Closing a fiscal year

Closing brings the fiscal year to an end: the result is recorded, entries are locked and balance sheet balances can be carried forward to the next fiscal year. By the end of this page, you will know how to prepare the closing, run it, generate the opening balances (à-nouveaux) and record the appropriation of the result.

A user decision

Nothing closes a fiscal year automatically in SynkriaOps. Closing happens when an authorised user clicks Close, and it is recorded in the audit log.

Prerequisites

• The Administrator or CFO role.
• The fiscal year has the Open, Frozen or Reopened status.

Preparing the closing

Before closing, finish the year-end work:

1. Depreciation generated for every period of the fiscal year: see Depreciation schedules & charges.
2. Adjustments entered: accrued expenses, accrued income, prepaid expenses and deferred income, provisions.
3. Bank transactions processed and bank reconciliation done: a 47x suspense account with a balance blocks the closing.
4. VAT for the last period declared and adjusted.
5. Draft entries posted or deleted: they block the closing.
6. Matching (lettrage) of customer and supplier accounts up to date (recommended, not blocking).

Closing

1. Open Settings → Fiscal years.

2. On the fiscal year’s line, click Close. The Pre-closing check screen shows the Projected net result, the Blockers and the Warnings.

3. Fix each blocker, then click Close again. When everything is satisfied, the message “All checks passed. Closing can proceed.” appears. Click Continue to closing.

4. In the Close fiscal year window, read what the action will do, tick I have completed my review and confirm the closing, then click Close fiscal year.

Pre-closing check	Effect
47x suspense account with a balance	Blocks the closing
Entries dated outside the fiscal year’s bounds	Blocks the closing
Draft documents or entries	Blocks the closing
Earlier fiscal year still open	Warning (close in chronological order)

What closing does

• Expense (class 6) and income (class 7) accounts are cleared by a closing entry in the miscellaneous operations journal.
• The result is posted to account 1301 (result awaiting appropriation: profit) or 1309 (loss).
• All the fiscal year’s entries are locked and the fiscal year moves to the Closed status.

The fiscal year remains available for viewing: general ledger, trial balance and financial statements.

Generating the opening balances

Balance sheet account balances (classes 1 to 5) are carried forward to the next fiscal year through the opening balances.

1. Check that the next fiscal year exists and is open. Otherwise, create it: see Open a fiscal year.

2. On the closed fiscal year’s line, click Generate opening balances.

The opening balances are written to the next fiscal year’s opening journal. Generation requires an active miscellaneous operations journal and an account 110 (retained earnings) or 121 in your chart of accounts. The View the associated opening balance link then opens the entry produced. Details are in Opening balances explained.

Multi-branch company

Closing happens once, for the whole set of books. Opening balances are carried forward branch by branch, so that each branch’s balance sheet does not start again from zero; the balance of a closed branch returns to head office.

Appropriating the result

The result stays awaiting appropriation (1301 or 1309) until the decision of the general meeting or sole shareholder.

1. On the closed fiscal year’s line, click Record the decision.

2. Enter the Decision date, the Deciding body (Ordinary general meeting, Sole shareholder or Other statutory body) and the Minutes reference.

3. Allocate the result: for a profit, Legal reserve, Statutory reserves, Optional reserves, Retained earnings, Dividends payable; for a loss, charge it to reserves or Debit retained earnings (loss carried forward). Add one line per destination until “The whole result is allocated”.

4. Choose Post the appropriation entry, or record only the decision if the entry has already been posted elsewhere, then click Record the decision.

The entry is dated on the decision date. During the following fiscal year, it starts from 1301 or 1309; if that fiscal year has already been closed, the result was transferred to retained earnings (121 or 1291) and the entry starts from there. If an approval workflow exists, the decision is submitted to it.

After closing

Need	Solution
Correct an error found after closing	Preferably, a correcting entry in the next fiscal year
Enter an entry forgotten in the fiscal year	Reopen the fiscal year (Administrator), then re-close it

Frequent messages

Message (summary)	Cause	Solution
Suspense accounts (47x) with a non-zero balance	Transactions or operations not cleared	Clear the 47x accounts (transaction processing, adjusting entries)
Entries outside the bounds of the fiscal year	Entries dated before the start or after the end	Correct the date or fiscal year of these entries
Draft documents or entries remaining	Remaining drafts	Post or delete them
Opening balances are not generated	Next fiscal year missing or closed, account 110/121 or OD journal missing	Create the next fiscal year, check the chart of accounts and journals

See also

• Opening balances explained →
• Reopen a closed fiscal year →
• Depreciation schedules & charges →
• SYSCOHADA balance sheet →