Q: How do I change from Calendar Year to Fiscal Year in the Ledger program?

A: This is best done at the end of June or the beginning of July.

Here are the steps:

1. Run the Balance Sheet for June. Verify that you are in balance. These values will become the beginning balances for the new fiscal year starting in July.
   
   If the Balance Sheet is not in balance (Assets = Liabilities + Equity), then you CANNOT continue.
   

2. Run the Income Statement for January thru June. Verify that the values are correct. The Net Income will be added to the Prior Year Fund Balance beginning balance for July.

3. Go to System Processes|Initial Setup. The Current Fiscal Year Begins should be January. The Current Fiscal Period should be June.

4. Backup your data.

5. Go to Close Period, and close the Fiscal Year. This will change the fiscal period to January 2004, and will reset the Vendor Calendar YTD and Vendor Fiscal YTD values to zero.

6. Go into Test Mode.

   1. Click on File|Program Summary.

   2. Click in the bottom left corner of the Program Summary dialog until 'Test Mode' appears.

   3. Click on Close.

7. Go to System Processes|Initial Setup.

   1. Change the Current Fiscal Year Begins to July of this year.

   2. Change the Current Fiscal Period to July of this year also.

8. Exit Test Mode.

   1. Click on File|Program Summary.

   2. Click on 'Test Mode'. It will disappear.

   3. Click on Close.

9. Run the Original Balances. It should match the June Balance Sheet, except that Retained Earnings will be added into Prior Year Fund Balance.

10. Run the Balance Sheet for July. It should match the Original Balances report.

11. Run the Income Statement. It should be all zeros for July.

At this point, everything is correct except the vendor calendar YTD values.

1. Go to Expenses|Vendors.
2. For each vendor, on the Vendor Detail screen, click on Alter Totals.
3. For the Vendor Calendar YTD value, click on Copy total from Transactions.

This will set the Vendor Calendar YTD value to the proper value based on the transactions.  The Fiscal YTD totals should stay at zero (you are starting a new fiscal year).

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