New Company File Assistant

Accounting Information

The four selections you make in this window define your company's accounting year:

Current Financial Year

Enter the financial year that you want to start recording your day-to-day accounting entries. The year you enter here isn't necessarily the current calendar year. In Accounting Plus, and according to the standard used by most accountants, financial years take the name of the calendar year in which they end. For example, your financial year might run from 1 October, 2001, to 30 September, 2002. Since the end of the financial year falls in 2002, the financial year is referred to as "financial year 2002."Be sure you enter the correct current financial year for your company.

Note: If you plan to begin using MYOB Accounting Plus during your next financial year, rather than the current one, enter the name of the next financial year here. If, on the other hand, you want to start recording accounting entries as of a previous financial year, be sure to enter that year in the Current Financial Year field.

Last Month of Financial Year

Select from the list the month that is the last month of your company's financial year.

For many companies, the financial year and the calendar year are the same. That is, their business year begins on 1 January and ends on 31 December. Other companies choose to begin their financial year at some other time; for example, businesses whose sales are cyclical often choose to start the financial year during a slower time of the sales cycle, so the year-end closing process doesn't interfere with their sales efforts at a busier time of the year.

Most businesses' financial years end in December, but if your company has a financial year structured like the example above, you'll need to select another month, such as September.Conversion Month

Select from the list the month in which you plan to begin tracking your company's day-to-day accounting information using Accounting Plus. This month will be used as the starting point for all your financial activity in Accounting Plus. The month you choose here doesn't have to be the current month. If you want, you can start recording your financial information as of the first month of the financial year or any other month in the financial year you entered in the previous step. Since it's best to begin using a new accounting system at the start of a month, you might want to consider selecting next month as your conversion month. The choice, however, is up to you.

Number of Accounting Periods

Most companies need only 12 accounting periods -- one period for each month -- to track their finances during the financial year.

Some companies, however, make a significant number of year-end adjustments. If they use only a 12-period financial year, those adjustments will usually be assigned to the 12th period. When that happens, the final month's accounting records probably won't accurately reflect what actually happened during that month.

To remedy this situation, you can choose to use 13 accounting periods in your MYOB Accounting Plus financial year. If you select 13 periods, you will still have 12 months in your financial year -- one period will be used for each month of the year, and you will have one extra period which can be used for year-end adjustments (adjustments that aren't meant to affect any particular month's accounting figures). When it's time to make adjustments at the end of the year, you can assign the adjustments to the 13th period so your final month's accounting records remain accurate.

You can choose 13 periods if you're not sure. If you choose 13 periods, you won't be required to use the 13th period if you don't want to. However, if you choose 12 periods and later decide you wanted 13 periods, you won't be able to add the 13th period until the next time you start a new financial year in Accounting Plus.

After you make your selections, click the Next button to open the Confirm Your Accounting Information window where the choices you made are displayed for your review.