There is a way to do this through a data repair process but that requires hiring someone who can do that kind of work.  Once the program registers an entry past any date, it will not allow the fiscal year end to be moved to any date before that entry.  A reversal of the entries will still have entries with those future dates in the file but there will be twice the number.

Most people will extend the fiscal year to the next year end (Mar 31/25) and run any Mar 31/24 year end reports manually.  The issue here is any balance sheet reporting will have the wrong Retained Earnings and Current Earnings for dates between Apr/24 and Mar/25.  Some will post a manual year end clearing of the income statement to Retained Earnings on the first day of the new year (eg. Apr 1) and then start all new year data entry Apr 2.

There is a way to do this through a data repair process but that requires hiring someone who can do that kind of work.  Once the program registers an entry past any date, it will not allow the fiscal year end to be moved to any date before that entry.  A reversal of the entries will still have entries with those future dates in the file but there will be twice the number.

Most people will extend the fiscal year to the next year end (Mar 31/25) and run any Mar 31/24 year end reports manually.  The issue here is any balance sheet reporting will have the wrong Retained Earnings and Current Earnings for dates between Apr/24 and Mar/25.  Some will post a manual year end clearing of the income statement to Retained Earnings on the first day of the new year (eg. Apr 1) and then start all new year data entry Apr 2.

Hi if the year end was moved forward, we could still post in both years? if all of the transactions dated future wise were reversed. 

i have posted to March 31-2024 and want a 1st year end to be June 30th. If i change this then the income statement and balance sheet would be correct and yes manually move the amount to retained earnings for June 30th 2024 from the income statement. Does this make sense? 

sorry i should have added items were posted in Dec 2024, but i corrected them to Dec 2023

Sandra Alternative Accounting said:

if the year end was moved forward, we could still post in both years?

The program would consider it one year, not two.  One year is from the Fiscal Start Date to the Fiscal End date registered in the file under Setup, Settings, Company, Info.  I once had to extend the year for a 5 year period in real life, but the program considered it one year.

Sandra Alternative Accounting said:

if all of the transactions dated future wise were reversed. 

I don't see your question here but I already indicated how the program considers this action with

Richard S. Ridings said:

A reversal of the entries will still have entries with those future dates in the file but there will be twice the number.

This means you will not be able to move the fiscal end date to any date before those entries.  You can see them all by running the Journal Entries report showing all entries and Corrections for dates Apr 1 to Dec 31/24.  Use the report on Reports, Journal Entries, All.

Sandra Alternative Accounting said:

manually move the amount to retained earnings for June 30th 2024

I don't know where and when Jun 30 came in unless you are now changing to Jun 30 year end, not Mar 31.  I assume you are considering this change in consultation with your accountant.

Right now, from your description, you have entries dated to Dec/24.  Therefore you cannot move the fiscal end date to any date in 2024 before that last entry, and it is not relevant if you reversed it or not, it still exists.  The only way I know to get your fiscal year to a different date from what I assume is Dec 31/24 right now, to any earlier date in 2024 is to do a data repair.  This process will manually arrange your entries in the appropriate year.  With current reversing journal entries, there will now be twice the number of entries to process manually, if you have reversed them.  Sometimes the costs of hiring someone to do this is worth the effort, sometimes it is not.

The easiest option is to change the fiscal end date to what ever date you need (Mar 31 or Jun 30 in 2025) and when you and your accountant have fully completed your 2024 year end (including year end adjusting entries), do a single entry on the first day of the new fiscal year to clear everything on the income statement accounts manually to Retained Earnings.  Do not post any real first day of the year entries on the first day of the year, move them to the second day.  When you run your income statement for the new first month of the fiscal year for this year only, run it from the second of the month to the end and your balance sheet will have it's Current and Retained Earnings correct on the first day of the new year.  Some people choose to do this entry on the last day of the previous fiscal year.  If you do, just adjust the dates to run the reports to get correct reporting (eg. no real entries on the last day of the fiscal year, post the income statement to Retained Earnings on the last day of the year).

thank you.