We wanted to send a quick reminder to those of you with a fiscal year ending December 31st. First is a summary of your options for when you actually execute your year end. Second are a few links to documents that can assist you with finalizing your MS-61 Report and generating a database backup.

The Avitar Tax Collect system has a hard fiscal year end close, which means that you cannot process work in the current fiscal year until the last fiscal year has been closed. When you close the fiscal year, the system captures the ending balances (outstanding invoice amounts by warrant) for that fiscal year and creates the beginning balances for the next fiscal year. The beginning and ending balances are extremely important as the beginning balances of this year must match the ending balances of the previous year. If they do not, you must explain to the Department of Revenue (DRA) why they have changed. With this in mind, the system was designed not to allow changes in a closed fiscal year, hence the hard close. As a result, you have two options:

1. Close on January 1^st: You can choose to run all of your reports, balance for the year, and close the fiscal year on January 1^st (or immediately thereafter such as, for example, the morning of January 2^nd or 3^rd — just make sure it’s before you begin posting payments for January.) This option allows you to then post payments for January and is recommended for those towns with a 2016P02 due date in January. However, be aware that once you close you will not be able to post payments with a payment date prior to January.
2. Leave your books open and close by January 10^th: By law, you can leave your books open for ten days into the next fiscal year, in order to post any payments you receive for December. Keep in mind that you should only be processing payments during this time, not assigning credits or posting abatements. All other transactions should have been completed prior to year-end. Note, this option will not allow you to post January payments until after you have closed your fiscal year.

It is up to you on which option you prefer, but remember that if you balance and run your reports on December 31^st and subsequently post a payment or process any transaction (assign a credit, process an abatement, delete a transaction) you will need to rerun your reports. Note, if you do any work after December 31^st and want it to be reflected on your Monthly Balance Report you will need to call us in order to recapture your December report.

Lastly, we have also provided documents that review in more details instructions for reviewing/submitting your MS-61, instructions for creating a backup of your data, and how to Close Period.