About the GL Prior Years Activity Form
Use the GL Prior Years Activity form to enter prior year amounts for comparative financial statements.
This is an optional program and is only beneficial if you require comparative financial statements. In future years on your Vista™ system, all prior year amounts will be maintained automatically.
Beginning Balance
Typically, beginning balances for balance sheets will be entered in GL Beginning Balances. However, you can also enter beginning balances in this program.
Net Adjustments
This amount should be the total of the year-end adjustments for the fiscal year. These would typically be the adjustments determined by your CPA for year-end financial statements that do not apply to any specific month. They would not include normal monthly journal entries. When entered as journal entries on the system, they are entered to Period 12 and specifically designated as Adjustment entries in the batch entry form.
Activity by Month
The debit/credit amounts entered in the grid for each period must be the net activity for that period and not the period’s ending balance. The amounts must be for a prior fiscal year. You may either enter the net balance of the month’s activity into the debit or credit column (whichever is appropriate), or enter the total of both the debits and credits.
Ending Balance
The Ending Balance, shown on both the Info and Grid tabs, is a calculation based on the beginning balance, net adjustments, and net activity for each month.
Selected Accounts
If prior year comparisons are only required for selected accounts (such as profit and loss accounts), then it is permissible to enter activity for only those accounts.
When you have finished entering the prior year’s amounts, print a Trial Balance in summary form to verify amounts and totals.
For information about initializing a range of GL Accounts, see About the GL Prior Years Activity Init Form.
