BTerrell Group Blog

Your 2017 Intacct Year-End Checklist

Posted by Brian Terrell on Thu, Dec 22, 2016

Seven steps to less stress and more merry making


I recently read that one of the reasons the holiday season is so stressful is that we’re YE Checklist.jpgdoing a lot of things we don’t do every day (like baking fruitcake or locating all those decorations in the garage) and we’re worried about getting everything right (like picking the perfect gift and serving the perfect meal). Makes sense. Year-end processing often induces a similar stress level – in addition to being a generally busy time of year, we’re all performing tasks that we may only perform once a year. To help reduce your year-end stress level, we’ve assembled a checklist to get you through the major tasks and back to the merry making!


1) Gather the reports and data you’ll need
Consult with your firm’s auditor or tax preparer to see what information they will need. You will likely need to provide reports that show revenue by state and revenue by customer type. The Intacct financial report writer is the ideal tool to create these reports.

2) Perform a pre-check
It’s smart to perform a balance sheet account reconciliation and trial balance review early on. This is an exercise you can take now, before you’re ready to produce your final annual financial statements. You’re looking for anomalies and irregularities, accounts that don’t tie out, balances that ought to be zero and aren’t – those kinds of things.

3) Consider foreign currency transactions
If you have accounts receivable, accounts payable and cash balance in foreign currencies, use the Intacct Open Item Revaluation report to identify and then adjust for any unrealized gains and losses.

4) Create the new fiscal year and reporting period
Look at the reporting periods listed under Company module in Intacct. If the period for the new year isn’t listed, you’ll need to add it in using one of these two methods:
Auto: Use Company Setup checklist to create the standard reporting period.
Manual: for non-standard accounting report periods, use import file or manually add in the reporting periods for 2017.

5) Make a few miscellaneous closing entries
Account for future cash. Perform any last-minute cash receipts and adjustments that should be included in 2016’s books.
Review your asset and liability classifications. You’ll want to look at long- and short-term liabilities and assets – do you need to move the classification of any of these?
Here’s a freebee. Move income statement balance to equity. Intacct reports will reflect the flow automatically. No journal entry needed.
Perform a tax liability review for 2016. Are liabilities greater than – or less than – expected? Can you account for the disparities? Are there adjustments you want to consider going into 2017?

6) Close the books
When you are ready, close the subledgers and General ledger for 2016 to prevent inadvertent transactions from being posted here. Keep in mind that you can make needed adjustments to 2016’s books even after they are closed.

7) Budget alignment
Use the Intacct Financial Report Writer to create a budget analysis report to enable you to see how your actual annual figures compare to your budget. Then, armed with this information, use the Intacct budget function to set up your new budget for 2017.

With its modern architecture and by automating many workflows and processes, Intacct eliminates much of the busy work associated with year-end closing in traditional ERP applications. But of course, there are still tasks to complete, plans to make and reports to file. Should you have any questions or required any assistance during this time, please contact me at brian@brianterrell.com or by calling 866-647-2611. Here’s to a prosperous and happy 2017!

By BTerrell Group, Texas- based Intacct Partner