Alignment journals – why do you need them?

MYOB alignment journal - getting your ducks in a row

My accountant has asked I enter an alignment journal before I roll over. What is this about and what is the point?

The purpose of end-of-year (EOY) adjustment entries is to get your ducks in a row and align your MYOB file with your accountant’s end of year tax accounts. Their job is to check over your file and make various adjustments (corrections, depreciation and tax entries). To put you back on the straight and narrow they will want your MYOB to match their financial reports. This will help you for management reporting and be necessary if you need to visit your friendly bank manager – they inevitable want to study your Balance Sheet & Profit & Loss statement. It is very important your reports read correctly.

Your accountants may provide the EOY adjustment journals by paper form or as an Excel spreadsheet. If they don’t give you anything it is recommended you do a general journal to correct the Balance Sheet figures to the Lodged Balance Sheet provided by the Accountant.

So how do I enter in MYOB?

  1. Go to the Accounts command centre and click Record Journal Entry. The Record Journal Entry window appears.

    The general journal number and transaction date appear by default. Date the entry the last day of your financial year. NB You may opt to select the Year-End Adjustment option to identify the transaction as an adjustment journal entry. When you prepare reports for the period, you can exclude these adjustments from appearing.
  2. In the Memo field, enter a comment to describe the transaction, for example, ‘EOY adjustment from accountant’.
  3. Each row of information entered in the scrolling list is a line item. The line item details are identified in the journal adjustments provided by your accountant. For each line item:
    • a. Type the account number (or name), or select it from the account list.
    • In the Debit and Credit fields, enter the debit or credit amount for the line item. Note that GST is N-T for all lines.
    • Record the entry.

Once posted print your Balance Sheet at EOY and check it matches your accountants Balance Sheet (do not assume the entry will line you up).

MYOB alignment journal

Lynley Averis

Lynley is an MYOB Certified Consultant & has been involved in training in New Zealand since 1985. She's written various accounting & MYOB workbooks including co-authoring “Bookkeeping for Dummies”. She has consulted on all versions of MYOB Accounting, Retail and Payroll over the past 18 years and has previously worked for MYOB. She currently consults to NZ businesses on all aspects of business systems - her mission for clients is for them to spend as little time as possible doing accounting!