Steps for closing the accounts – Procountor

This article contains step-by-step instructions on closing the accounts in Procountor.

1. Create journal receipts concerning closing of accounts

Create the necessary journal receipts concerning closing of accounts, such as depreciations, accruals, inventory entries and write-offs.
Any changes made to accounting right before creating the accounting reports will always be included on these reports without the need to update the database.

Use Accounts and transactions report to ensure that the profit (or loss) for the fiscal year is the same figure on the income statement and on the balance sheet. The profit (loss) for the fiscal year in the income statement and the balance sheet will balance out only after the VAT summary has been created.
However, it’s recommended to begin preparations and reconciliations for closing of accounts before creating VAT summary for the last month of the financial year.

This way also the possible changes or corrections made in the process of closing the accounts will be taken into account on the VAT summary.

The financial statement document is created for the oldest open fiscal year using the Closing of accounts tools. Thus, the financial year of which the accounts are being closed shouldn’t be closed before the accounts have been closed and the financial statement has been created.
However, closing the tracking periods belonging to the financial year, including the last one, is recommended, as it prevents changes from being made to the financial year that’s being closed.
Remember to update reporting database always before closing a tracking period.

Balance sheet itemisations are created based on the accounting date in Accounting > Balance sheet itemisations.
Itemisation is always done from the beginning of financial year until the end of a certain month.
Instructions on creating balance sheet itemisations can be found here.

Create the financial statement income statement and balance sheet and add the attachments in Accounting > Closing of accounts tools.
Comparison data from the previous year can be entered manually for the reports in the first year. If the data for the previous year is available in Procountor, the comparison data is included automatically.
More information on Closing of accounts tools can be found here.
Note! During the chart of accounts renewal in Procountor, closing of accounts tools have been updated and now the new version of closing of accounts tools is in use. More detailed information about closing of accounts during the chart of accounts renewal in Procountor can be found in this article.

If necessary, Procountor default template can be modified to meet the company-specific requirements. The default template is found in Closing of accounts tools’ Financial statement template section.
If Procountor default template is modified, the modified template can be uploaded to be used as the default template also in the future, when closing the accounts of the following financial years.
Printable financial statement button shows a preview of the financial statement document. Financial year-specific modifications should not be made in the default template, but instead, save the printable financial statement to the computer and then make the necessary modifications that only apply to the year in question. Procountor automatically generates table of contents and page numbering for the document.
Instructions on editing financial statement template can be found here.

A signed financial statement document can be scanned and saved into archived financial statements in Procountor. Archive is found in Accounting > Archived financial statements.
The document is saved into the archive in Accounting > Closing of accounts tools, using button Export from file to archive.
Only documents in pdf format can be saved into the archive.
There is also a button Export financial statement to archive, which can be used to export financial statement without the signatures into archive. In other words, the button exports the same version into archive that can be found on Printable financial statement into archive -button.

Profit of the financial year that’s being closed doesn’t need to be entered manually, as Procountor books the profit automatically.
A new financial year can be begun even when the previous one is still open.
Once the accounts have been closed, the financial year needs to be closed in Management > Accounting info > Financial years. Before closing the financial year, it is important to manually update reporting database using Update reporting database button to ensure that up-to-date figures will be fetched to reports.
An opening receipt for the next financial year is generated automatically, when the previous year is closed.

The opening receipt of the next fiscal year contains the profit/loss of the closed fiscal year on account 2370 Profit (loss) for the fiscal year.
In the new fiscal year, the profit/loss of the previous fiscal year needs to be transferred manually (using a separate journal receipt) from the account 2370 in accordance with the decision concerning processing of the company's profit or loss, either to retained earnings gain (loss), i.e. post profits on account 2370/2250 and losses correspondingly on account 2250/2370, or distributed as dividend or otherwise posted out of the profit (loss) for the fiscal year before the next closing of accounts.