At the end of your financial year, the balances on your profit and loss accounts for the year that is ending are transferred to the balance sheet. You can do this by hand with journals, but it is a long process, so the simplified year-end tool calculates the balances and prepares the journals for you.

What does the year-end tool do?

• Transfers the profit and loss balances for the year to the retained earnings account (in QuickFile, 3101 - Retained Profit & Undistributed Reserves), so your profit and loss accounts are ready for the new financial year.
• Carries the balances of your balance sheet accounts forward into the new financial year.
• Moves any future-dated transactions to the relevant monthly field on each nominal account.
• On completion, locks the previous financial period from editing.

Accessing the year-end tool

1. Click Account Settings in the top menu.

2. Click All settings.

3. Scroll down the list and click Year End Process.

   

The Journals - Year End Journals page opens. It shows a Year Ending drop-down, the Revenue Reserves account and an Update button.

Selecting an accounting period

The Year Ending drop-down lists the accounting year ends you can select. The list is in date order with the most recent first.

Check the dates against your year end in your company settings:

1. Click Account Settings in the top menu, then click Company settings.
2. Find Next Year End Date (dd/mm/yyyy).

The page shows the balance sheet account as Revenue Reserves: 3101 - Retained Profit & Undistributed Reserves.

How does it work?

The Year End Process tool prepares the year-end journals that move your profit and loss totals to the balance sheet. When you submit them, the selected accounting year and any earlier periods are locked from editing.

This is an example of a year-end closing journal:

Locking is controlled by the Account lock date page. To open it, click Account Settings, click All settings, then click Account lock date. The page explains that an account lock prevents transactions from being posted for a given period and can be used to protect information filed for a previous financial period. The date is set in the Lock Accounts to: field.

Reviewing year-end journals

1. Click Reports in the top menu, then click Journals.

   

2. To list only year-end journals, choose Year End from the Folder drop-down, then click Submit Search.

3. Click View next to a journal to open it.

Click Options on a journal to see Export journal and Copy journal.

How do I undo the year end?

1. Click Account Settings in the top menu, then click All settings.
2. Click Account lock date.
3. In the Lock Accounts to: field, enter the end of the previous financial year, one year earlier than the current lock date, then click Save.
4. Click Reports in the top menu, then click Journals.
5. Choose Year End from the Folder drop-down, then click Submit Search.
6. Click View next to the year-end journal to open it.
7. Delete the year-end journal.

Does it affect my previous years’ reports?

The year-end process does not change the reports for earlier years. If you run a report for a period that has been year-ended, your profit and loss figures are not affected and show correctly up to your actual year end.

Getting additional help

If you need help with your year end, click the New! Year End Accounts Service from £70 banner at the top of your dashboard to get started.

Get live quotations for completing your year end formalities with the Price Comparison Service. It lets you compare quotes from many accountants based on price, turnaround time, ratings and reviews.

Related topics

These articles cover the journals you can review after a year end and other ways to get help with your year end.

• Journals: Create, search and manage journals, including journal folders.
• Year End Accounts - Price Comparison Service: Compare quotes from accountants for completing your year end.
• Reconciling your bank: Match your bank transactions to your statement and reconcile your bank account.