Balmori Software Inc.

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What are the other two irreversible procedures in the accounting cycle?

They are: the end-of period closing (marked as 2 in the illustration), and the end-of-year closing (marked as 3 in the illustration).

But, good news, there is little point to backing up your data before these two steps. If you religiously back up before the posting procedure, then you are already fine.

For example, let's say you realized, just after doing end-of-month or end-of-year closing, that you had made a clerical mistake in your data inputting. To correct it, you would still need to go to the back-up you created just before posting (the procedure marked as 1 in the illustration).

Why is it - in the case of general ledger accounting - unnecessary to back up at points 2 and 3 in the flowchart?

Three reasons: First, both these "end-of" procedures perform further (automatic) operations on data that has already been posted - and therefore already uneditable. Restoring data to either "pre-end-of" state will get you data that is ... still uneditable.

Therefore, for our stated purpose of correcting an encoding error, there is no benefit in making back-ups just before points 2 and 3.

Second, both these "end-of" procedures are entirely automatic and take mere seconds to execute. Once you've restored your data to pre-posted state, and then correct what needs to be corrected, you can post the corrected data, then do the end-of-month or end-of-year procedure in a few painless seconds.

Third, it's not a good idea to be juggling three different back-ups made at three different points in the accounting cycle, especially if two out of those three back-ups are totally useless anyway for the purpose we are contemplating here. You, or some new hire, are guaranteed to mix up these back-ups within the first couple of weeks.)

Bottom line: Religiously create your back-ups right before the posting procedure (point 1 in the illustration).




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