[laura_wsc]

Hi, We are new to FE and are getting ready to close our first Fiscal Year. We want to do a soft close at first and then when the auditors are done, a hard close. I am NOT a financial person. I'm the IT guru so go easy on me. I have not RTFM yet, on my to-do list and we do have some consulting time coming to us, we haven't set it up yet. I'd appreciate any pointers, things to ask myself BEFORE we start this process, tips, tricks, possible pitfalls, etc. We do use RE and do post from there into FE. We use the General Ledger module only and this is the only office that uses either Blackbaud product. The Financial Guru & I can do WHATEVER we want and kick anyone out at anytime. Or almost. ;-)

I'm going to cross post on BB's FE forum as well so for those of us who play in both sandboxes to make you read this twice. I just need all the help I can get and I'm not as familar with this product or the names of those who use it as I am with RE.

TIA,

laura

[Ali]

Laura,

It's not necessary to hard close your fiscal years. The benefits of the hard close is that it speeds reporting (or so they say...) and you'll know that all of your financials are locked down. Whereas with soft close, the program has to "mock close" each period for reporting and the soft close checkboxes can always be unmarked.

I have never hard closed a fiscal year. Why? I dunno. I go in after I get the final report from the auditors and click the soft close boxes for each period. I think I'm waiting for for us to get five years of historical reporting before hard closing.

But I'm a former BB/FE consultant, so I've done for clients before. Here's what I know....

Hard closing is an exclusive process, all other users have to be out of the system, and you have to have Supervisor rights. You should run a pre-close report first, it will point out any errors that would prevent you from closing. For the life of me, right now I can't think of any potential errors. If your report comes back clean, you're good to precede with the final close.

As far as what to ask yourself-- Will I ever need to make adjustments in a previous year? -- that's all I can think of. There are no tips and tricks....

Oh yeah.... MAKE A BACKUP before you do the final hard close!!!

[laura_wsc]

Thanks Ali. I'll talk to the money person and see what she wants to do. And what the auditors want us to do.

laura