Retained Earnings Entries when closing a Fiscal Year

Overview

This article outlines updates to the Retained Earnings Account as part of the Fiscal Year End Process

Details

The Retained Earnings Account setup on the Company Page in Evolution will be updated in the New Fiscal Year when you choose the Fiscal Year End Button in the Journal Entry Page/  

You can use GL Inquiry from the Accounting Section to look at the Retained Earnings Account Balance based on the End Date you selected when running a GL Inquiry Search on the Account.  

Below is an example that outlines the Retained Earning Balance in 2024 and 2025 based on creating the new Fiscal Year in the GL and performing transactions to the previous Fiscal Year after the new Fiscal Year has been created.

•  GL Inquiry showing the YTD balance for retained earnings for 2024 - $-178, 961.58

• If you haven't created the new Fiscal Year already use the Fiscal Year End Button in the Journal Entry Page go call the below page and select the Fiscal Year Start Date and choose OK.  This will open up the New Fiscal Year and post the Retained Earnings from 2024 to it as well as allow you to post entries to the new Fiscal Year.  

• Once completed go back to GL Inquiry and search the Retained Earnings account and set my dates to 1/1/2025 and see the YTD balance updated. It is now, $-1,607,152.90.

• Below is an example of a Journal Entry posted back into 2024.  
  • In the example below it was am AP and a Freight Expense Account

• Go to GL Inquiry and you can see the YTD balance is reduced by $1,750 ( the amount in the journal entry for 2024) when looking at the date range for 2025. It is now $-1,605,402.90.

• Note - When searching in GL Inquiry any posting done to a prior year does not create an entry that you can see in GL Inquiry for the Retained Earnings account.

• You can use GL Detail Data Access object to gather this information by looking at entries in GL Detail with a created date of 2025 but an effective date of 2024 for GL Accounts that impact the Retained Earnings.  
• You will also be able to use the GL Data Access object to see the last journal name and date that affected the Retained Earnings GL.

• For example below using the GL Data Access Object you can see that in the year 2025 for the retained earnings GL account journal AP001211 was the last journal entry made that affected the Retained Earnings account. By pulling up that journal in GL Inquiry you can see that it was posted in with an effective date of 12/23/2024.