Changing Fiscal Year End Date

Fabiana1 · ‎March 11, 2019

Hello,

I need to change the Fiscal Year End date of the company. By doing so it affects the reporting of previous fiscal years. Is there a way to change the date without affecting historical data? I need to see the change going forward only.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Fabiana

impossible · ‎March 11, 2019

Changing the Fiscal Year End Date does not change any data. The data remains intact. Only the Report Dates are affected. For instance: The Fiscal Year End date is changed from April to December. Moving forward, any report where a Fiscal Year End Date is requested, the report will display transactions between December 1, 2014 and November 30, 2015. If you wish to see reports using the previous Fiscal Year End Date, the date parameters must be entered manually (not using the Fiscal Year End option). For instance: date parameters of From: May 1, 2013 To: April 30, 2014 would be entered in the date fields.

Changing the fiscal year end date has repercussions. According to CRA regulations, a fiscal reporting period cannot be longer than 12 months. Changing the date from April to December would require Interim Financial Statements. You should enlist the assistance of your own professional accountant.

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Fabiana1 · ‎March 11, 2019

Thank you for your answer. I've changed the date and after doing that the Net Income of the P&L of last fiscal year doesn't much with the Net income that appears on the Balance Sheet of same fiscal. Do you know why? Thanks again,

impossible · ‎March 11, 2019

Changing the Fiscal Year End Date does not change any data. The data remains intact. Only the Report Dates are affected. For instance: The Fiscal Year End date is changed from April to December. Moving forward, any report where a Fiscal Year End Date is requested, the report will display transactions between December 1, 2014 and November 30, 2015. If you wish to see reports using the previous Fiscal Year End Date, the date parameters must be entered manually (not using the Fiscal Year End option). For instance: date parameters of From: May 1, 2013 To: April 30, 2014 would be entered in the date fields.

Changing the fiscal year end date has repercussions. According to CRA regulations, a fiscal reporting period cannot be longer than 12 months. Changing the date from April to December would require Interim Financial Statements. You should enlist the assistance of your own professional accountant.

warenow1 · ‎March 11, 2019

I am having the same problem. I have changed the fiscal year end date but in doing this the net income does not agree with the P&L . How can I correct this?

impossible · ‎March 11, 2019

Do both reports (old fiscal year end and new fiscal year end) contain the same info? For instance: Are year end adjusting entries reported in both the new and old P&L? Are you selecting Last Fiscal Year for the date parameters? If you are - it is the dates that do not agree. Select specific dates - like January 1 to December 31 .

impossible · ‎March 11, 2019

I don't know how to explain it. On the Balance Sheet adding the Retained Earnings to the Net Income should produce the same Net Income result as on the P & L.

Anonymous · ‎March 11, 2019

How do i change my fiscal year end date

jr7142 · ‎March 21, 2019

Hi thanks for your help - I sold the business one month prior to the year end and tried getting custom reports for the 11 month period and it does not adjust the data.

Is there a way to change the settings in QB?

impossible · ‎March 21, 2019

That's because the data doesn't need to be adjusted. Reports can only report on the transactions that have been entered to date. For instance: my fiscal yearend is June 30. If I create a P&L or Balance Sheet for This Fiscal Year (July 1 2018 to June 30, 2019), the numbers will be exactly the same as the reports I create with dates of July 1, 2018 to March 21, 2019 (today). My yearend doesn't change (still June 30). Reports with both date parameters report only data recorded with dates up to March 21.

Anonymous · ‎March 27, 2019

I'm finding the same issue. It is the retained earnings that change as soon as I change the fiscal and tax date in the previous year end Trial Balance report. Yes I do change the report parameters manually to the exact dates of the previous report.

RaymondJayO · ‎March 27, 2019

Thanks for joining this thread, @Anonymous,

I appreciate you changing the fiscal year-end dates in your Trial Balance report and manually entered the date parameters.

Yes, @impossible is correct. Changing the fiscal year end date doesn't change any data and only the report dates are affected.

Can you provide a screenshot of the retained earnings that was changed after editing the fiscal year-end dates? Any additional details will be much appreciated.

You can also visit the Government of Canada website to learn more about reporting within your fiscal period.

Since there are discrepancies on the retained earnings, I'd suggest consulting your accountant. This way, he can help ensure your books are accurate from the previous years. Moving forward, the data will be corrected for the upcoming tax years.

This will get you in the right direction, @Anonymous. I'll be around to help if you have other reporting concerns. Have a great day!

impossible · ‎March 27, 2019

That is correct. QB does not have a hard close for year-end. When you reach the Year-End date entered in your Company Information screen, QB automatically does yearend behind the scenes (Retained Earnings are rolled over into Equity). So, if the Yearend date in the company information screen is April, changing the date to a June Yearend in a financial report only (like P & L) will report different figures. Make sure you have entered your new yearend date in the Company Information screen. Then in reports, select This Fiscal Year as the date parameters.

Anonymous · ‎March 28, 2019

Thanks for replying. Since it was an 11month year end, I'll take my accountants advice and just re-enter and start a new file. I was just hoping I could somehow get the accounting software to work with that and move on nicely. It would have saved me a lot of work and been nice to have the history without having to flip between files.

impossible · ‎March 28, 2019

Not sure what you are re-entering or why you are starting a new data file. Quickbooks adjusts seamlessly when changing the fiscal yearend as long as you enter the NEW YE date in the Company Information screen.

Anonymous · ‎March 28, 2019

You are right. My opening balances going forward are correct. I just got hung up on the past year no longer displaying the numbers I want to see. Thanks for replying, it saved me a lot of work by getting me to take a second look that the opening balances are correct.

DennisChicago · ‎May 28, 2019

From my experience, when the dates are changed manually so that one can run a report that corresponds with the desired "fiscal year" dates--the totals are fine, but if you need to "drill down" on a specific account to view specific expenses--the report will list itemized expenses for the portion of the current calendar year--but expenses prior to Dec 31 of the most previous fiscal year will show up as a total number labelled "retained earnings." QB defines calendar year and fiscal year as the same. Called customer support about this and was told that here was no way to adjust the fiscal year to be different than calendar year. Does not make sense to me.

Dennis Chicago

impossible · ‎May 28, 2019

Of course there is. The Fiscal Year start date (Month) is entered in the Company Information tab.

DennisChicago · ‎May 28, 2019

yes--that is the answer!!!

how come person at QB help line does not know??

Thank you!!

impossible · ‎May 29, 2019

That is a very good question!

jframpton · ‎December 05, 2019

We are having a similar issue. We have changed our year end, creating a stub year. But when we run reports, eg Trial Balance, no matter what dates we enter, it is pulling in totals from the previous FY. it seems like certain reports automatically use the trial balance entered in Company information, regardless of what dates are entered in the custom dates fields?

I've attached an image that is a drill down from a Trial Balance report dated June 1, 2019 - Nov 30, 2019. There should be no starting balance (913.99). Our previous FY end was May 31st. The opening balance is reflecting transactions from April and May 2019.

I'm lost. Any ideas?

li5 · ‎March 31, 2020

What do mean by interim fiancial statements?

keller527 · ‎July 20, 2020

Hello All, Our company is experiencing some tough times during COVID 19, and we would like to push back our budget, and create a 14 month budget this year only and then begin a new fiscal year from September to August. Does anyone know how to do this properly? Without exporting the data to excel to get a 14 month report? Thanks in advance!

MikeTombs · ‎September 27, 2021

@keller527 wrote:
Hello All, Our company is experiencing some tough times during COVID 19, and we would like to push back our budget, and create a 14 month budget this year only and then begin a new fiscal year from September to August. Does anyone know how to do this properly? Without exporting the data to excel to get a 14 month report? Thanks in advance!

I need to do a broadly similar thing for a client -they have ceased trading so we are extending their year-end from April 2021 to October 2021, and want to produce an 18-months report. That doesn't seem possible in QBO which is irritating as it's not exactly an unusual thing to change accounting periods. I'll do what I always do - move them off QBO.

StillCooking2000 · ‎August 01, 2022

How do I change the date parameters?

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