To assist in the smooth and efficient transition from one financial year to the next, there are a number of sequential steps to take on the last day of the financial year, as well as reports to run. You will be familiar with most of these, as they are the standard Day End and Monthend processes. They are;

1. Balance your Banking
   
2. Run Day End
   
3. Print the Cash Reconciliation
   
4. Backup Costar
   
5. Finalise Stock Counts
   
6. Run Monthend
   
7. Prepare and print an Inventory Valuation Summary
   
8. Finalise your Bank Reconciliation
   
9. Print Bank Reconciliation reports
   
10. Print other Financial reports - after the last day of the Financial Year
    

A checklist of each of these items is included below for your convenience.

¨ Balance Your Banking

1. Select the Day End menu
   
2. Click Day End Reports
   
3. Click Cash Reconciliation
   
4. Click the Daily Banking report icon and then click Prepare
   
5. Check that the values balance. Click the down arrows next to each tender type and make sure they balance. If they do you can move to the next step; if they don’t you need to check why and fix the errors
   
6. Click Back
   
7. Click Back
   

¨ Run Day End

1. Select the Day End menu
   
2. Click Day End
   
3. You will be presented with a screen that shows you which accounting period the day end batch/es will be posted to. NB: If you have variances in your banking untick the ‘Post Batch’ box. You will manually post so the variance can be accounted for.
   
4. Click Perform Dayend!
   
5. Click OK to confirm you want to run the Day End
   
6. Click OK to confirm the batches to be posted
   

¨ Bank Deposit Slip/Printing Cash Reconciliation

1. Select the Day End menu
   
2. Click Day End Reports
   
3. Click Cash Reconciliation
   
4. Select the report icon with today’s date and click Prepare
   
5. Enter the value of cash to be banked using either the break down or total in the Net Cash to Bank field
   
6. Click Print Deposit Slip and print 2 copies (one for your records and one for the bank)
   
7. Click on the (X) to close the report
   
8. Click Print Cash Rec and print 1 copy
   
9. Click on the (X) to close the report
   
10. Click Back
    
11. Click Back
    

¨Backup

1. Ensure all users have completed input and have exited Costar
   
2. Insert the backup media (e.g. Memory Stick)
   
3. From the desktop double click on theCostar Backup icon
   
4. Ensure the appropriate Database Backup Device settings are selected
   
5. Click Next
   
6. Click Next
   
7. Click Finish
   

¨Monthend

1. Select the Monthend menu
   
2. Click Monthend Procedures
   
3. Click Do it!
   
4. Click Yes to confirm advancing to month July
   
5. Click OK
   

If you are part of a multi-branched company, the Monthend process only needs be run from one location.

¨Inventory Valuation Summary

This report will give the total value of the items that are currently in stock. Since version 4.5 this report is automatically created during a month end and you are able to go back and print it at any stage.

1. Select the Inventory menu
   
2. Click Inventory Reports
   
3. Click Inventory Valuation Summary
   
4. Click New
   
5. Change the description to the Month just ended (e.g. June 2016)
   
6. Select the last month of the financial year in Valuation Period
   
7. Click OK
   
8. The Report Iconwill be highlighted
   
9. Click Prepare
   
10. Print the last page of the report and keep it on file
    
11. Click on the (X) to close the report
    
12. Click Back
    

¨Bank Reconciliation

You should process your bank statement up to the 30th June/31st March as soon as possible after the last day of the month. If the bank statement you receive goes past the end of the month (e.g. 5 June - 4 July or 5 March - 4 April) process it up to the end of the month and produce your print outs before starting on the next months bank reconciliation.Since version 4.5 the system automatically creates the reports required when you archive on the bank reconciliation screen.

 

¨Outstanding Bank Items Report

1. Select the Financials menu
   
2. Select the Archived Bank Rec. Reports menu
   
3. Click on Outstanding Bank Items
   
4. Find the correct report icon for the bank statement just reconciled (reports are saved in GL number and date order)
   
5. View and then print the report
   

 

¨Cleared Bank Items Report

1. Select the Financials menu
   
2. Select the Archived Bank Rec. Reports menu
   
3. Click on Outstanding Bank Items
   
4. Find the correct report icon for the bank statement just reconciled (reports are saved in GL number and date order)
   
5. View and then print the report
   

 

Repeat this procedure for all GLs flagged as Operating Bank Accounts.

 

¨Other Year End Reports

Any other reports you may need to produce for your accountant can be prepared and printed retrospectively (for example Aged Lists, Income Statements and Balance Sheets). These reports should not be prepared until absolutely everything has been processed for the financial year. This means that all your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit card accounts, supplier accounts have been reconciled and BAS/GST returns processed. It is during these processes that you will pick up on any mistakes made and make corrections.