Skip to main content
K
KKMT
November 20, 2019
Question

How to change year end from December to January

  • November 20, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Dear Support:  My company uses Quickbooks Online.  From reading other people Q&A on this fiscal year end, can you please confirm my understanding as follows are correct?

1.  By changing the fiscal year from December to January, I goes to Account & Settings/Advance and change the "First Month of Fiscal Year" to February.

2.  I keep the "First Month of Income Tax Year" to "Same as Fiscal Year". 

3.  When I run a Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, and Income Statement, I will use "Custom" under Report Period to select the periods.

4.  When I run the Trial Balance and Balance Sheet using "Custom" under Report Period as stated in #3 above, the retained earnings on the Balance Sheet will be updated by Quickbooks Online correctly.  

5.  I already closed Oct-19 books, I can change the "First Month of Fiscal Year" to February.  I don't need to wait till I close Jan-20 books.  

1 reply

L
LauraAB
November 20, 2019

Hello KKMT,

 

Great job with the research you've done so far regarding the fiscal year settings. You're well on your way and I'm happy to go over each of these things with you.

 

You've got the correct steps for changing the fiscal year in your QuickBooks Online account settings. Whether you keep the second setting for the income tax year as the same as the fiscal year depends on your setup with the government for your business. These can sometimes be different.

 

Luckily, when you run the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, and other reports, they have an option in the date range selection for Fiscal Year. Picking this option will show you details for that time period selected in the settings. Learn more about customizing reports here: Customize your reports in QuickBooks Online

 

You're welcome to change the fiscal year setting at any time as you're using QuickBooks Online. This feature is simply in place to make it easier to filter and run your reports for your chosen fiscal period. We like to do what we can with QuickBooks to cut down on the steps you need to take to see your information.

 

For your reference, here's a checklist you can use come year end: Year-end guide and checklist

 

I hope that helps! Feel free to ask more questions. :)

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement