Closing the books at the end of the fiscal year is one of the most important tasks for any finance team. It ensures that your financial records are accurate, compliant, and ready for reporting and audits. But what if you’ve never performed a year-end close in Sage Intacct? The team at Blytheco created this guide to take you step-by-step through the process.
If your business already uses Sage Intacct, the year-end close process is simple and familiar. It follows the same steps as your monthly or quarterly closes, with added controls for locking down prior periods and ensuring financial integrity.
If you need a refresher, this guide will walk you through best practices when performing a year-end close in Sage Intacct, including permissions setup, subledger management, and best practices to avoid common mistakes.
Every organization has unique closing procedures, and Sage Intacct is designed to adapt to your workflows. The platform lets you close books by application or period, giving you precise control over what’s finalized and when.
You can close transaction summaries for:
This flexibility means you don’t need to close everything at once; you can finalize certain modules while continuing work in others. For example, you might close AP while leaving AR open for additional invoice processing.
Permissions play a key role in ensuring a secure and accurate close. Sage Intacct lets you manage access at a granular level so that only authorized users can open or close books or subledgers.
Examples of permission assignments:
For multi-entity environments, top-level users can open or close books across multiple entities without logging into each one or even reopen a single subledger in one entity without affecting others.
The core purpose of closing the books is to prevent transactions from being posted to prior periods, ensuring financial statements remain consistent after audits.
Steps to close books:
Note: Closing always happens at the end of the month, even if your reporting period ends mid-month.
If you need to post adjusting entries after books are closed. For example, after receiving audit adjustments, Sage Intacct lets you reopen the books or just the affected subledgers.
This targeted approach prevents unnecessary exposure of other financial data.
Each application in Sage Intacct (AP, AR, TE, Client Expenses) can be closed or reopened independently through the Subledger menu:
For Cash Management, you close and reopen periods instead of summaries. This ensures control over cash flow and reconciliation transactions without disrupting other modules.
Note: Closing a later period (like Q3) does not automatically close earlier ones. Be sure to review all prior periods for completeness.
The year-end close is virtually identical to any monthly or quarterly close, but it’s essential to ensure all prerequisites are met:
Before You Begin, make sure a reporting period is set up for the fiscal year (e.g., Fiscal Year Ending 2025) and close all relevant subledgers (AP, AR, TE, Client Expenses, and Cash Management.)
Year-End Close Steps:
Once the year is closed, no transactions can be posted to that fiscal year, protecting your audited financials from future changes.
After closing, you can lock the period to prevent it from being reopened or modified, even by users with permission. This is highly recommended after audit completion.
If adjustments are required later, the period can be unlocked, changes made and then locked again.
The Sage Intacct year-end close process is straightforward and highly customizable, offering robust tools for financial control and audit readiness. By managing permissions carefully, closing subledgers strategically, and locking down finalized periods, your finance team can ensure data accuracy, regulatory compliance, and smooth transitions into the next fiscal year.
With these best practices in place, you’ll approach every year-end close in Sage Intacct with confidence and clarity.
If you need assistance with year-end close with Sage Intacct, the Blytheco team can help. Reach out to your Account Manager or complete the Connect With Us form requesting our assistance with your year-end close.
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Linda joined Blytheco after spending more than 8 years on the Sage Intacct team. During her thirty-four years in technology, Linda has worked as a technology reseller for multiple software publishers. No matter the job, her passion is providing value through service to others.
