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How to Archive GL Data Before Year-End Closing Procedure

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Q:   Our year-end closing procedure will purge all detail transactions, but I don't want to lose my previous-year GL  transactions because they contain important data that I would like to go back to for reporting and auditing in the future.  So I would prefer a method to archive my GL Transaction file before I trigger year-end closing. Can you provide the steps needed to perform that archive?

A:  The strategy is to use Elliott's Multi-Company feature and create an archive company for historical inquiry purposes.  In Elliott, typically there will be a mapped network drive and a root Elliott folder to store data and programs. Just as a way to explain by example, the Elliott root folder may be:
        M:\Elliott7

Throughout this document, we will refer to the M:\Elliott7 folder even though that is not necessarily your actual Elliott root folder. With regard to any instructions in this document that refer to M:\Elliott7, you can just change it to your actual Elliott root folder.  Your data will be stored in DATA or DATA_?? folders under the Elliott root folder.  For example, your Company 1 data will be stored in the M:\Elliott7\DATA folder and your Company 2 data will be stored in M:\Elliott7\DATA_02 folder. Using this principle, you can see how Elliott supports up to 99 companies.

Let's say your production company is Company 1, so your production data resides in the M:\Elliott7\DATA folder.  Let's say that you wish to create an archive Company 23 for the year 2013.  Its corresponding data folder will be M:\Elliott7\DATA_23.  Throughout this document, we will refer to M:\Elliott7\DATA as the production company data folder and M:\Elliott7\DATA_23 as the company created for year 2013 archiving  purposes.

1. Create new Company 23:
  • Login as Supervisor to Elliott, then click "New Company" at Company Selection window (V7) or right-click "Elliott Business Software" (V8). The system will display a small window showing "Company Number." Enter 23 for this example. The system will create a new folder labeled M::\Elliott\DATA_23. 
  • You will see Company 23 "No Company Name" showing on the company selection. Click OK to do the initial setup for the new company.
  • Go to Company Setup (Util-Setup --> Company Setup), Update Company Information (i.e., ABC Company - 2013) and pick System Manager and General Ledger 2 modules from the second screen -- Specify Packages.
  • Initial files -- The system may create necessary files automatically, but we still recommend that you create and initialize files from File Utilities.  

2. Copy GL files from DATA (Company 01) to DATA_23 (Company 23):
  • Copy M:\Elliott7\DATA\GL*.* to M:\Elliott7\DATA_23 -- You may copy from Windows Explorer. Highlight files starting with GL from the DATA folder, then copy and paste to DATA_23. 
3. Perform the following tasks to archive Company 23 and Company 01:
  • In the archived Company 23, if you did a temporary year end, your accounting period will show the current year.  You should change the accounting period back to last year to match the year of the archived company. 
  • In the archived Company 23, if you did a temporary year end, run Recalculate Accounts Balance so the account balance reflects last year's number.
  • Print Summary Trial Balance for archived Company 23 and compare with Company 01.
  • Print Detail Trial Balance for one of the expenses accounts (i.e., Telephone Expense) for archived Company 23 and Company 01, and compare with the Summary Report (make sure the amount matches).
  • (Options) Compare the Financial Statement in archived Company 23 with Company 01.
4. Your archiving is done if the categories listed above under #3 all match with Company 01. You are ready to close your books from the live Company (01). From now on, Company 23 is a historical archived company for viewing and reporting only. Do not make any further entries into it.




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