To close a payroll year

To close a payroll year

If you haven't already read the Year-end Procedures Overview, see Closing a payroll year and starting a new one for more information.

Please note that this task requires single-user access. See Single-user file locking for more information.

Note: What is the current payroll year of your MYOB AccountEdge company file?

To learn the current payroll year of your MYOB AccountEdge company file and other general payroll information, choose General Payroll Information from the Setup menu.

Print all the reports that you wish to keep that show the previous year's transaction activity. You might consider printing a copy of each journal, because they show all transaction activity for a specified period. The Cash Disbursements Journal can be especially helpful, since it shows all "cash paid out" transaction activity, including the paychecks you wrote.

Make a backup of your company file. Clearly mark this backup and put it in storage as part of your permanent records.

Warning: Make a backup!

It's very important that you make a backup before continuing. When you close the payroll year, all the detailed information for that year is erased and removed from your MYOB system. If you need to reprint W-2s, 1099 statements or payroll reports for the year after it's been closed, you'll have to restore this backup to do so.

To ensure that the backup you make is a reliable backup, we recommend, that as a test, you restore the backup before you start the new payroll year in your company file.

We also recommend that you make multiple backups of your MYOB company file - that is, more than one copy of your company file at different locations. The purpose of multiple backups is simple: backups can fail as easily as computers. If the backed-up file is damaged, you're in just as much trouble as you would be without any backup at all.

Choose Start a New Year from the File menu and then choose Start a New Payroll Year from the submenu that appears.

Follow the instructions that appear on your computer screen.

After you start a new payroll year, we recommend that you optimize and verify your company file. Optimizing your company file reduces your company file's size and makes your company file more efficient. The Verify Company File utility ensures that your company file is in "healthy" working condition.

Note: Optimizing and verifying may take a while

The amount of time needed to optimize and verify a company file for use with AccountEdge depends upon the size of the file and the capabilities of the computer you're using. If you have a very large company file and a slower computer with little memory, be prepared for optimization and verification to take some time.

After Optimization is complete, open your company file and choose Verify Company File from the File menu.