Preparing for end of financial year (EOFY)

EOFY is a word with the particular power to strike fear in the hearts of property managers. But, it doesn’t have to! With a bit of preparation and the right mindset, even a first-timer can close out the financial year with confidence and ease.

And no matter which trust accounting and Property Management software you’re using, we’ve got you covered this EOFY.

Pre-EOFY checklist for every PM

Regardless of which trust accounting software, you’re using, generally, there’ll be a few things you’ll need to have done before you can start closing out the financial year.

Make sure you:

• Enter all invoices and payments up to and including June 30 in your software
• Receipt all incoming funds, up to and including June 30
• Reconcile and balance your accounts
• Run your banking, to ensure all funds have been accounted for, and
• Otherwise, be ready to close out the month and year in your trust accounting software.

If you’re a Console customer, read on to learn more about closing out the financial year in the software product that you use.

EOFY in Console Cloud

If this is your first EOFY in Console Cloud, you’re about to be pleasantly surprised. First up, make sure you complete the following pre-EOFY steps, as follows:

1. Enter all invoices and payments up to and including 30 June into Console Cloud.
2. Receipt all incoming funds, up to and including any applicable at 30 June.
3. Complete your reconciliation, ensuring your figures are in balance.
4. Run your banking, and double-check that all funds here have been accounted for, and then
5. Complete your June end of month close and disbursement.

All you need to do now is access and send financial year statements.

Here’s how:

1. From the main menu, go Accounts > Reports > Financial Year Statements.
2. Select the financial year you’ve just completed.
3. You can then choose to do the following:

• Send all statements in bulk, to all owners (your traditional end of the financial year)
• Download all statements in bulk, for all owners
• Send statements for individual owners
• Download statements for individual owners

You will be able to send your statements for any previously completed financial year, as well as send out ‘year to date’ statements with the same options.

With year to date statements, please note that if you select the ‘current’ financial year and send statements, your owner/s will get a ‘year to date’ statement only, that may not include details for the whole financial year. This is very useful for finalising lost managements but is not the correct option for EOFY.

All Owners

Download all statements:

1. Select ‘Financial year statements’
2. Select the financial year
3. All owners
4. Download all statements.

The financial statements will be downloaded as PDF files and zipped into one folder for you to access. To send statements to all owners:

1. Select ‘Financial year statements’
2. Select the financial year
3. Select all owners
4. Send statements to all owners.

Statements sent to all owners will be sent via email to any contacts who have email selected as a preferred contact option. For owners who have print selected for statement delivery, and those with email but have no saved email address, statements will be downloaded instead. You can then easily print and post.

NOTE:​ If a specific owner contact has multiple properties with you, and will receive multiple financial year statements with the bulk sending process, Console Cloud will collate these. That owner will receive one email with multiple statements attached.

Specific owners

Download statement:

1. Select ‘Financial year statements’
2. Select the financial year
3. Search for a specific owner by name or address
4. Select owner
5. Statement(s) will be downloaded as a pdf.

Send Statements:

1. Select ‘Financial year statements’
2. Select the financial year
3. Search for a specific owner by name or address
4. Select owner
5. Click on ‘Send statement(s)’.

Where owners have selected email as their preferred delivery method (and have included a valid email address), statements will be automatically delivered via ​email. Statements for owners who prefer print delivery or otherwise have no saved email addresses will ​download automatically​. From there, you can easily print and post, or email to the owner manually.

Completed EOFY bulk sending option

When you have successfully completed sending your financial year statements in bulk, you will get a success message showing a count of emails sent and statements downloaded. You will also see a message showing the date your statements were sent.

Send Again

You will have the ability to send again and download the statements after they’ve been sent the first time.
‘Send again’ is located in the green box confirming the date the statements were sent. When clicking on ‘send again’ you will get prompted with a pop-up asking to confirm. Confirming will result in these statements being re-sent in bulk to all owners (so, potentially a second time). Please be careful when using this option!

Owner portal: How to access financial year statements (steps for owners)

1. Access and log into the owner portal via owner.console.com.au (you must have sent the invite and the owner must have set their login up)
2. Click statements
3. Click the End of Financial Year filter box
4. Find the relevant statement and click on the options button (3 little dots)
5. Select View to view online or download to save a copy of the statement to your computer.

FAQ

When will I be able to download my financial year statements?
You will be able to download and financial year statement at any time of the year. There are no restrictions. Please note, however, that if you do send statements before closing out June, you may potentially miss transactions and payments on your statements. This would be less than ideal.

Will I be able to download financial year statements from the owner portal?
No, but your owner will be able to! The owner portal is designed to keep your owner's statements and information bundled together for their easy 24/7 access. You will be able to access financial statements from your end by navigating in Console Cloud to Accounts > reports > Financial year statements.

Will I have to close the year before sending the End of Financial year statements?
It will not be required, no. But we ​strongly ​suggest you go through the EOFY checklist before starting the EOFY process.

Course: End of financial year in Cloud (FREE) in Nebula

This course will cover a range of lessons and provide you with the information you need to prepare for the end of the financial year in Console Cloud
You must register for Console Nebula to take the course (free)

Webinar (on demand): Getting ready for the End of financial year (FREE)

This session will cover:
1. What is a financial year statement
2. How does a financial year work in Console Cloud
3. Sending individual statement, bulk downloads, emailing, and printing
4. What are dissections?
5. How to charge EOFY statement fees
6. Preparing for EOFY
7. Trial print run.

EOFY in Gateway

This one’s a matter of completing the pre-EOFY checklist below, and then running through the screens in Gateway’s Disbursement Wizard.

Pre-EOFY steps for Gateway

Make sure you’ve completed the following tasks before running the Disbursement Wizard:

1. All invoices and pending payments received on or before June 30 have been entered into Gateway.
2. All funds paid into your trust account from the previous working day have been receipted.
3. Run your banking. Place a hold on any cheques that haven’t cleared. To place a hold on uncleared cheques, go Tools > Options > Disbursements. Tick the ‘Pending payments’ box.
4. Take a back-up of your database and name it ‘Backup [date] pre EOFY [year]’.
5. Complete a trial print run.
6. Correct any dissections that have been allocated incorrectly, and
7. Run the reconciliation wizard, making sure your accounts are in balance before you proceed.

N.B. We strongly recommend your account be in balance before closing out the financial year in Gateway. If you cannot reconcile and balance your account, we recommend consulting your auditor before proceeding.

Then run EOFY with a monthly disbursement, using the Disbursement Wizard. For more detailed instructions on how to do this and what options to select, visit www.myconsole.com.au’s EOFY resources page.

EOFY in RPO

Like other Property Management and trust accounting software, running EOFY in RPO is a matter of completing a pre-EOFY checklist, and running your financial year reports.

Pre-EOFY steps for RPO

1. Enter all invoices and pending payments received on or before 30 June.
2. Receipt all funds paid into your trust from previous working day(s).
3. Run your banking.
4. Complete a trial print run.
5. Allocate and correct any dissections required for financial year statements.
6. Reconcile and ensure your account(s) is/are in balance.
7. Take a backup of your database.

N.B. As with Gateway, we strongly recommend you be in balance before proceeding. Ready to run EOFY in RPO? You can find full detailed instructions on how to close out the year and send statements here.

And finally: creating the right mindset for EOFY success

Prepare to be even more on the ball than usual for the month of June. Draw up an EOFY plan, and make sure everyone knows what it is. Then make it your mission this month to hunt down any possible unresolved issues, errors, double-ups, reconciliation problems—and so on—and resolve them ahead of time.

You’ll also be better prepared if you mentally walk through everything that needs to be done in your head by doing a very close read-through of any checklists. Imagine any resources you think you might need, right down to stationery supplies, and plan for it.

And finally, when EOFY is successfully closed out, celebrate! It’s the end of a year. If you’re in charge, it’s time to thank your hard-working staff and reward them if you can. Then it’s time for a final mental reset: what are your new financial year goals? Identify what went well for you last year, and what didn’t, and plan for an even more successful new year.

Wondering what to read next? Here’s the ultimate pre-holiday checklist for property managers, or find out what the five qualities of highly effective property management software migrations are.