End of Month (EOM) processing guidelines

Accentis Enterprise is a live posting, all-open-periods system whereby it is not necessary to roll over from one month to the next. Subject to permissions and configurable lock-outs, you can post any transaction to any period, prior or future to achieve the correct data entry result. Typically, once key reports have been done, the entire journal is locked to the end of the month so that nothing can be altered again.

Before locking off the end of each month, however, there are a number of checks and reports that should be run as part of your business’s financial reporting regime as well as reports that cross-check account allocations within the system and ensure that any data entry errors have been identified.

This document lists a number of recommended reports that should be run by any business at the end of each reporting period (usually monthly) and some procedures within Accentis Enterprise that will help maintain the integrity of your data.

At the end of any reporting period in any business, the activities performed fall into the following categories:

  1. Finalise outstanding transactions
  2. Perform data checks
  3. Reconcile key data to the general ledger
  4. Generate reports
  5. Final processing

Every business needs to report its activities to the government as well as its directors or shareholders. Waiting for an entire year to do this reporting and checking is not practical, and therefore running checks and reports regularly will significantly ease the burden. It will also ensure that any mistakes in account allocation, data entry procedures or system configuration will be identified and fixed as soon as possible.

Once mistakes, missing or incorrect transactions have been located, it is much easier to fix them before you have proceeded with other processing and reporting than to have go back and recalculate data.

Some of the activities that you will be likely to do at the end of each month are:

  • Generate end of month invoices to customers (e.g. services)
  • Final bank Account reconciliation
  • Prepare and send statements to customers
  • Prepare and lodge your BAS or IAS
  • Pay superannuation, payroll tax & other taxes
  • Run on the business
  • Check data in the system for anomalies

Your end of month processing can begin as soon as you like, and sometimes in advance of the end of the month if you are sure there will be no more activity.

e.g. if you decide to stop invoicing customers 2 days prior to the end of the month, then you can run and issue statements in advance.

Some end of month activities are entirely in your control (e.g. entering new sales invoices) while others are outside your control (e.g. supplier invoices received in the mail after end of month). You should make your own decisions on what a reasonable cut-off date is for some of these things.

Every company is different, and while this document provides a good basis for end of month processing, you should develop your very own check list of what you or your company expects at the end of each month. Your statutory reporting or other obligations will also determine your end of month procedure (e.g. do you need to remit child support payments, do you have special reports to run as a listed company?)

Take the following list as an example of your own business processes and ensure that you document what your particular process is.

  1. Identify or nominate WHO should be doing certain tasks
    If you break up your tasks between users, then the job becomes easier. Naturally some tasks need to be synchronised.
  2. Identify WHEN each check or task should be performed for your business
    Some tasks must be done before others, and some tasks can be done in advance. If you understand the purpose of each task, then you will understand how they will become dependent upon each other. The order shown in this document is broadly the order that should be used. For example, you must reconcile your Bank account before you produce Customer statements so that you can process all customer receipts (where they haven’t sent you a remittance advice).
  3. Customise the end of month process for your business
    Don’t blindly follow this document! Use this as a guide and understand what you are trying to achieve at the end of each month. Some business will require special checks, such as reconciling directors’ loan accounts, transferring regular inter-company funds or checking foreign currency exchange rates.
  4. Set up buttons on your toolbar
    By setting up buttons that identify the key reports or process that you want to run for your end of month processing, then the job will be made much easier. You can use the Accentis Enterprise toolbar to create a special End of Month toolbar tab, containing a row of buttons representing the various tasks or reports that need to be run. Every task in the end of month processing will relate to either a report or a function in Accentis Enterprise, and so can be represented by a button.

At the end of each period, there will be a number of routine transactions and checks that must be performed prior to any reconciliations or reporting, as they will usually result in additional transactions.

The first end of month activity involves processing all transactions that haven’t already happened during the month.

Objective: Add in all of the transactions (invoices, payments, journals) that you have previously set up to recur at the end of each month

How:General ledger > Process recurring journals

This will display the “Process recurring actions” form which will allow you to process all recurring actions

Objective: Ensure that all Accounts Payable transactions (from purchase orders) have been processed for the month

How:Accounts payable > Report > QuickList Purchase orders (SA1220)

How: Accounts payable > Report > Purchase orders > Backorder detailed listing (SA1218)

Check each item on backorder and ensure that it is actually still outstanding and hasn’t in fact been received. A short-cut is to only examine lines from one month ago, assuming that all goods from one month ago should have arrived by now.

Objective: Ensure that all deliveries to customers have been processed for the month

How:Accounts receivable > Report > QuickList Sales order list (SA1223)

How:Accounts receivable > Report > Sales orders > Backorder Listing (Detailed by order line) (SA1227)

Check each item on backorder and ensure that it is has not been delivered without being processed in Accentis Enterprise. You may also have items on backorder that have deliberately been scheduled for delivery at the end of the month (e.g. invoices of services or labour for the month)

Objective: Ensure that all sales invoices (from deliveries) have been processed

How:Accounts receivable > Report > Dispatches > Un-invoiced dispatches (SA3903)

There should be no un-invoiced dispatches (unless under exceptional circumstances where you deliberately want to delay invoicing)

Objective: Ensure that all remaining sales invoices have been processed

How: Accounts receivable > Sales invoice

Many companies have monthly customer invoices which are not related to a physical dispatch of goods and have not otherwise been set up as a recurring invoice. This may involve special-purpose customised reports from Accentis Enterprise or just a list of additional invoices that need to be created somewhere.

Objective: Ensure that all required jobs have been flushed to the G/L or closed

How:Job costing > Report > Costing > Costing analysis (summary) (SA2358)

You will have your own process and decisions around which jobs should be finalised for the month and then invoiced. Job FLUSHING will post all accumulated job costs (for jobs which have a Work in progress account details) to the correct place in your profit and loss accounts. Typically, you will also raise job invoices at this point to ensure that your income is posted to the same period as the job costs.

Objective: Ensure that all sales invoices (non-dispatch) have been processed

How:Job costing > Report > Costing > Costing analysis (summary) (SA2358)

Job invoicing is a very company-specific task and you should identify the customised report that will be used to determine which jobs require invoicing and for how much.

Objective: Check that all bank accounts have been reconciled

Why: Before you send statements to customers, pay suppliers, or declare your income you need to check that the transactions which appear on your bank statement have been processed in Accentis Enterprise, such as:

  • Customer receipts
  • Direct debit payments
  • Bank interest or charges

There should be NO transactions on your bank statement that are not recorded in Accentis Enterprise.

How: General ledger > Account reconciliation

What next: It is recommended that you print a copy of your account reconciliation (use report SA2338 or equivalent) and attach it as a managed document to your G/L Bank account in Accentis Enterprise along with a copy of your bank statement.

All of your end of month reporting and accounting obligations rely upon the fact that your data has been entered correctly. Part of your end of month process should be to ensure that the data entered has been:

  • Entered with the correct value
  • Posted to the correct General Ledger accounts
  • Posted to the correct date

Some data checks may (and should) be run more regularly than at the end of each month, but the checks listed below should be performed at least at the end of each month.

The more regularly checks are performed the easier it will be to fix the problem and to identify a systemic or process errors in data entry.

Objective: Check that there haven’t been any unusual fluctuations in the cost price of inventory

Why: Under normal circumstances, the cost of any given item within transactions should not fluctuate significantly, even when considering changes in supplier pricing or manufacturing costs. Looking at the highest and lowest values of inventory that has been purchased will identify possibly incorrect purchase order values or incorrect units of measure recording when goods have been received.

How:Inventory > Report > Data alerts > Extraordinary cost change analysis (SA1247)

Objective: Check that you do not have any stock on hand with a value but zero quantity

Why: Accentis Enterprise automatically makes adjustments to the original received value of stock whenever a supplier invoice is processed having a different value for the goods by averaging the difference over the quantity of those goods currently in stock at the time the invoice is processed. If those goods have already been dispatched or used in some way so that there are none left, this adjustment amount is placed into the “Total value” of the item so that it can be taken up when the next receive of those goods is processed.

How:Inventory > Report > Data alerts > Items with residual total value (SA1203)

Objective: Check that your system is in balance

Why: Accentis Enterprise ensures that once a system is balanced (Assets = Liabilities + Equity) then it remains in balance, however, incorrect adjustments in the opening balance of accounts can cause the system to be unbalanced and this should be checked.

How:General ledger > Report > Periodic checks > Balance sheet summary check (SA2427)

Once your data has been entered and your data has been checked, it is important to ensure that certain accounts within your General ledger match up to the specific transactions. Through the course of data entry, incorrect account allocations can occur and it is important to make sure that key accounts within your general ledger are consistent with certain data.

Objective: Check that the sum of all invoices owing for customers as at the end of the month is equal to your Trade Debtors balance

Why: Trade Debtors should always equal the sum of all of your debtor invoices. Sometimes if there is an incorrect posting or the opening balance has been modified or changed without opening invoices changing, there may be a difference.

How:Accounts receivable > Report > Customers > Trade debtors and outstanding invoices dashboard (SA4559)

Objective: Check that the sum of all invoices owing to suppliers as at the end of the month is equal to your Trade Creditors balance

Why: Trade Creditors should always equal the sum of all of your creditor invoices. In cases such as prepayments, this may not be the case but it is important to identify these creditors.

How:Accounts payable > Report > Suppliers > Outstanding supplier invoices summary (SA3553)

Objective: Check that your un-invoiced receives report balances to your general ledger

Why: It is important to check that the general ledger balance of the “un-invoiced receives” balances to the sum of receive transactions that have not yet been invoiced.

How:Accounts payable > Report > Receive > Un-invoiced receivings analysis (SA2432)

See Accentis User Notes: Keeping track of Un-invoiced Receives

Objective: Check that the value of your inventory balances to your Stock on Hand G/L accounts

Why: The total value of inventory from the Inventory system must equal the total balance of your inventory accounts in the General Ledger.

How:Inventory > Report > Valuation > Valuation summary by G/L account (SA1493)

Objective: Check that the total written down value of your Fixed Assets reconciles to the G/L.

Why: The total written down value (as well as the At Cost value and Accumulated Depreciation values) from the Fixed Assets register must equal the total balance of your fixed asset G/L accounts.

How: Fixed assets > Report > Asset listing (Summary as at date) (SA4321)

Once your data has been checked, there are reports and other processing that is recommended to be done at the end of each month. Every business will have a different set of checks that are important to them so you should develop your own customised set of checks and procedures. The following are recommended:

Objective: Run customer statements

Why: It is important for customers to know what they owe according to your calculations.

How: Accounts receivable > Customer statements

Objective: Prepare and lodge your BAS or IAS

Why: This is a statutory requirement for most Australian Businesses.

How:General ledger > Report > BAS > BAS (Summary) (SA3521)

See Accentis User Notes: Processing your BAS in Accentis Enterprise

Objective: Report and remit superannuation for employees

Why: This is a statutory requirement for most Australian Businesses. Depending on your size, you may have to pay superannuation monthly or quarterly.

How: Payroll > Setup > Superannuation funds > Action > Generate payments for super funds

Objective: Report and remit payroll tax to your State Revenue office

Why: This is a statutory requirement for most Australian Businesses. Depending on the size of your business, you may not have payroll tax obligations.

How:Payroll > Report >Pay > Wages summary for payroll tax (SA1484)

Objective: Run and save key financial reports

Why: Financial reports define the health and operation of your business. It is important to run and analyse key financial reports at least every month.

How:General ledger > Report > Financial reports > Balance sheet (SA3535)

How: General ledger > Report > Financial reports > Profit and Loss (selected period range) (SA4083)

There are some simple steps to take at the end of your checks and balances as follows

Objective: Prevent transactions from changing any values in your chart of accounts once checks have been made

Why: After you have done your end of month checks and reconciled accounts, the last thing you want is for a user to add, remove or change any transaction that could un-reconcile your accounts or affect the results of your end of month checks.

How: System > Preferences > General ledger > Journal lock date

Set this date to the end of the month. This will prevent any changes to any accounts on or prior to this lock date, ensuring that your hard work remains unchanged.

Objective: Check customers that are over terms and place on stop credit as required

Why: Placing a customer on stop credit puts restrictions on which transactions can be performed by sales staff (e.g. Sales order, Dispatch and Sales invoice).

How: Accounts receivable > Customers > Accounts > On stop credit

Yes. It is likely you will need access to all areas of the system, including the System Preferences.

Yes. There are some things that can be done before the end of the month, providing you are sure they won’t change. For example, if the end of the month is on a Sunday, it is common for people to do their final invoicing on the Friday before. However some things really can’t be done until a few days after the end of the month such as supplier invoice checks (un-invoiced receives).

Yes. There is no end of month “rollover” in Accentis Enterprise, and therefore you can perform any of your end of month tasks again after the end of the month. All transactions in Accentis Enterprise are date-based, so as long as your journal is not locked, you can modify transactions for the prior month or even the month before. Keep in mind that once certain actions have been taken such as lodging your BAS or remitting your superannuation, it is important to lock and keep locked your Chart of Accounts to prevent them from changing for that month.

Yes! You should think about any special processes or reports that YOUR business has and insert them into the correct place in this process.

  • Process recurring transactions
  • Finalise supplier goods receives
  • Finalise customer deliveries
  • Finalise customer invoicing – un-invoiced dispatches
  • Finalise customer invoicing – sundry invoices
  • Close or Flush jobs
  • Finalise customer invoicing – jobs or service invoices
  • Bank account reconciliation
  • Inventory – Extraordinary Cost Change alerts
  • Inventory – Residual value stock check
  • General ledger – Balance sheet summary check
  • Customers – Outstanding invoices reconciliation to General Ledger
  • Suppliers – Outstanding supplier invoices reconciliation to General Ledger
  • Suppliers – Un-invoiced receives
  • Inventory – Stock valuation
  • Fixed assets – Fixed Assets reconciliation to G/L
  • Run Customer Statements
  • Business Activity Statement (BAS/IAS)
  • Superannuation remittance
  • Payroll tax
  • Run key financial reports
  • Lock your general ledger
  • Customers – Place customers on stop-credit