Hi

I’ve found an article that can assist you with your question “Can I create a general journal entry in a closed year?” http://bit.ly/1Q0FgE2

Thanks
JSelemani

Is there a way to open this closed period and record some journal entries?

There is not a way to "open" a closed period within your company, but as this article indicates it is possible to "import" a general journal entry into a closed period. I have done this, but I would caution users to be very careful doing this--since once you do it there is no way to edit or delete it. This is why it would be very important to do a backup before importing. I'd only consider this option if there were a limited number of entries to make. But even though it is possible to do this, this option would still not allow access to closed periods for account reconciliation.

Another possible option....and I would not consider this except under very unique circumstances (which we can discuss if you feel they might apply to you). You might consider rebuilding the company with 2014 open. That way you could use the account reconciliation function, plus make any changes or new entries desired. Then once you complete 2014, you could close it and complete the import of all the newer transactions.

How these ideas help.

Oh, I do feel your pain! Adding to these suggestions, I would restore the backup that was made at the close of the year (where the periods you want are in the 24 open periods) into a NEW Company. Run a Trial Balance for the year end from the New Company and compare with the beginning balances of your current company as they must match. Then you could do all the bank reconciliations in the New company. At the end of the New Company year, the Balance Sheet will most likely be different so you will need to make a decision on how you want to bring the current company balances in line with the NEW company balance. I would run a Trial Balance for both companies at the year end, then Import a GL JE for the differences into the Current Company. In the current company I would go to the 1st period, open the Bank Recon and clear all transactions that have been cleared.including the GL JE you made to correct the cash differences. If you are missing a check from a prior period just enter it as a Beginning Balance inside of the Bank Recon so it doesn't create a transaction in the GL.
Option 2. If you do not want to do one GL JE for the differences, then for all missing transactions you enter into the NEW Company you will need to export each one and import them into the Current Company so your ending balances will match. Then do the Bank Recon as suggested.
For the Import process you could put an identifier in the reference of the Gl JE that is unique so you can extract just the adjustments you made by that same reference #'s for example PYA 1, PYA 2. (Prior year adjustment 1) This will also be very helpful if you decide to do option 2 because you will be able to find any missing transactions in the current company by that unique identifier.
Hope this post has been helpful.

Thank you so much! This article might prove to solve my problems!
LCooper

I will certainly give this a try. I couldn't rebuild as there are hundreds of invoices, etc. I really don't need to reconcile because I have already done so. I just need to record the corrective journal entry. Once this journal entry has been completed and recorded as imported, would it then become part of the financials moving forward or would it have to entered again into the open year? Would I be able to see the changes from the JE when I print out financials of the closed year?

Really appreciate your kind assistance,
LCooper

Hi Kim,
Thanks for adding this information. It sounds like the imported JE would need to happen in both the closed year and the only open year, as well. The open year would be to update the Trial Balance to reflect the closed year change?

Would another option be to take the entries that fall on the first day of the new year, change the date to the second day, make the journal entry for the previous year on the first day so it would isolated and just document the JE for the CPA to deal with regarding tax returns? Would that work?

Unfortunately, there are many prior to 2013-2014 reconciliation errors reflected in the general ledger. Right now i am trying to just deal with the requested year for tax purposes. Do you think i should just make a bulk journal entry (with the approval of the CPA firm, of course) to adjust the GL bank balance to the reconciled correct dollar amount? Right now, the bank reconciliation cannot be completed in Sage - the journal reports are moved spreadsheets and complete there - what a pain! I want to stop that for the open years so that's why i am suggesting the bulk JE but not sure if that will handle the problem because it doesn't specifically address the individual checks, deposits, etc.

I am not familiar with the procedure to clear the individual checks or even if i need to do so?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Linda Cooper

The prior years GJ JE that you import into the current company will be reflected in the next years balances so you do not have to do another Gl JE. For all checks and deposits that cleared in the prior year you can lump sum GL JE ( I would lump sum each year). For checks and deposits that did not clear I would import them separately so you balance the Bank Rec.

I am not familiar with the procedure to clear the individual checks or even if i need to do so? If you are going to do bank recons in Sage, then you will go to Tasks, Bank Reconciliation, enter your cash account. Enter your bank statement ending balance and clear all checks and deposits that have cleared in prior years and well as in this 1st period. Once your done the unreconciled difference should be zero. Now you can continue to do the bank recon in Sage.

Thank you for expanding on my questions! Have a great week-end

You should be able to import a general journal entry into a closed period. If done correctly, it would appear on journals, general ledgers and impact financial statements just as if you entered it when the period was open. Just be careful and backup before the import and verify after. If you see anything wrong you should immediately restore. If you get the entry imported correctly in the closed period, then that is all there is. No need to enter it again in the open year. (see my prior post on importing option).