconcile each cashbook using Bank Reconciliation; when a cashbook is reconciled print the report and either remove or archive the matched entries.
6. You may wish to record any depreciation of assets. To do this use Journal Transfer; the format of the journal is:
7. Take a backup of your data.
8. Print a Trial Balance and check that the figures do actually balance (i.e. the totals are zero).
9. Print a Financial Status Report.
10. Print a Profit & Loss Account.
11. Run Period End Processing; this gives you the chance to print and delete the nominal ledger transactions; you will probably wish to retain the transactions for all but the last period-end of the year; the transactions must be deleted at year-end.
12. Print a Balance Sheet.
13. If a VAT quarter end, print a VAT Report and delete the VAT file.
14. Run Unpaid Bills Enquiry and print a copy of the report.
15. Run Consistency replying Y to both the Consistency? and Compress? options.
At the financial year-end you will also need to run Year End Processing but this should not be run until you have made all postings for the year. You will probably want to run your final Period End Processing printing a detailed list of transactions.
Ideally you should wait until your accountant has finalised your annual accounts then post any adjustments, accruals and pre-payments, run a further Profit & Loss Account, Period End Processing (printing and deleting all transactions – because of the size of the print you are advised to print to a file or web browser) and Balance Sheet, and then run Year End Processing. You may also wish to remove archived transactions, if any, on each cashbook using Maintain Cashbooks. You are then ready to start posting transactions for the new year.
However, in order to comply with the regulations on client money and to ensure that interest is calculated correctly on client accounts, you should continue posting client transactions even though you have not run Year End Processing. Your accountant may also require an Unbilled Disbursements List and/or Print All Client Ledger Transactions at year-end.