Use the Update General Ledger Beginning Balances process to update the beginning balances in the general ledger for a specific fiscal year.

You can always generate the Update General Ledger Beginning Balances report before you run the process so you can preview the results before you actually update the tables. The process updates beginning balances for all types of account/organization combinations. It also updates balances for account/reference number combinations if you use reference numbers for data entry.

In addition, you can have the process change the status of the fiscal year to C (Closed). If a fiscal year is closed, no data entry is allowed for that year. Note, however, that you can change the status of a fiscal year from Closed back to Open on the Manage Fiscal Years screen, if necessary.

If you are going to close the fiscal year, you must also select either Actual or Target in Closing Rate Type. After you run the update process, that information is then available on the Manage Fiscal Years screen. Costpoint uses the closing rate type written when you run the Update Prior Year History process to create project history.

Because the update process can significantly affect your financial reports, you should generate the Update General Ledger Beginning Balances report and retain it as part of the system audit trail. You must generate the report before you actually update the data tables. For proper review and possible corrections, you can always generate this report without starting the update process.

The Update General Ledger Beginning Balances report provides a current listing of the beginning balances before the update occurs, the changes to be applied to the beginning balances, and the new beginning balances that will result when the update is processed. You can sort the report by account or organization, and you can generate it for all balances or for changed balances only. The report automatically includes project and reference number data, as applicable.

You must generate the Update General Ledger Beginning Balances report in the same session in which you run the update process. The printing status of the Update General Ledger Beginning Balances report for the current session automatically displays in the Report Status group box as "Report Not Printed" or "Report Printed."

Run the update process as part of the normal closing procedures at the completion of a fiscal year, after the bulk of the year-end adjustments have been made. You can run this process as often as necessary. You should also run it whenever you make an adjustment to a prior fiscal year.

Complete the update process successfully before creating project history in the Update Project Prior Year History screen.

If you want the update process to close the fiscal year, you must first close all periods in the fiscal year by running the Close Periods process.

You must specify the retained earnings account on the Configure General Ledger Settings screen before you begin the update process. You must also link the retained earnings account at the balance sheet level for each active organization, and the account itself must be active. (You specify balance sheet levels on the Manage Organization Structures screen). Costpoint does not validate that the date ranges of the retained earnings account match the dates of the fiscal year.