What it is
The month is closed twelve times a year; the fiscal year, once. Closing the fiscal year creates the closing póliza (journal entry): it zeroes out the income statement accounts and moves the year's profit or loss to the equity account your accountant chose. That is what makes next January's opening balance correct.
How the closing póliza is built
- It is dated December 31, with the description Cierre del ejercicio (year-end close) and the year.
- Income statement accounts are those whose grouping code (código agrupador) from the SAT, Mexico's tax authority, starts with 4, 5, 6 or 7: revenue, cost of sales, expenses and comprehensive financing result.
- Each one is offset against its own balance for the year: a revenue account is debited and an expense account is credited.
- The difference is the result: a profit is credited to the equity account and a loss is debited to it.
- It is the only póliza allowed into a closed month: December is closed first and the closing póliza is posted on top.
Before you start: the equity account
The base chart of accounts has no equity accounts. In Catálogo de cuentas (chart of accounts), create a credit-nature, posting-level equity account for retained earnings (for example, 304-01 Utilidad de ejercicios anteriores, with grouping code 304.01) and type resultado_ejercicios_anteriores in the Papel en la póliza (role in the póliza) field. Without that account, Containn will not let you close the year.
Step by step
- Close every month of the year that had pólizas, ending with December (month-end close).
- Open Containn → Cierre de mes (month close) and choose the Año (year).
- In the Ejercicio (fiscal year) panel, review the result, how many accounts will be closed out and which account receives the profit.
- Click Cerrar el ejercicio (close the fiscal year). The screen confirms the result and how many accounts were closed out.
You need the Cerrar el mes contable permission (close the accounting month) or Configurar el catálogo y el mapeo (set up the chart and the mapping).
What Containn checks
- That the months of the year with pólizas are closed; if not, it tells you which ones are missing.
- That there are results to close out.
- That the destination account for the profit exists.
- That the fiscal year is not already closed.
What can go wrong
- Closing too early. Containn checks that the months with pólizas are closed, not that the year is over. Close the fiscal year once December is closed.
- An adjustment after the close. If you reopen a month of a closed fiscal year and post something, the closing póliza does not pick it up. Reopen the fiscal year too and close it again when you are done (reopening).
- The closing póliza is not canceled by hand. It is canceled automatically when you reopen the fiscal year, and the income statement accounts get their balances back.