1. Know Your database.
A database is the physical file on your PC that contains your checkbooks, properties, tenants, owners etc.  You need to know the name and location of your database (hint: it's shown on the title bar at the top of IPM). IPM uses Microsoft Access databases that can be identified by the file extension of ".mdb" at the end of the name.

2. A backup backs up the entire database.
A backup is nothing more than a compressed copy of your database, with a different name. So if you have a database named "mydata08.mdb" you can create a backup named "Pooky.bku" or "EOY09.bku" or anything else, and it still will contain a compressed version of "mydata09.mdb".

3. Make a copy of your database for the new year. 
Whether you use "save as" to create a copy of your current database or let the EOY Wizard do it for you, you need to have a copy for the new year.  You do your "close" in the new year's database.  It may be called a 'close' but it's really an 'open' because it zeros out all the year to date totals and deletes the old year's transactions.

4. Make sure you're on the last update of IPM 2007. 
The current release is always free to maintenance plan members, and can be installed directly from the web here. The current release at this writing is 2007.20. The update number shows in IPM on the title bar at the top or in the menu's Help/About IPM dialog.  All you need to do to update your installation is run the "IPM 2007.20 Service Pack" here. Sorry,  we can't support older versions or anyone not on Maintenance!

5. Check your defaults. 
Before you run the wizard or do the close manually, remember to check the menu's Set/Account Defaults and make sure you've got a "Retained Earnings" account set, and any other defaults your business requires.  Without those defaults set, the close won't work.  Also remember to check the "Balance Sheet" tab to make sure that accounts you want zeroed out among assets, liabilities and equity are included (i.e., some zero out Owner withdrawl annually). 

6. Run the close!
Once you're ready, select the 'Closes' menu, and choose 'End Of Year Close'. There you have two choices: the 'EOY Wizard', and 'Manual/Advanced'.

The Wizard will create a backup, copy your database to a new one for the new year, switch to the new database, and run the close for each checkbook in the database.  You can't use the wizard if all your checkbooks aren't on the same fiscal year, or if they're in different calendar years, or if they're not all on the same accounting model (cash or accrual).

Here's how to use the EOY Wizard

The Manual/Advanced screen is IPM's traditional way of doing the end of year. It runs the process for one checkbook, and you have to do the backup, and create your new database yourself.  Remember to make sure you're in your new year's database before you run the Manual/Advanced process!

7. After the close... 

• You can always go back to your previous year's database by using File/Open - but you need to know the name of your old database, and where it is! (Hint: it's usually where your new database is, too)
• You need to print your 1099s. We recommend you do that from your old database. This allows you to run the "Vendor End of Year Close" on your 2009 database immediately: this is necessary to zero out the YTD figures for your vendors for the previous year.
• You can continue to make changes to your old database, but remember that any changes that effect cash or any other figure you carry forward to 2010 will require changes to the new database's Fiscal Start Total or a journal entry in the new 2010 database.

Still want more? Watch our  EOY Webinar!