Period End
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Financial Month End
Month End Overview
PFM does not have a formal month end closedown procedure. It utilises the transaction date entered to generate reports, so it very important that dates are carefully entered.
The date is particularly important when processing batches of receipts where the money is received at the end of the month but not banked until the start of the following month. In this situation YOU MUST either enter a date for banking before the month end, or change the receipt date for each transaction to after the month end. If you do not, then at the month end point your BALANCE SHEET will not BALANCE. Therefore, receipt date and banking date must be within the same month
It does mean however, that you can begin processing the following month’s transactions immediately because reports can be run for a date range. Here is a summarised set of steps but full details are on the printable word document above.
Month End Steps
1. Process all receipts and payments in Transaction Entry.
2. Process all bank transfers and any transfers required between short codes
3. Reconcile the Bank Accounts in Transaction entry – Bank Statements and Print and File the Reconciliation Report Produced. (Make sure you check for any interest received etc on bank statements, and enter these as receipts before starting the Bank Rec)
4. Print a copy of the Financial reports required, being careful to enter a date in the To date box if you have processed any transactions beyond this month end.
5. Make any adjustments necessary based on the reports produced, and if amendments were made re-run the reports.
6. Print Reports by Account for those responsible for the accounts. The Summary Statement may be all that is necessary at month end.
7. TAKE AN ARCHIVE of the month end position. Call it something like JANUARY 2009 MONTH END, so its clear what it is!
Financial Year end
The Private Funds Manager year end closedown should be a relatively pain free process, especially if you do some preparation work in advance.
When you do the year end is up to you - some schools do it on the very last day(or closest) of the year, so will close down on 31st March without doing the final bank reconciliation until the new year. Other schools like to wait until the bank statement appears, and any final items relating to the financial year turn up. Its up to you when you close year end. However, if you do not close the year for a few weeks (or months) you must be very careful that you date things correctly - anything related to the old financial year, including journals/transfers - must be dated on or prior to the last day of that financial year, and all new transactions must be dated on or past the first day of the new year.
Do the 3 year end preparation tasks before year end - you can do this quietly and gently in the run up to year end, to ensure that the close down itself is straightforeward.
Preparing for Year End
1. Clear unwanted items from the Bank Statement screen
Are all the items on the unreconciled list genuine items that will appear in the next one or two bank statements? Or are they old transactions that now will probably never be presented? Are they duplicates or errors entered somewhere along the way?
If you have payments that date back some time, you will probable want to cancel them off the system. Track down who the cheque was for and what short code was used. Then go into Transaction Entry - Payments - Cancel Payments. Enter a cancellation exactly as the original item with the same amount and date and enter notes indicating this is a write off. Repeat for all payments to be cancelled.
If you have receipts showing that are more than a week or two old, it is very unlikely that these are correct. They may be duplications or just straight errors. Track down who the receipt relates to and what short code was used. Then go into Transaction Entry - Receipts - Direct Receipts. Enter a cancellation exactly as the original item but with a NEGATIVE amount, same date and enter notes indicating this is a write off. Press BANK IT. Repeat for all receipts to be cancelled.
You can then go into Bank Statements, and each 'old' transaction will have a corresponding cancellation entry - tick one against the other. Commit Changes and print the report for Audit records.
2. Clear short code accounts that won't be needed next financial year.
Are there some trips or other accounts that are no longer used? If so, you might want to delete them after completing the year end closedown. If this is the case, now is the time to start looking at these accounts to see what balance is left (positive or negative), are there any further transactions likely this year - if not you might want to start clearing the accounts in preparation for deletion. (Short codes need to have a zero balance at year end to be cleared) Print an Income and Expenditure report, then use Transaction Entry - Transfers - Short Code transfers to move money from short codes to a General / Reserves account. (I then change the Full name of the short code from SKI2014 to ****CLOSED SKI2014 to indicate that the account has been cleared and close, by editing in Accounts Maintenance)
3. Pick a date for your last banking of the financial year.
Everything relating to March must be banked with a date of March - do not make the mistake of banking items in April with a March transaction date, or your balance sheet will be out of balance at year end. It makes sense to say that a banking will be done on say Wed 30th March or Thursday 31st March and that will be the end of transactions for the financial year. Do not enter any other receipts until you get to 1st April and do these into the new financial year, dated accordingly.
What the system does at year end
It takes the Closing Balance for each short code and makes it the Opening Balance for the new financial year.
Clears all transactions from the short codes, leaving only the opening balance. (Although transaction can be seen on the Reports By Account – Audit Trail for Short Code button, or by viewing the year end archive.)
Clears all reconciled transactions from the Bank Statement area, leaving only unreconciled items.
Allows short codes that were used in the previous financial year, but will now not be needed, to be deleted.(Period End–Delete)
Allows students, responsible people, suppliers, classes etc to be deleted if no longer required.( Period End – Delete)
The Importance of DATES!!!!!
The date is particularly important when processing batches of receipts where the money is received at the end of the financial year but not banked until the start of the following. In this situation YOU MUST either enter a date for banking before the year end, or change the receipt date for each transaction to after the year end. If you do not, then at the year end point your BALANCE SHEET will not BALANCE. Therefore, receipt date and banking date must be within the same year.
Year End Sequence
1. Take a Pre Year End backup using Period End - Archives - enter something like Pre YE 2022-23
2. Perform final bank reconciliation for year (if you want to) - you can leave this till new year.
3. Make sure that the preparation steps have been completed (ie clear unreconciled items of old / incorrect showing as an unreconciled item and clear old short codes down to zero)
4. Go to Period End – Year End – select the year end date on the right, or select a date of you choice from the calendar. Click on PREPARE FOR AUDIT.
Prepare for Audit
This report ensures that the internal control areas of PFM are in balance. It indicates whether the 3 key reports – Summary Balance Sheet, Income and Expenditure report and Bank Reconciliation are in balance as they should be. If they are not, it tells you, and you can then investigate.
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Balance sheet in balance – if it is not this will be either a future dated transaction or a missing date.
Go to Screen Enquiries and change the TO date at he top to 31/12/9999. Now run the Summary balance sheet. Is it in balance now? If so, you will have done a banking AFTER year end that included some transactions from before year end, OR you have done a banking BEFORE year end that had transactions dated beyond year end. Look back through your Paying In printouts to locate then reverse (we recommend giving Support a call for the reversal)
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The Excess of Income over Expenditure figure (Suspense a/c) should be zero - if it is not an Excess will be shown. This is usually due to short codes with balances being deleted.
If it does report a figure, you must investigate and clear. Go to Screen Enquiries and click on EXCESS OF INCOME HISTORY. This will tell us exactly what has gone into this account and you can then use Transfers to clear the figure.
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I&E equals Balance Sheet, If it does not, go to Accounts Maintenance - Click on Current Short Codes – locate any with a Cost Centre of Null. Now close the report and change the Cost Center from Null to None.
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Bank Reconciliation = Balance Sheet. If the Bank Statement is reporting a correct balance, but this is different from the Summary Balance Sheet figure for the bank, create a adjustment short code and enter an opening balance for the difference.
If the report states that all is in balance, print the page and then go onto print reports below.
5. Print all Year End Reports required from Period End - Year End Click PRINT AUDIT REPORT
NOTE – The Audit Trail will be VERY LONG – we recommend you untick this, and produce from archive only if requested.
6. Print an Unpresented Items List for each bank account in Transaction Entry – Bank Statements - select bank account at the top left and click on PRINT UNRECONCILED ITEMS. Choose the year end date for the report. The CASH BOOK BALANCE should be the same figure for each bank account as on the Summary Balance Sheet.
7. Print Summary Statements in Reports by Account for budget holders/trip leaders if required
8. Take a Year End Archive BEFORE closing the year down in Period End - Archives. Call it something like Final Year End 2013 14
9. Close the year in Period End – Year End. Check Year end date is at the top of screen. Tick to confirm you have taken an archive. Click on CLOSE PERIOD. It will ask if you wish to change the start date for the new financial year - say YES.
10. Go to Period End – Delete – say Yes – then delete short codes no longer required from far left hand column.
Academic Year End
The Academic Year End for PFM is an important time, where we need to make sure that all new starters are correctly added, existing students moved up and leavers removed.
There are a few tasks to compete ideally before the end of the summer term, and then a few that can only be done AFTER the new term starts.
BEFORE THE END OF TERM (or when you come back in early September)
Take a backup – preferably an external one onto a thumb drive / data stick or if not, into your personal documents folder. Use PERIOD END – ARCHIVES – BACKUP – click on BROWSE and choose the folder, enter a name and press CREATE BACKUP.
Check that there are no students WITHOUT an admission number who ARE on roll at your school. SETUP – STUDENTS – click on the button ‘STUDENTS WITHOUT AN ADMISSION NUMBER’
Check this list carefully – it is fine if it shows teachers, external students, pre-admissions etc., but any current students that are on roll should not be showing here.
If there were any students without an admission number, go onto your MIS system and locate the number – copy CTRL C then into PFM - SETUP – STUDENTS – click on the button ‘VIEW/AMEND/ADD STUDENTS’ and use SEARCH at the top to find this student. Paste their admission number into that field at the top right.
If you want to, you might delete old suppliers and teachers that are no longer used or in school. Use PERIOD END – DELETE – say YES to continue.
Click on the responsible persons name in the 4th list – click the DELETE button at the bottom. It may tell you this supplier is linked to a shortcode – if so, go to ACCOUNTS MAINTENANCE – click Supplier/Responsible Person button and remove from the code, then return to Delete them.
IN SEPTEMBER – IMPORT / UPDATE CURRENT STUDENTS
SIMS:
At soon as SIMS has been moved up to the new year, make sure your new students are on PFM. (Because SIMS automatically syncs with PFM it is just a case of checking it has happened)
Go to SETUP – STUDENTS – VIEW/AMEND/ADD STUDENTS.Use the SEARCH box at the top and look for a new student.If they are there, with the correct class, it has updated correctly.
If they are there, try FILE- SIMS.net AUTOLINK – click UPDATE NOW.If this says UPDATING STUDENTS COMPLETE check again in the SETUP tab.If they are still not there, check the password in FILE – SIMS.net AUTOLINK and check with the SIMS administrator that the year has been moved on.
​BROMCOM
At soon as Bromcom has been moved up to the new year, make sure your new students are on PFM. (Because Bromcom automatically syncs with PFM it is just a case of checking it has happened)
Go to SETUP – STUDENTS – VIEW/AMEND/ADD STUDENTS.Use the SEARCH box at the top and look for a new student.If they are there, with the correct class, it has updated correctly.
If they are there, try FILE- BROMCOM STUDENT IMPORT – click SABE ND IMPORT STUDENTS If this says UPDATING STUDENTS COMPLETE check again in the SETUP tab.If they are still not there, check the password in FILE – BROMCOM STUDENTIMPORT and check with the Bromcom administrator that the year has been moved on.
ARBOR​
Arbor does not automatically update PFM with the new students / new years and classes so we need to do this ourselves.
Export from Arbor
In Arbor, you can create a downloadable CSV export by gong to :
SCHOOL – DATA – EXPORT – PARENTPAY EXPORT
(sometimes REPORTS – EXPORT – PARENTPAY EXPORT)
Click the DOWNLOAD button and save it to a folder and name of your choice – please save it as an Excel spreadsheet rather than the CSV it will default to.
Import into PFM
FILE – ARBOR STUDENT IMPORT
The information on screen tells you how to generate this report.
Click the BROWSE button and browse to the Excel spreadsheet you have just downloaded and saved.
Click on IMPORT STUDENTS
Then screen will show the progress and declare when the students are successfully imported.
ALL OTHER MIS
Use the Global Student Import to import the new /. Amended student information.
The first step is to create & export a report from your MIS – in any way possible!Save it as an Excel spreadsheet.
The we use the GLOBAL STUDENT IMPORT option from the FILE menu.
Click BROWSE and find the excel spreadsheet that you have created.Give it a moment! It will load the column names and letters in the bottom right.
As you will see, you will need to tell the PFM screen the COLUMN LETTERS for each of the fields you have exported.Use the box at the bottom right to find the column letters.Leave it blank if not on your spreadsheet.
In addition, confirm, in the top right hand corner – where the titles are and where the data starts.
When all required fields are filled in, click IMPORT STUDENTS.
When complete, click CLOSE. PFM will remember the report layoutso if you produce the same report again you will just have to click 'Import Students'
Once you have finished this process with ANY of the MIS system, check the data looks right in the SETUP - STUDENTS tab – click VIEW/AMEND/ADD STUDENTS.Use the SEARCH box at the top and look at an existing student to check the class has changed, and a new one.
UPDATING STUDENT LINK FOR ONLINE PAYMENT SYSTEMS.
If you use PARENTPAY or SCHOOLCOMMS your students will automatically be recognised when you download payments, because they use the students Admission Number as an identifier, as does PFM
If you use PARENTMAIL, PFM may not recognise new students because they have their own special ID for pupils. In Parentmail use REPORTS - GENERAL REPORTS – PARENT/STUDENT EXPORT – create and save the file then in PFM use TOOLS – PMX – and browse to the file just created – press IMPORT.
If you use Wisepay and do not identify students by UPN extract a list of students with their UPN and Admission number and use TOOLS – WISEPAY to update PFM
CHECK FOR DUPLICATES
If you have ended up with duplicates it will probably be because one has an admission number and one does not. You will need to MERGE them together into one. Go to SETUP – click on CLEAN OUT underneath of the STUDENTS WITH NO ADMISSION NUMBER button.
Locate the student by CLASS using the pull down arrow in the top right hand corner.
Make sure everyone else is unticked, then click on MERGE TICKED STUDENT
Now, select the student that does have an admission number by typing in the first few letters of the surname – click the right one and click on MERGE
LATER IN SEPTEMBER –DELETE LEAVERS
Don’t delete leavers too soon! You need to be SURE there will be no further transactions such as refunds or money they might owe you. Don’t do it if you are not fully up to date with downloading online payments.
When you are ready delete students in the SETUP TAB – very bottom button marked CLEAN OUT.
DON’T try to do everyone at once – pick one class at a time using the pull down arrow in the top right hand corner.
A list appears of people who WERE NOT ON THE DOWNLOAD from your MIS system on the latest download. Check a few to be sure. When you are sure click the button DELETE TICKED STUDENTS.
Repeat for all classes by changing the class in the top right corner pull down.