1 Topic by jebba (edited by jebba 01/08/2011 09:49:09 pm)

  • jebba
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  • From: USA, Redstone Canyon, Colorado
  • Registered: 01/08/2011
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Topic: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

Hi,

I am starting a new company and am thrilled to be able to use such an advanced free software accounting package. It was quite a pleasant surprise to find it.

In the process of looking at various COAs, I would do thusly:

1) start new company with new COA
2) Add a new fiscal year for 2011
3) Set current fiscal year to 2011
4) Go delete the old fiscal years that came stock in the COA (e.g. 2008, 2009, 2010, when the company didn't exist).

This worked fine with some COAs, but failed with this one: 8 digit GAAP compatible American chart of accounts. I have version 2.3.0-2.

I go to close 2008 and it gives me the error:

"The Retained Earnings Account should be a Balance Account or the Profit and Loss Year Account should be an Expense Account (preferred the last one in the Expense Class)"

All numbers are 0, as no data has been entered.

How do I fix this?

Thanks!

-Jeff

  • joe
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Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

We haven't made all the COAs ourselves, so in some of them you will have to create these accounts yourself.

The Retained Earnings shoulb be in the Equity Class (Liability Class) and the Year Profit/Loss Account should be the last one in the Expense Class.
By placing these accounts this way you will get a fine Balance Sheet/Profit and Loss Statement even for closed years.

/Joe

  • jebba
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Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

Thanks for your quick reply.

I believe the inability to close out empty years was the result of a problem with the SQL in the COA. If I tried to go to "System and General GL Setup" with this COA it gives a SQL error, which I believe is related.

To reproduce:

* Start a new company
* Use the 8 digit GAAP USA COA
* I typically use no TABLE prefix (e.g. no 0_), this may be related
* Goto "System and General GL Setup"
* BONK!

-Jeff

  • joe
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Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

I have used the en_US-GAAP.sql COA script without any problems. I used table prefix, so try to use the table prefix and see what you get for result.

/Joe

  • jebba
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Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

I used the table prefix and it fixed the error with "System and General GL Setup". I haven't set it up to close out the year yet.

  • Registered: 10/20/2011
  • Posts: 1

Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

You can ignore web interface and go directly to database then look for table (0_fiscal ....) in case your company=0_ and prefix table =0_  .
Then browse that table data (NOT table column types and structure) .
Then Delete the old fiscal years 2008, 2009, 2010 and keep only 2011 (which you should create it before and make it the active one in your company setting from web interface).
Then change the id value for 2011 recort at the table to be 1 instead of 4 in my case.

close your database now
back to your web and maybe you need to Ctrl+F5

let me know if that help you

Best Regards

  • Registered: 02/21/2012
  • Posts: 1

Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

You can actually fix this by breaking the two accounts mentioned out and assigning them proper GL Account Groups so that you can apply them distinct GL Account Classes...  I just figgured this out after a year+ of using the software.

  • From: Nigeria
  • Registered: 01/05/2017
  • Posts: 3

Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

tradiuz wrote:

You can actually fix this by breaking the two accounts mentioned out and assigning them proper GL Account Groups so that you can apply them distinct GL Account Classes...  I just figgured this out after a year+ of using the software.

Hello Tradiuz,

The solution you mentioned appears to be what I am trying to achieve, the idea of classify the Year Profit & Loss GL under the expense is actually wrong, the accountant of my office and management insist that they want the Profit & Loss to be under a GL Group of its own and should be under the Equity class.

They also want the same applied for Retained Earnings, it should have its own group and another gl account under it with the name "Retained Earnings".

To achieve the above,

I actually created two account groups (Profit & Loss and Retained Earnings) both under the Equity class. Because the account code for Retained Earnings and Profit/Loss GL have to change from the default code that came with the US_GAAP 8-digits chart.

Hence I have to delete the existing Retained Earnings and Year Profit & Loss GLs, and recreated the two accounts, but this time classified them under the new independent groups I have created for them above.

The error "The Retained Earnings Account should be a Balance Account or the Profit and Loss Year Account should be an Expense Account (preferred the last one in the Expense Class)" comes up when I try to configure and use the newly created Retained Earnings and Year Profit/Loss GLs in the "System and General GL Setup" screen. ???

I don't know if you experienced the same issue when you splitted it like this, how were you able to resolve it please.

Thanks for your prompt response.

  • From: Nigeria
  • Registered: 01/05/2017
  • Posts: 3

Re: Removing Old Fiscal Years with 8 digit GAAP USA COA

joe wrote:

We haven't made all the COAs ourselves, so in some of them you will have to create these accounts yourself.

The Retained Earnings shoulb be in the Equity Class (Liability Class) and the Year Profit/Loss Account should be the last one in the Expense Class.
By placing these accounts this way you will get a fine Balance Sheet/Profit and Loss Statement even for closed years.

/Joe

Hello Joe,

Please I'm having the error which came up because I changed the GL group of the Year Profit/Loss GL account to another GL group in the equity class, I removed it from the expenses group and created another GL Group with the name Profit & Loss.

What is the idea behind the Year Profit/Loss GL account grouped under the Administrative & General Expense GL group when you agreed that it should be under the Equity class but you wrote in bracket again liability (is the equity & liability not two different classes) ???

I changed the grouping of the Year Profit/Loss GL account under a new group called Profit & Loss under Equities class, but when I'm trying to assign the re-classified Year Profit/Loss GL in the "System and General GL Setup" window, I get the error

The Retained Earnings Account should be a Balance Account or the Profit and Loss Year Account should be an Expense Account (preferred the last one in the Expense Class).

My accountant wants the Profit & Loss and Retained earnings GL displayed under the "Owner's Equity" class in the reports...???

You mentioned that you have been able use it successfully, how did you configure the Profit & Loss to show properly under the Equity class in the reports with the Profit/Loss GL under the Expense Class.???