Program: GL Define Previous Financial Years

This program lets you define the financial periods into which General Ledger journals may be posted for the previous financial years (up to five previous financial years), enabling the correction of prior period errors.

Exploring

Things you can do in this program include:

  • Define the period end dates for each period of a selected previous financial year (previous year 2, 3, 4 or 5)

  • Set each period's status to Open or Closed, which governs whether a journal may be posted into that period.

  • Define the next journal number to assign per period.

  • It does not remove or supersede any existing Syspro functionality.

  • By enabling the processing of General Ledger journal for prior financial years, the integrity and accuracy of comparative and historical reporting is enhanced.

This program can't be run standalone and is accessed from the following program(s):

  • Setup Options > Preferences > Financials > General Ledger

    From the Financial-periods and Next journal number by period setup options hyperlinks.

Starting

To use this feature, the following setup option(s) must be enabled/defined:

Setup Options > Preferences > Financials > General Ledger

Enable this to post adjustment journals to up to 5 previous financial years if discrepancies are found during an audit process.

The system enforces posting the journal into period 1 of the previous year.

This setup option will be disabled by default and require enabling if required.

This allows you to define period-end dates for the past five years and set the statuses of each period to open or closed.

This allows you to define the next journal number for each period end for 5 previous years.

The hyperlink is only available if the Next journal numbers by period and Allow GL post before previous year setup options are enabled.

Both the Financial-periods and Next journal number by period hyperlinks are disabled when the Allow GL post before previous year setup option is disabled.
These hyperlinks calls this GL Define Previous Financial Years program to define the previous years.

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When defined, the password must be entered before you can access the function.

The following configuration options in Syspro may affect processing within this program or feature, including whether certain fields and options are accessible.

The Setup Options program lets you configure how Syspro behaves across all modules. These settings can affect processing within this program.

Setup Options > Preferences > Financials > General Ledger

  • GL Post before previous year
    • Allow GL post before previous year
    • Financial-periods
    • Next journal numbers by period

  • The previous financial years can only be defined when the General Ledger setup option Allow GL post before previous year is enabled. While the option is disabled, the calling hyperlinks are disabled.

  • You cannot define a financial year that is more than five years prior to the current financial year.

  • Each period end date must be later than the preceding period end date.

  • A period status cannot be left blank, it must be O - Open or C - Closed.

  • A date or status cannot be entered for period 14 when the company uses 12 accounting periods.

Solving

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Using

  • Period end dates and statuses are saved in the GenPrevYears table, with statuses stored as O - Open or C - Closed).

  • The Next journal number by period are saved on the GenJournalCtlPrd

  • Set a period to O - Open only while the prior-year correction is being posted, then set it back to C - Closed to prevent further postings into that period.

The GL Define Previous Financial Years process is as follows:

This section explains how to configure the system to process General Ledger journals into a financial year prior to the previous year, and how to post such a journal once the prior years are defined.

Posting into a year beyond the previous year is intended for the correction of material prior period errors, you would typically follow this process only when the error is material, and management and auditor approval has been obtained.

Enabling the feature:

  • Open Setup Options and navigate to Setup Options > Preferences > Financials > General Ledger.

  • Select the Allow GL post before previous year setup option. This enables the Financial-periods and Next journal number by period hyperlinks below it

Defining the previous financial years:

  • Select the Financial-periods setup option hyperlink to launch the GL Define Previous Financial Years program.

  • At the Previous Year field, indicate the previous financial year you want to define (previous year 2, 3, 4 or 5). The corresponding ledger year is displayed for information purposes.

  • For each period of the selected year, enter the Period end date, ensuring that each period end date is later than the period end date of the preceding period.

  • For each period, set the Status to O - Open or C - Closed. Set a period to O - Open only for the periods into which the correction is to be posted; leave the remaining periods C - Closed to protect the previously reported figures.

  • If the Next journal number by period is in use, select the hyperlink and indicate the next journal number to assign with in each period.

  • Select Save.

Posting a journal into a previous financial year.

  • Open the GL Journal Entry program. Provided you have the required eSignature access, the previous years that have history and that you defined in the previous steps are available in the Year drop-down.

  • Select the prevous Year and Period into which you want to post. The period must have a status of O - Open; if it is C - Closed, a message is displayed indicating that the period is closed and you cannot continue.

  • You can post your journal for different journal types, i.e. Normal journal, User-defined journal, Period end journal or Auditor's adjustment.

  • Capture the journal lines in the usual way and save or post the journal.

    Where the journal affects an Expense or Revenue account, Retained Earnings is updated for all subsequent years, and the opening balances of all subsequent years are updated, so that the correction is carried forward to the current year.

  • If the Authorization of journals before posting setup option is enabled, authorize the journal, then post it.

  • When selecting post the GL Dimension Analysis Capture program will open. If not configured, continue to configure the dimensions and select Save.

Closing the period after posting

The following define the status of each financial period, which governs whether a journal may be posted into that period:

Status Description

O - Open

This status indicates that the financial period is available for processing and the General Ledger journals may be posted into it.

A period must be set to O - Open before any adjustment journal can be captured, authorized, imported or posted into that period of the previous financial year.

C - Closed

This status indicates that the financial period is locked and that no General Ledger journals may be posted into it.

This is the default for the periods of a previous financial year and preserves the integrity of the comparative and historical figures already reported.

While a period is C - Closed, it is not offered for selection in the Year and Period fields of the journal capture, import, authorization and browse programs, and any attempt to post into it is rejected with the message that the period is closed.

A period that was opened to allow a correction should be set back to C - Closed once the posting is complete, so that the previously reported balances cannot be altered further.

Referencing

This saves the details you entered or changed.

This pane will open when the Financial-periods hyperlink is selected. This allows the user to define the period end dates and statuses required.

Field Description

Previous Years

 

Year

Indicate the previous financial year you want to maintain: previous year 2, 3, 4 or 5.

Previous year 2 is the current financial year minus 2, previous year 3 is the current financial year minus 3, etc.

Previous Year

Indicates the previous financial year currently selected for maintenance (the current financial year minus 2, 3, 4, or 5). This caption is displayed for information purposes only.
Period end dates

Indicates the actual ledger year that corresponds to the selected previous year. You use it to define the end date and status of each period of the selected previous financial year.

The program takes the number of financial periods defined against the company into account.

Period 1 - Period 14

Indicates the financial period end date within the selected previous year. The number of periods displayed reflects the number of accounting periods defined for the company (e.g. periods 1 - 13 for a 12-period year)

Period 1 status - Period 14 status

Indicate whether the period is O - Open or C - Closed.

A journal can only be posted into a previous period when that period is O - Open.

The status cannot be left blank.

You cannot change the status of period 14 when the company uses 12 accounting periods.

This pane will open when the Next journal numbers by period hyperlink is selected.

The hyperlink is only available if the Next journal numbers by period and Allow GL post before previous year setup options are enabled.

Field Description

Year

Indicates the financial period within the selected previous year, according to the number of accounting periods defined for the company.

Previous Year

Indicates the previous financial year currently selected. This caption is displayed for information purposes only.

Next journal numbers by period

 

Period 1 - Period 14

Indicate the next journal number to be assigned to a manual journal created within this period. (e.g. periods 1 - 13 for a 12-period year)