Hi Krista Nenn ,

Thanks for reaching out!  If your client is moving their year-end from August to March (creating a short fiscal year), you’ll typically want to leave settings as-is while you’re still posting into the short year, then update the Year End Date only once you’re ready to “close” that period.

Here’s the recommended flow in Sage Accounting (Canada):

1. Finish posting for the short year

   • Enter all transactions up to the new year-end date (e.g., March 31) and complete any adjustments/reconciliations.

   Reference: Financial year-end procedures

2. Run/save your year-end reports

   • From Reports, generate (at minimum): Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss (Standard), and Trial Balance using the correct short-year date range.

   Reference: Financial year-end procedures

3. Update the Year End Date (this is the key setting)

   • Go to Settings > Business Settings > Financial Settings
   • Set Year End Date to the last day of the new financial year (e.g., March 31)
   • Set a Year End lockdown date to prevent accidental postings into the closed year
   • Important: Don’t change the Accounts Start Date—that’s when you started using Sage Accounting / entered opening balances, not your fiscal year start.

   References: Financial year-end procedures  |  Sage KB article (Accounts/Year settings)

4. Data safety / what changes when you update Year End Date

   • Your previously entered data stays in the account. Changing Year End Date mainly impacts the predefined report date filters (like “This Fiscal Year” / “Previous Fiscal Year”).
   • Sage Accounting also notes a manual year-end journal isn’t required in the way some systems do it (profits roll into retained earnings in reporting), but your accountant may still prefer specific adjusting entries.

   References: Will I Keep My Data If I Change the Year End Date?  |  Financial year-end procedures

If you need “fiscal year” reporting before you switch the setting, you can still run reports using custom date ranges for the short year so your numbers stay accurate.

If this helps, please mark it as verified