The period end dates for all ledgers are held in the System Periods table within Nominal Ledger parameters. When the system date passes beyond the end of a period, the sales ledger will allow postings in two periods (referred to in this guide as the ‘current period’ and the ‘previous period’). When the sales ledger is running with two periods open, invoices may be posted into the current period whilst there are still transactions to be posted in the previous period. This would typically be at the beginning of a new calendar month. The Month End process within the sales ledger is used to close the previous period, thus preventing any more processing from taking place.
Select the Month End option and the system displays the screen below:
The month end process cannot be carried out until the reports specified on the left hand side of the screen have been printed. Anyone logged into the system period to be closed is displayed on the right hand side of the screen and must log out of the period before it can be closed.
Once the reports have been printed, tick the boxes shown above and then select the ‘Next’ option. If there are any daybooks still to be printed, a warning message will be displayed unless the ‘Allow Month End Without Printing Daybooks’ Sales Ledger Transaction Parameter has been selected. Once all have been printed, the previous period will be closed and all cleared transactions archived (they can then only be viewed via Sales Ledger Enquiry by selecting the ‘Historic’ option). A message will confirm that the month end process is complete.
It is essential that the sales ledger balance is reconciled to the sales ledger debtor balance sheet nominal codes prior to running the month end. The month end program cannot be run in the middle of the month.