Changing the Working Month vs. Closing the Month

Since the Fund Accounting system was redesigned back in Version 9, you have been able to have multiple accounting months open, allowing you to make absolutely sure that you are finished with a month's business before closing (and therefore finalizing) the month. Once a month is closed, no new transactions can be posted into it.

Prior to Version 9, you were forced to close each month as you finished it, but you were allowed to choose whether you would like to post to the current or prior (last closed) accounting month. Since we are now well beyond that two month window (Version 10 allowed you to have up to 18 months at a time) the thought is that there is no reason to close a month so quickly. Starting with Version 12, there is no longer a limit to the number of months you can have open at a time. You should still eventually close months, just to ensure that new transactions aren't accidentally posted into them once your reports have been finalized!

Once you are ready to enter transactions into a new month, simply choose Change Working Month from the Fund Accounting menu. This allows you to move one month forward and start working in the next month. What actually happens, though, when you change the working month? Not much! Your working month simply sets the default accounting month on new transactions as you enter them.

On the Enter Transactions screen in Fund Accounting, before you make any changes, take a look at the Posting Month/Year fields. This will automatically be set to your current working month. Need to enter something for last month? No problem. Just click into the Posting Month field and change it. What if you need to enter a transaction from six months ago? As long as that month is still open, it's no problem at all. Just change the Posting Month field.

Let's state that a different way, just to be clear. You don't need to change the working month every time you create transactions for a different month. Just change the month directly on the transaction you are entering.

The same principle applies to posting into Fund Accounting from Contributions, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll. Just change the accounting month on the screen as you are posting. However, this has caused confusion for some users over the years, leaving many transactions accidentally posted to the wrong month.

Starting with Version 11.5, the accounting month/year is automatically based on the transaction date when posting from Contributions, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll. If your working month is November and you enter contributions dated March 17, when you post them using the Update Fund Accounting method, the accounting month will default to March, based on the transaction date, rather than defaulting to the Current Working Month.

In another example, you may have unposted items in Accounts Payable from both October and November. Previously, you would have to select and post each month's transactions separately, so that the month would be assigned properly. No more! Post them all at once and the posting months can be assigned in Fund Accounting according to the check dates.