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At the end of each fiscal year, to start working with the new year, you don’t need to close or delete anything. With Banana Accounting, each year has its own separate file.
The Create New Year command prepares the file for the next year without modifying the current one. You can therefore run it safely: the old year’s file remains intact.
Create the new year file
To create the New Year proceed as follows:
- Go to Actions > Create New Year.
- The program generates a new file that contains:
- the same chart of accounts,
- the same settings,
- the closing balances of the old year, carried forward as opening balances.
- Immediately save the file with a clear name, for example Accounting_2026.ac2.
You now have two separate files:
- one for the previous year,
- one for the new year.
Which operations are carried out by the Create New Year command
When you use the Create New Year command, the program:
- Creates a new unnamed file (so you can decide how to save it).
- Transfers the balances:
- the closing balances of the accounts → carried forward as opening balances,
- the balances of the report → carried forward in the Previous year column.
- Updates the file properties: new start and end dates of the fiscal year, link to the previous year’s file, auto-completion of transactions (via the Options section).
- Transfers the transactions to the Budget table if present (https://www.banana.ch/en/doc/node/9710),+keeping the chosen settings.
Work in parallel
If you have not finished the accounting of the previous year you can work on both files:
- In the New Year file → record the transactions of the new year. You can also change the chart of accounts, VAT rates, or other settings without affecting the old year.
- Previous year file → complete the missing entries, perform final checks, print the reports, and close the accounts.
Update opening balances
If, after creating the new year, you add more entries in the old year’s file:
- Open the new year’s file.
- Actions > Update opening balances.
In this way, the latest changes are also transferred to the new year. It is advisable to do this only when you are sure the previous year is final.
Note for Professional Plan users
If you have a Professional Plan subscription, inside the new file you may see a message regarding the Advanced functions.
Professional Plan. The functions of the Advanced plan are available up to 70 transactions
This means that you will be able to use the Advanced plan functions up to 70 transactions: it is a trial mode automatically included.
Check the accounting of the previous year
Before updating the opening balances in the new year, make sure that the old year’s data is complete and correct. This prevents differences between closing balances and opening balances.
What to do:
- Record all closing entries (invoices, taxes, depreciation, etc).
- Use the Accounting check command to automatically verify that there are no errors.
- If you have the Advanced plan, use the Filter to quickly find and correct rows with the same account, text, or amount.
- Print or save the final reports for archiving.
Carry forward profit/loss in Income and Expense accounting
In Income/Expense accounting it is not necessary to allocate profit or loss as in double-entry accounting.
The difference between income and expenses is automatically carried forward as an increase or decrease in equity.
If you want to keep track of accumulated profits or losses over the years, you can create a specific account “Previous years’ results” in the Accounts table and manually enter the amount in the Opening column.
Review Rules in the Recurring Transactions Table
When you run the Create New Year command, the program transfers to the new year’s file all the transactions that have Rules.
Before recording the transactions of the new year, it is recommended to check and update all the Transactions with Rules in the Recurring Transactions table.
If the conditions are no longer valid you can:
- Modify account, counterpart, VAT code, CC3 or segments.
- Delete transactions that are no longer valid.
- Add new transactions with Rules.
If in the Recurring Transactions table, in addition to transactions with rules, you have also stored:
you must also check and update these.
Performing this check right away helps to avoid errors and later corrections both in the Transactions table and in the Recurring Transactions table.