The information in this article applies to:
Information for Tabs3 Version 12, 11 & 10 is available in KB Article R10430 - Tabs3 Year-End Overview
Closing the year in Tabs3 occurs when you advance beyond the twelfth month of your fiscal year. This article includes the following:
Tabs3 Year-End Procedures
Frequently Asked Questions
Advancing the Current Reporting Month
Reports
Backup Routine
Next Year's Entries
GLS Integration
Perform the following procedures at the end of the twelfth month in your reporting year. These procedures should be run after all final statements for the month and year have been printed and updated.
Where did the Clear Productivity Totals program go?
The Clear Productivity Totals program was renamed to Advance Current
Reporting Month. It still functions the same way it did in prior versions, with
the exception of how it cleared totals for the Receipt Allocation Report. Totals
for the Receipt Allocation Report are no longer cleared because it is now a
date-based report.
What does the Advance Current Reporting Month program do besides
incrementing the Tabs3 reporting month?
The year-to-date totals are reset to zero when the last month of the reporting
year is advanced. This affects the following period-based reports:
In addition, anytime the Advance Current Reporting Month program is run, the prior reporting month is also cleared for the Timekeeper Productivity Report and Category Productivity Report.
What if I forget to advance the current reporting period one month?
If you have not updated any new statements since that month, it is safe to advance the current reporting month now. If you have already updated statements
without advancing last month, the monthly productivity totals on your Timekeeper
Productivity Report, Category Productivity Report, Productivity Report
by Category for Each Timekeeper, and Productivity Report by Transaction Code for
Each Timekeeper
will include last month's and the current month's figures combined. However, the
Worked portion of the Timekeeper Productivity and Category Productivity Reports
will be accurate if it is not the last month of your reporting year. If it is
the last month of your reporting year and you have updated statements with
transactions for the following year, the Worked section will not include the
transactions for the following year.
If you do not use the aforementioned period-based reports, it is safe to advance the current reporting month at any time. However if you need to correct this situation, the following three options are available:
How does Tabs3 know when to clear year-to-date totals?
The first month of the reporting year is defined on the Main tab of the
Customization program (Utilities | Customization). Tabs3 uses this
information to determine the last month of the reporting year, and clears the
year-to-date totals when that month is advanced using the Advance Current
Reporting Month program.
How can I determine if the
Advance Current Reporting Month program was run for our last month of billing?
From the Help menu, select About Tabs3. The current reporting month will
be included in this window. If the current reporting month shown is last month, then the
Advance Current Reporting Month program was not run for the last month of billing. You can also view the Support Log
(View | Log Files | Support Log), which tracks when the Advance Current
Reporting Month program was run.
Why is running the Receipt Allocation Report no longer required as part of the
year-end procedures?
There are two reasons for this: First, the Receipt Allocation Report is now
a date-based report and is no longer limited to month-to-date, year-to-date, and
to-date figures. Secondly, the Receipt Allocation Report is no longer used to
allocate work-in-process payments, because payments are now allocated at the
time of entry. You can still run the Receipt Allocation Report as part of your
own year-end procedures, but it is no longer required by Tabs3.
Which reports should I run at year-end?
Run the same reports that you normally run, but be sure to run the reports for
a year-to-date time frame as opposed to just month-to-date. Some firms will run their regular month-end
reports and then rerun the reports for year-end. Consider including the following reports
for your year-end close-out: Detail Accounts Receivable Report, Detail and Summary
Work-In-Process Reports, Timekeeper Productivity Report, Category Productivity Report,
and Productivity Report by Category for each Timekeeper. You
should also review the reports shown in the Sample Reports section of your manual to
determine if there are any other reports that will be useful. Keep in mind that certain
information will not be available once you’ve advanced beyond the last month of
the year. Our Technical Support Department receives requests in February and
March for how to get a report of accounts receivable, unbilled advances or work-in-process
as of December 31. In order to get this information, you must refer to a report that was
run at year-end or restore from a backup that was made at year-end.
Why don't the Total Hours from the Worked portion of my January Timekeeper
Productivity Report match the total hours on my Recap of Hours Report for one
timekeeper? The Recap of Hours Report, which is greater than the amount shown on the
Timekeeper Productivity Report, was run for January 1 through January 31 and has the
correct amount.
Normally these two reports would match. However, the Timekeeper Productivity Report
only stores information for one fiscal year. When the 2008 fiscal year was closed, any updated transactions with the new fiscal year's date could not be saved to the
next year's Timekeeper Productivity "slot" because it did not exist.
Therefore, these amounts were not carried over. Once the previous year is closed, the new year is created. Any transactions updated with the new year's date will
be stored in the new year, along with any new work-in-process.
Is your backup routine adequate?
Even if your firm is making regular backups, we recommend that you occasionally test your backup system by restoring the data from one of your
backups to a directory other than the Tabs3 working directory to check the integrity of
the data. Also make sure that you rotate your backup media so that you always have
more than one backup. It is important that the Data File Integrity
Check programs be run before making backups. It is particularly important that the
Data File Integrity Check programs be run before making a year-end backup. The
purpose of running the Data File Integrity Check programs is to verify that there are no
errors in the data files before making a backup.
Many firms set aside their year-end backup so that it is not overwritten. This backup will be necessary if you need to get information from reports that have already been cleared for the year. Our Technical Support Department receives requests in February and March for how to get a report of accounts receivable, unbilled advances or work-in-process as of December 31. In order to get this information, you must refer to a report that was run at year-end or restore from a backup that was made at year-end.
Is it okay to begin making next year's entries before advancing the year?
Yes, as long as you do not update any statements for next year before you have
finished closing out the current year. If you update statements for the following year before you have
advanced the current reporting month for
the end of the current year, then those statements will be included with the prior
year's productivity. Note: If you are integrated with Tabs3's General Ledger
Software (GLS), you will need to advance the year in GLS before making cost
or payment entries for next year.
I have completed my year-end procedures for Tabs3, but when I enter a cost or
payment for the new year, I receive the following message: "The date of the
transaction cannot be beyond the GLS Current Fiscal Month of 12/2006." What does
this mean?
Although you have performed the year-end procedures for Tabs3, you have not done so for
GLS. The date of the transaction being entered is past the current
fiscal month in GLS. You need to run the year-end procedures for GLS before
entering cost or payment transactions for the new year.
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