The AIMS system keeps information about your fiscal year in the FILE MAINTENANCE - Agency Information File. Most agencies run a January to December fiscal year, so closing the December end of month for these agencies will prompt for the end of year additional steps. If your agency has a different fiscal year, the system prompts you during your 12th end of month close for the additional end of year steps.

After completing your end of year process, the AIMS system clears out all income/expense accounts, rolls previous year's profit or loss to retained earnings, and prints complete financial and management reports.

NORMAL PRE-END OF MONTH PROCEDURES
Follow all your normal Pre-EOM procedures including running late charges, printing statements, marking company and producer open items, and posting all transactions. After completing your normal Pre End of Month procedures, there are a few extra steps you should take in order to be ready for End of Year.

PRE-END OF YEAR PROCEDURES
Run the Receivables Analysis Report in detail. Apply all open credits.
Clear off any bad debt items, small balance write offs, or open credits with appropriate entries.
Make any other necessary adjusting entries to individual client, company, or producer accounts.
Run a detailed Aged Receivables listing to keep with your end of year reports. This should be done after all adjusting entries, applied credits, and write offs are completed.
Make a BACKUP! Use a tape (or diskettes) that can be saved for a period of time.

END OF YEAR PROCESSING
End of Month processing for the last month of your fiscal year automatically includes the necessary transactions for End of Year. Your twelfth end of month will run as usual through the first five phases of processing. During the Start New Accounting Period phase you should see a message START NEW FISCAL YEAR.

AIMS support recommends that you wait until after EOM processing is completed to Print all desired statistics. When prompted do not print and do not clear any of your statistical information. (See below for instructions on printing stats after year-end close.)

If you have turned on the option for storing the complete year's General Ledger Detail Report this is the only opportunity you will have to print the complete report. After the regular monthly version prints, you must select "Print all months on file" from the menu displayed. You cannot get this report after EOM/EOY processing as all the account balances are cleared in the start new fiscal year process. Have a box of paper ready! If you have not yet turned this option on, the beginning of your new fiscal year is the appropriate time to do so.

POST END OF YEAR PROCESSING
Before you do anything else, MAKE A BACKUP! Use a tape, ZIP Drive, or CD that can be saved for a period of time. DO NOT write over the tape or diskettes you used for the PRE EOM backup. You should always maintain separate Pre-EOM and Post-EOM backups and do not use them again until your next end of month processing. Many agencies keep the Pre and Post End of Year backups until the next year or at least until all adjusting entries have been made and taxes processed.

Reconcile all general ledger balances with subsidiary reports just as you would after any normal end of month. (You do all check those balances don't you?!)

Print a Prebill report for all prebill business (run for 99/99). This report will detail all items invoiced but not yet processed to the company. You may want this information when your CPA asks for the 4th year in a row what those projected accounts on your balance sheet are.

Do not be tempted to immediately delete all your general ledger accounts that are at zero balance. You should not delete those accounts
" If you intend to run 13th month processing.
" If you use the Comparative financial statements that compare this year to last year.
" If you use the Budget system and have budget amounts in those accounts.

13th MONTH PROCESSING
13th month can be run at any time during your next fiscal year. Remember that 13th month only permits adjusting entries to your Balance Sheet, Income, and Expense accounts. You can enter as many different 13th month transactions as necessary, but you can only close 13th month one time.

END OF YEAR STATISTICS

Class of Business Statistics for Companies and Producers

Company, and producer premium and commission volume statistics (also known as COB STATS) can be maintained on a calendar year or a fiscal year basis. The 12th month close of your fiscal year includes a prompt to print and clear statistics. Most agencies want to keep stats on a calendar year basis in order to match your insurance company records. So even if your fiscal year does not end in December you need to have a plan for printing and clearing that information.

Class of Business statistics are updated during end of month processing and are not updated again until your next end of month processing is completed. That means you have the entire next month to print whatever stats you need. Because you may want to print your statistical information in a number of different formats, AIMS support recommends waiting until your end of month procedures are completed and printing desired stats at your leisure.

For agencies running a fiscal year of January to December - Do not print and do not clear statistics when you are prompted. Sometime during the next month when you have an afternoon, evening, or weekend with nothing else more exciting to do, select COB Statistics from the ACCOUNTS CURRENT or MANAGEMENT menu. Print all the stats you want by company, by producer, by line of business ... After all your printing is complete, select Clear Statistics from the FILE MAINTENANCE MENU.

If your fiscal year does not end in December but you do want to keep COB stats on a calendar year basis, follow these same procedures.

If you are keeping statistics based on your fiscal year, follow these procedures after your Fiscal year end close.

Every year, the AIMS staff reports, some agencies will simply forget to clear their statistics. This really creates problems and heartache for the entire next year so make sure you have a plan and make sure that plan gets implemented.

Client Year to Date Statistics

Client YTD Stats work differently than company and producer stats. Client statistics are updated with each invoice entered. If you are interested in using the Account Analysis Report to profile your accounts based on gross premium, commission, gross profit, average profit, etc., you should run that report immediately after your End of Year procedures are completed and before anyone starts entering new invoices. After you have printed that report in all the various versions desired, you should clear the Client YTD Statistics so that you can start the collection of data from zero for the new calendar year.

Please note, not every agency operates the same and all the suggestions offered here may not be applicable to each agency. We strongly urge you to read the AIMS manual, check with your CPA, and develop your own specific checklist for End of Year processing.