The Month End process seems to be the most daunting for most Treasurers. At its simplest, the goal of month end is to take all the taxes that have been collected over the month, distribute them to the correct funds using revenue entries, and posting those revenue entries to the chart of accounts. Of course, making sure our balances are correct along the way. The system contains a Month End Wizard that guides you through this process. This can be found under Chart of Accounts > Month End Wizard.
Before getting started on the month end process, there are a couple of last minute tasks to make sure to get done. One of which are any outstanding breakdowns such as Real Estate Tax Credit, Homestead, or Personal Tax Relief. Also, in order to import Drivers License Funds, the Driver's License Extract file needs to be created on the DMV system so the Treasurer system can import it. Also, all Victory batches must be closed and reconciled a day prior so they are processed overnight and ready to be imported.
The Month End Wizard has 5 steps that guide you through the process.
This step reminds you to do the Homestead Breakdown and Motor Vehicle Import if you haven't already. This is also the step to define what month is to be closed. It is good practice to always use the 1st and the last day of the month for your dates, even if they aren't on a weekday. This ensures no dates are missed between month closings.
The taxes step is where all the taxes (Real Estate, Personal, Occupation, Drainage) are distributed. The Print Taxes Report will perform a tax distribution using system memory, and display where the money is going. This is an opportunity to double check these numbers and ensure all the taxes that have been collected have been entered into the system. Once the numbers have been verified, the Post Tax Breakdown to Revenue File button will create a Taxes Revenue entry detailing the breakdown. In a later step, this will get posted to the chart of accounts.
Just like taxes, the Partial Pay step will take the partial payment money that has been collected and generate a Revenue Entry that can be posted to the chart of accounts. Again, checking the Partial Payment Cash Balance report is recommended before clicking the Post Partial Payments to Revenue File button.
This is the big one. At this step, all the revenue entries that have been created will get posted to the chart of accounts. Several reporting options are available here to help verify that all fund balances are correct. A great place to start is the Trail Balance report. This will give a good overview of all funds utilizing the Revenue file to come up with an ending balance. It will also provide grand totals for Collections and Disbursements.
The Reports step is confirmation that month end has been completed, and gives quick access to the common reports that need generated for county records. Once done printing any required reports, the Month End Wizard can be closed.
Some counties don't wait to balance everything until the end of the month, but rather mid-month or daily in some cases. A full Month End process is not required to ensure correct balances going forward. We recommend to run the Trial Balance Listing from the Chart of Accounts menu. This gives a good overview of fund balances without the hassle of going through the full month end process. This can even be performed on a weekly or daily basis.
