Month-End Procedures

Dealerlogic Accounting

Regular Housekeeping Tasks

Your Dealerlogic software can keep accepting data and storing what you enter forever, but a prudent bookkeeper will run regular checks to ensure that what’s been entered is accurate, is where it should be and all is right with the world.  Like the rest of us, Dealerlogic is only as good as what it’s fed, so it pays from time to time run some simple checks.

End of each month

Of course you don’t need to close off any accounting period in order to start a new one, but traditionally we look at our figures each month and pat ourselves on the back or commiserate on our results.  Before you decide your month’s results are worth sharing, run these checks:

•Database Integrity Check

This check looks for any data errors in your file that might result in incorrect figures.  Having run the check, ensure that any errors highlighted are fixed.  Contact Support if you need any assistance with this.  Ideally, if you tick the “Show Errors Only” box you’ll have a clean sheet of paper to look at!  From the Accounting ribbon, in the ‘Utility’ group, select Database Integrity. You can download instructions here

•Check that your stock balances to the general ledger

There’s a report specifically built to assist with this:  from the  Reports ribbon, in the ‘Standard’ group, choose ‘Accounting’, and then select “Actual Stock Position” report.  Use the end of the month that you are balancing as the “As At Date”.  Then once you’ve printed it, run your Balance Sheet for the end of the same month, and compare the totals on the report with the Stock on Hand value and Reconditioning value in the Assets section of the balance sheet.    Ideally you’ll see them both balance, however the Reconditioning account can commonly show a discrepancy if Stock Journals are used and this isn’t a cause for concern. You can download instructions here

•Ensure your bank reconciliations are up to date

We are firm advocates of the “if not daily then at least weekly” school of thought when it comes to bank recs.  Until this is done you can’t ever be sure of your figures.  A bank rec will flush out transactions that have been entered twice, as well as the ones that haven’t been entered at all.  Before you get all excited about your month’s figures, please make sure your bank recs have been done. You can download instructions here

•Check Vehicle Clearing Accounts for carried forward balances

The vehicle clearing accounts  by their very nature are intended to only hold amounts for a short period of time and then to be cleared out.  You’ll find these accounts grouped in the Liabilities section of the Balance Sheet.  Ensure that any amounts in the Payouts Clearing, Refunds Clearing, Non-Delivery Refunds accounts etc are due to be cleared or have already been cleared.  Funds should never accumulate in this group of accounts. You can download instructions here

•Print the finalised Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet

Once the checks above have been done and all declared good, print off your end of month reports.  You might also want to print some of the stock based reports such as Sales Cost Analysis etc.

End of each BAS period

Assuming that you have already completed the end of month checks outlined earlier, also check the following:

•GST Control Accounts are returning to zero

When you run your BAS Activity Report, the GST transactions itemised therein are only those for the current quarter.  Should any historical transactions have been changed, this change will only be captured within the GST Control accounts in the General Ledger.  What you are looking for in the Control Accounts is that the Activity for the quarter (or month) equals that reported on the BAS Activity Report, and that the opening or carried forward balance from the previous quarter was completely cleared out when that BAS was paid.  So there should be no lingering amounts.  If you find a value accumulated from a previous quarter, it indicates a transaction from a previous BAS period has been added, deleted or changed.  You must take up this transaction by manually adjusting the BAS figures for the current quarter, thereby ensuring the amount is not carried forward again to the next quarter (or month).

Lock a date range

Lock away the BAS period once it’s finalised

•Once your BAS is done, it’s a great idea to prevent any further changes to transactions within that date range.  Use the “Prevent Changes Prior to <Date>” function in the Preferences window.  (Admin ribbon, Accounting Setup group, select Preferences, on the General tab)

•You can download instructions here.

Data sent to the accountant

After the end of the financial year once you’ve done all necessary checks and reconciliations, you’ll send the year’s data off to your accountant for completion of your tax return.  What you don't want happening is someone unknowingly creating further entries within that financial year after the data has been sent.  More than at any other time, it’s critical you lock off that financial year from further changes.  As above, use the Accounting, Setup, Preferences function to prevent changes within that date range.