Common Year-End Questions and Answers

If I close out on a day other than the 31st, what do I do about Close-Day and changing the date?

The system date and accounting month are two separate dates. You can run Close-Day for a range encompassing the dates that are going to be gone over for the month. This processes any installments into the correct month. If you choose to change the accounting month to the next month via Close-Day, you need to replicate the Chart of Accounts before exiting TAM. Use these steps to run the Replicate Chart of Accounts utility.

  1. Click Utilities.
  2. Select Accounting.
  3. Select Chart of Accounts Utilities.
  4. Select Replicate Chart of Accounts.

Besides my financial reports, what other reports do I need to run?

Make sure that the Aged Receivables report is run based on the report mode of Balance to Month-End (as outlined in the Aged Receivables Report Balancing to the GL document). This report cannot be recreated later. All other reports should be run as needed by the agency.

When do I have to replicate my Chart of Accounts?

The Chart of Accounts is automatically replicated when the month is initiated through the Month-End menu. The only time a manual Replicate is needed is if the month is advanced through Close-Day or Signon, because the Month-End is not initiated at the end of the month, but items need to be entered into the new month. You can run the Replicate Chart of Accounts Utility at Utilities, Accounting, Chart of Accounts Utilities, Replicate Chart of Accounts.

If you do not Replicate and change the date manually, you receive a Startup error listing missing accounts or a message that accounts do not exist when trying to use them.

Follow the steps below to clear these errors:

  1. 1. First, delete the STARTUP.ERR file located in the \TAM_EXE folder.
  2. Log into Applied TAM and replicate the chart of accounts by going to Utilities > Accounting > Chart of Accounts Utilities > Replicate Chart of Accounts.
  3. Close the Utilities menu and run TAMSTART again, or try to use that account in TAM to make sure that this cleared the errors.

Note: If you still receive an error, contact Accounting Support at 1-800-999-6512 to resolve this error.

When do I initiate my Month-End?

You normally Initiate Month-End on the last day of the fiscal year. Since this is not always possible for all agencies, you can initiate it at any time. If you manually change the month to the new month through Close-Day or Signon, remember to Replicate the Chart of Accounts. You also can initiate Month-End to advance the month. The initiate process advances the month so that other users can work in the new month, but also allows you to change the month back to make entries in the month currently being closed.

Do I need to do any utilities or backups differently for Year-End?

A few days before you plan to run your Year-End process, run a pack, reindex, and scan of the TAM databases. If errors occur during these utilities, Support has enough time to correct problems before running Year-End.

Validate Clients, Cash, and Accounts Receivable at least a week in advance (if this is not done on a weekly basis). Running these on a regular basis is recommended, as this prevents any delay at Year-End and makes troubleshooting easier, since errors are addressed as they occur.

Is there anything else that I need to do differently for Year-End?

Year-End is incorporated into the Month-End process of the last month for your designated fiscal year. You should also run your Year-End financials and any other reports that you want a hardcopy of for the year. You may want to verify that your accounts are set up correctly and that Retained Earnings is defined in Chart of Accounts Maintenance. Use the following steps to access Chart of Accounts Maintenance:

  1. Click Utilities.
  2. Select Accounting.
  3. Select Account Maintenance.
  4. Select Enter/Revise Required Accounts.

Note: Aside from these steps, Year-End in TAM is just another Month-End process.

What happens to my account balances when I Replicate? How do I get my balances to pull forward?

The replication process has no effect on the General Ledger balances. It puts a shell copy of your current Chart of Accounts into the new fiscal year. The Balance Sheet accounts have their balance forwards carried into the new Chart of Accounts after closing Month-End for the last month of your fiscal year.

I received an error message telling me that my Retained Earnings account is not defined. What do I do?

Check the accounts in Check GL Setup Options and verify that the Retained Earnings required account exists. The Check GL Setup Options utility is available under Utilities, Accounting, GL Setup Report. This account is not a standard number and varies from agency to agency. After you note the account number for Retained Earnings, access the account in Chart of Accounts Maintenance. Use the following steps to access Chart of Accounts Maintenance:

  1. Click Utilities.
  2. Select Accounting.
  3. Select Account Maintenance.
  4. Select Enter/Revise Required Accounts.

Note: Make sure that it says Yes to All agencies and that the Allow in GL entry checkbox is selected. Once these are verified, contact Accounting Support for a rebuild to pull balances forward correctly.

My Year-End entries did not print correctly. How can I print another copy?

Follow these steps to print additional copies of the Year-End Journal Entries, if needed:

Via Log Viewer

  1. Access Utilities > System Administrative > Log Viewer.
  2. Click the arrow button to continue.
  3. Click File > Open.
  4. Select the TAM drive.
  5. Open the TAM folder, the SAV folder, and the YEAREND folder.
  6. Click the Files of Type dropdown list and select All Files.
  7. Select the YRENDA5.1 file and click Open.

    Note:     A5 represents the closed year 2005, and 1 represents the closed agency's number.
  8. Click File, Print or click the Print button to print the file.

Via Command Prompt

  1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad. Notepad opens.
  2. Click File > Open.
  3. Select All Files in the Files of type dropdown box at the bottom.
  4. Click the Look in dropdown list and select the TAM drive. (For example, select F: if TAM is on the F drive.)
  5. Double click the TAM folder.
  6. Double click the SAV folder.
  7. Double click the YEAREND folder. This lists the existing Year-End Journal Entry files.
  8. Locate the desired file by looking at the file names. For example, the YRENDA0.1 file indicates A0 the year 2000 and 1 indicates Agency 1.
  9. Double click the correct file for the desired year and agency.
  10. Click File > Print.
  11. Click File > Exit to close Notepad.

Now that I have closed my year, I would like to clean up my Chart of Accounts. What do I need to do to accomplish this?

Please note the following before deleting accounts:

  1. Make sure that the account has a 0.00 balance and that there is no activity in the current year. To check this, run a Status of Accounts report and select Yes to Regenerate MJEs in the current month.
  2. Run the Journal Entry Defaults report in Reports, General Ledger. Make sure that this account is not used in any recurring J/Es that you set up. If it is, make sure that the entry is modified to not include this account under Accounting, Journals, Enter Recurring JEs.
  3. Check to see if the account is needed for backposts. If this is an account that you will use for backposts, you cannot delete the account. Once an account is deleted from TAM, it cannot be reused.
  4. Remember that "A" level accounts cannot be changed to "T" level accounts, and vice-versa.

If the above criteria are met, you can delete the account in Chart of Accounts Maintenance. Use the following steps to access Chart of Accounts Maintenance:

  1. Click Utilities.
  2. Select Accounting.
  3. Select Account Maintenance.
  4. Select Enter/Revise Required Accounts.

Note: If this is a cash account, first delete the Journal (in Chart of Accounts Maintenance, click the Cash Journal tab) and then delete the account.

I need to add a few new accounts to this year. I added them, but now I cannot seem to access them in my entries. What did I do wrong?

Try running Replicate Chart of Accounts manually. If this does not work, verify that Chart of Accounts Maintenance is set up and allowed in GL entries in the agency that you are trying to use it. Access Chart of Accounts Maintenance through Utilities > Accounting > Account Maintenance > Enter/Revise Required Accounts. If you still have problems, contact Accounting Support.

My Balance Sheet and Income Statement do not match my Status of Accounts, or my figures are way off. What do I need to do, since this is my Year-End?

Verify that the Balance Sheet is in balance. Make sure that Total Assets equal Total Liabilities + Net Worth. If these balance, contact Accounting Support for assistance.

If the Balance Sheet is out of balance, run the report backwards month-by-month to find a month where it is in balance. Contact Accounting Support with your findings. You may also want to run a Trial Balance for the current month to make sure that there are not problems with any entries.

I have closed my Year-End and now my accountant wants me to do some client writeoffs. What options do I have?

Enter the writeoffs in the current month and leave them there.

If you need to show these writeoffs in a previous month or year, follow the steps below:

  1. Enter the writeoffs into your current month.
  2. Run a Miscellaneous Production report for JE1s and JE2s for the current month. This gives you the total amount of written off items.
  3. Enter a Journal Entry in the current month to back out the amount of the writeoffs (typically, debit Accounts Receivables and credit Writeoff Expense).
  4. Backpost a Journal Entry to the previous month to completely reverse the entry done in the current month (typically, credit Accounts Receivable and debit Writeoff Expense).

Note: Accounts Receivable will be out of balance until all steps are completed and the current month is closed.

I closed my Year-End and my accountant wants me to backpost entries to accounts that did not exist last year. What do I do, since they will not come up to use in my entry?

Add the account to the current Chart of Accounts then run Replicate Chart of Accounts manually. If this does not pull up the account, contact Accounting Support for assistance with adding the account into the previous year.