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The Create New Year command prepares a file for the new year based on the accounting file that is being closed. The command does not modify the current file, so it can be executed without any effect.
Logics of the transition to the New Year
With Banana Accounting you have a separate file for each year. When the new year starts, the operational logic is as follows:
- With the Actions > Create New Year command, the Program creates a new file for the year, using the same chart of accounts, settings and balances of the current year that is about to close.
- Once the new year file is created, save it with a new name.
- The operation of creating the new file can be repeated if you decide not to save the file.
- You can work on both files at the same time:
- In the new one, the transactions of the new year will be entered. It will also be possible to make changes to the chart of accounts, VAT or other, without affecting the previous one.
- In the previous year's file, the operations will continue to be entered in order to complete the year and carry out the typical closing operations, verification of balances, printing of reports etc.
- In the New Year's file, with the command Actions > Update Opening Balances, the changes that were made in the previous year's file are resumed. This operation should be done at the latest when there are no more changes in the previous year.
Once the New Year's file has been created, those who have subscribed to the Professional Plan of Banana Accounting Plus, will see the message Advanced Plan in demonstration mode. This message will appear in the Info window at the bottom of the screen and it will only disappear when reaching 70 transaction rows in the Transactions table.
Checking and closing previous year's accounts
Before updating opening balances, to avoid any differences between closing and opening balances for the following year, it is important to ensure that you have performed all checks, verification operations, and all closing accounting transactions.
In Banana Accounting Plus, under the Advanced plan, the Filter function is available. This feature is particularly useful during the closing phase to quickly search for rows with the same texts or values, based on the key entered for the filter (e.g., word, account, amount, etc.). With this function, it is possible to make corrections directly on the filtered rows, without having to scroll through the entire Transactions table—especially at year-end when the number of transactions is high.
Unlike Double-entry accounting, when the Income and Expense accounting period is closed, there is no profit or loss to be allocated. The difference between the Income and Expense categories in the new accounting period is shown as an increase or decrease in the estate.
Operations performed by the Create new year command
The Create new year command performs the following operations, taking into account the parameters set by the user:
- Creates a new file (with no name) with the chart of accounts and all the settings identical to your current file, but without transactions.
- Copies the data from the Balance column of your current file to the Opening column of the new file (only for the selected classes)
- Copies, for all the accounts of the Report, the data from the Balance column of your current file to the Previous Year column of the new file.
- Updates the File and accounting Properties of the file:
- Sets the start and end dates, adding 1 year to the existing ones.
- In the Options section, sets the previous year's file name and enables the option to use the previous year's transactions for autocompletion.
- If there are data in the Budget table, it carries over the operation rows in the new year taking into account the settings.
In the Income/Expenses accounting method, there is no need to allocate the profit or loss for the year, as the total equity in the Accounts table already represents the net equity or owner's equity.
However, if this allocation is required, a specific account must be set up in the Accounts table. For more details, please refer to the section Profit or Loss Accounts from Previous Years.