Sage 50 has 24 open periods that can be set up per your companies specific periods. If your companies fiscal year end closes at Dec 31, 2016, and your open periods start at Jan 1, 2015 for period 1 to Dec 31, 2015 for period 12, you do not have to run a year end wizard for the Dec 31, 2015 ending balances to show up Jan 1 2016. The purpose of the 24 open periods is for a User to be able to continue working into the next year without being forced to close the prior year so that the year end adjustments can be made into the 2015 year.
Once you get to the 24th period, then you must use the year end wizard to close the prior year which would be period 1-12.
When you close the fiscal year Sage forces you to make a backup. I always include the name of the company and I always add FYE (the year I am closing) in front of the name. This way if I ever had to restore a backup right before I closed one of my years, I could easily identify which of the backups to restore to a New Company.

Sage 50 has 24 open periods that can be set up per your companies specific periods. If your companies fiscal year end closes at Dec 31, 2016, and your open periods start at Jan 1, 2015 for period 1 to Dec 31, 2015 for period 12, you do not have to run a year end wizard for the Dec 31, 2015 ending balances to show up Jan 1 2016. The purpose of the 24 open periods is for a User to be able to continue working into the next year without being forced to close the prior year so that the year end adjustments can be made into the 2015 year.
Once you get to the 24th period, then you must use the year end wizard to close the prior year which would be period 1-12.
When you close the fiscal year Sage forces you to make a backup. I always include the name of the company and I always add FYE (the year I am closing) in front of the name. This way if I ever had to restore a backup right before I closed one of my years, I could easily identify which of the backups to restore to a New Company.