Closing the Year in Applied Epic: Why It’s Important and How to Do It
- March 18, 2024
No matter what type of fiscal period your agency operates by, year-end procedures should be performed in Applied Epic for accounting. This is typically done after all items for the last month of that year are recorded. Some agencies do keep the previous fiscal year open for a little longer, which allows for any applicable adjustments to be made. You do not have to close the fiscal year to begin work for a new one.
However, Year-End should still be done once you’re ensured all items for that year are recorded and all adjustments have been made.
If, at this point, you realize that your agency has never executed year-end—or you simply need a refresher on this process—continue reading through this article. We will explain the importance of executing year-end, how it’s done, and what happens afterwards.
Why Should I Perform a Year-End Procedure in Applied Epic?
The biggest and most important reason year-end procedures are done is for reporting purposes. When the process is initiated, it generates year-end journal entries (YJE) that zero out the Income and Expense accounts. Your Income figures should not roll into the following fiscal year.
As a result, this process pushes figures for net profit and/or loss in Retained Earnings on the Balance Sheet. If Year-End is not run, your Income Statement for the following year will show the previous year’s figures in the Year-to-Date column.
How to Process Your Applied Epic Year-End
Year-end procedures are performed similar to Month-end. You will navigate to Procedures, then Accounting, and then Year-End. If you have multiple agencies configured in your system, you will need to highlight each one and click Actions and Close Year. However, before you get to that last step, make sure all months in that closing fiscal year are closed first. Navigate to Month-End, generate journal entries for the last month, then click Actions and Close Month.
If there are previous months still open, Epic will tell you that those will need to be closed as well and will do that for you.
Important Note: Never Finalize a Month
If a month is finalized, it cannot be re-opened to allow for adjustments you may need to change. As mentioned before, you can close the final month of the fiscal year and keep that year open to allow for adjustments to be made (perhaps adjusting entries by your CPA). But if you do close the year, you can still make adjustments.
You can re-open the month of the closed year, which automatically re-opens the year. Make any adjustments needed, generate journal entries once more, close the month, and then re-close the year.
The system will generate new year-end journal entries to include the adjustments made. If you do keep the year open until adjustments are made, make sure you move the Default Month forward to the first month of the new fiscal year so that nothing is accidentally transacted or added/removed against the previous year, which can mess up reporting.
Your Next Steps After a Year-End is Completed
With the fiscal year closed, you can run reports that contain the most accurate data for that year. To capture the full year’s financial data, run your Balance Sheet (Accounting Month Criteria: Select month open through last month of the fiscal year) and Income Statement (Accounting Month Criteria: Select Month – the final month of your fiscal year).
If after reviewing you find things do not look right or adjustments are needed, follow the steps mentioned in the previous section of this blog. You can re-run the reports after those adjustments are made to apply the fixes. Always save copies of the reports prior to making any changes or adjustments. You can track your changes and go back a step if needed.
How KiteTech's Consulting Team Can Help with Applied Epic
If you are unsure on the integrity of your accounting data and want to begin utilizing accounting reports, KiteTech can help. We’ve put together a library of resources about Applied Epic that you can check out.
Our Epic Consulting team can also review your data and determine whether some cleanup is needed or if an Applied Epic Fresh Start is necessary. If you find your agency does not have the bandwidth to keep up with the bookkeeping in Epic, we can handle that for you as well!
Reach out to us today to discuss how KiteTech can help with your Epic Accounting needs!
Kellie Halfpap
Agency Consultant
Kite Technology Group
