Top FAQs for month end close

Inform ERP is an Accounting Period driven system. Month End Close is a required system procedure that defines both the end of one Accounting Period and the beginning of the next. Closing the month ensures that monthly values such as Customer & Vendor Month To Date Purchases and Product Inventory Demand are calculated for the correct Accounting Period. Month End Close cannot be predated or postdated and therefore must be done in a timely manner. For example, if you close the month of January on January 31st, and then later that day process a sales invoice dated January 31st, then that invoice will count towards February monthly totals.

Depending on the timing of your daily sales invoice posting, your Month End Close will either be performed at the end of the last business day of the month or in the beginning of the first business day of the month. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the Month End Close must be performed after all the current month transactions are posted and before the posting of any transactions that belong in the new month.

Ensure that all daily accounting and inventory processes have been completed for inclusion in the accounting period. See Before the close: preliminary considerations in End of Month close process and reports.

Yes. DDI recommends that all users log out for the duration of the month end close process. If users remain logged in, you are at risk of 1) database record locks corrupting data and/or slowing down the system; and 2) transactions inadvertently posting into the wrong accounting period.

If a period is closed early, there will be activity in the following period that needs to be accrued by journal entry.

If a period is closed late, there will be activity in the prior period that needs to be accrued by journal entry.

See Make journal entries

You'll need a detail General Ledger inquiry to parse out the offending items by date. For assistance, please contact DDI Customer Care.

Closing your month properly is critical to running smoothly; therefore, see the following checklist to make sure you are ready: Checklist for month end close.

1. To prevent record locks, make sure all users are logged out of Inform.
2. Ensure that all accounting processes are completed for inclusion in the month. See Before the close: preliminary considerations.
3. Update Finance Charges at Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Finance Charge Update. See Customer statements & finance charges.
4. Produce statements at Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Customer Statements. See Customer statements & finance charges
5. Close A/R and A/P at Accounting > End of Month Closing and Journals > Close End of Month. See During the close: processes.

6. Retrieve system generated reports from the Attachments tab. See Month end Closing Reports–Attachment Tab.
7. Allow users to resume normal activity.

Accounts Receivable functions: Sales invoicing, point of sale invoicing, cash receipts posting, sales tax credits, miscellaneous receipts.

Accounts Payable functions: A/P check print, non-vendor check print.

Inventory Functions: Stock receipts, stock transfer receiving, inventory adjustments, product cost changes.

See also: Before the close: preliminary considerations

You can assign accounts payable invoice entries to a closed period if the Company Master flag Allow Period Change in Accounts Payable is set to Y.

You can also enter journal entries into any period in the open fiscal year. See Make journal entries.

See also: After the close: report retrieval and financial data validation

Best practice is to close Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable at the same time. Closing together ensure your financials stay aligned. Using this consolidated month end close also provides an accrual for un-invoiced Purchase Order value. See Consolidated close in End of Month close process and reports.

Inform ERP displays a message indicating that the module has advanced to the next period.

• For a consolidated month end close:
  
• For an AR only month end close:
  
• For an AP only month end close:
  

You can also check Accounting > End of Month Closing and Journals.

Finally, the presence of monthly reports in the Attachments tab provides another level of validation and a time stamp. See Month end Closing Reports–Attachment Tab.

Go to Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Customer Statements

Choose the date statements were produced, and then click Sent Results. Emailed and faxed content goes out at night through a scheduled phantom process. The report will return a list of emails and faxes. Depending on when it is produced, the report will indicate whether the statement is ready to send or it transmitted successfully.

Go to Accounting > End of Month Closing and Journals , and then click the Attachments tab.

The Attachments page contains the time sensitive end of month close reports in order of date, with the oldest at the top. These reports represent snapshots of balances at the time of the close; you cannot rerun or backdate these reports. Reports include Accounts Receivable Aging, Accounts Payable Aging, Inventory Value by Warehouse, Un-Invoiced Purchase Orders, Sales Order Deposits, Warranty Tags, and Warranty Claims. They are saved on the Inform server and are available in CSV format, which you can click to open with Microsoft Notepad or Excel. To use the report, from Excel, Save As under a new name and accessible location.

Note that you may also manually run reports from Accounting > End of Month Closing & Journals. For these reports, you may choose to run on any Calendar Date or Accounting Period.

To reprint statements, go to Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Customer Statements.

Notes
-Do not recalculate finance charges or they will be duplicated.
- If you use the Job Stream to automate statements, it should be temporarily turned off.

If many or no statements are emailed of faxed because of a system issue, then the system will try again the following night. If you still have problems or do not want to wait, you can contact Customer Care, who might be able to push the batch out on demand.

Go to File > Company > Master: Accounting, and check the setting Save Monthly Customer Statement in A/R Attachments. If set to Y, the EoM process may slow significantly. If you do disable this setting, then you will no longer have copies of customer statements should they request it.

If running customer statements for all customers in the accounts receivable menu, do not select Print Detail Invoices. This option prints open invoices for all the customers and may take significant time to process. If open invoices need to be printed for specific customers, request statements and invoices just for these customers by inputting their customer name or number in the selection criteria.

End of Month closing is irreversible. If there is a problem with your month end close, please contact DDI Customer Care.

You cannot open a previously closed month and add charges. To account for these additional charges, you can either:

• Make an accrual entry: See Make journal entriesand Use journal entry accruals; or
• Make an AP invoice backdate: See Backdate an invoice.

The only adjustments that are allowed into previously closed months are GL Journal Entries. See Make journal entries.

When the month of December is closed, the system finalizes all totals for the month of December and also for the year. The system also closes the product transaction ledger for the year and opens the transaction ledger for the new year. Extra precautionary measures should be taken before closing the month of December: see End of year close process.

Please note: after the last month of the fiscal year is closed, the General Ledger Year must also be closed: see End of year close process.

When a transaction that was originally posted in a previously closed Accounting Period is voided in the current Accounting Period, the reversal will be reflected in the current Accounting Period.