Start a New Financial Year in NexWave

Use this guide when your business is approaching the start of a new financial year and you need NexWave to accept transactions, reports, budgets, and exchange rates for the new period.

This is a finance administration workflow. It does not replace accountant review, tax filing work, or your internal month-end close process.

Before you start

You need:

A user role that can create and edit Fiscal Year, Currency Exchange, Accounting Period, and Period Closing Voucher records.
The legal start and end dates for the new financial year.
The list of Companies that should be able to post transactions in the new year.
Opening exchange rates if your company uses more than one currency.
Accountant confirmation before closing the prior year.

Do not wait until a user is blocked on a transaction. Review the new year before the first posting date in that year.

Step 1: Check whether NexWave already created the year

NexWave can automatically create the next Fiscal Year three days before the current year ends. The automatically created year copies the current year's Companies table and Disabled setting.

Search for Fiscal Year.
Open the Fiscal Year list.
Look for the new period, for example 2026-2027.
Open it and review:
- Year Name
- Year Start Date
- Year End Date
- Companies
- Disabled
- Auto Created

If the new year already exists and the dates and companies are correct, continue to Step 3.

Step 2: Create the Fiscal Year manually if needed

Create the year manually if it does not exist, if you are setting up ahead of the automatic creation window, or if your business uses a short or long financial year.

Search for Fiscal Year.
Click New.
Enter Year Name, for example 2026-2027.
Set Year Start Date and Year End Date.
Add each relevant company in Companies.
Leave Disabled unticked for a year that users should be able to post into.
Tick Is Short/Long Year only when the year is not exactly twelve months.
Save.

Fiscal Year setup showing dates and company access

For most New Zealand companies, the year runs from 1 April to 31 March. For most Australian companies, the year runs from 1 July to 30 June. Confirm the dates for your own company before saving.

Step 3: Confirm transaction posting is allowed

Before users start entering transactions for the new year, test the setup without posting real work:

Open a new draft transaction for the company, such as a Sales Invoice, Purchase Invoice, or Journal Entry.
Set Posting Date to the first day of the new financial year.
Confirm the document saves as a draft without a fiscal-year error.
Delete the draft test document if it is not needed.

If the document is blocked, return to the Fiscal Year record and check the date range, Companies table, and Disabled checkbox.

Step 4: Update exchange rates for the new year

If the company uses foreign currency transactions or reports in another currency, add opening Currency Exchange records for the new year.

Search for Currency Exchange.
Click New.
Set Date to the effective date for the rate.
Select From Currency and To Currency.
Enter Exchange Rate.
Tick For Buying or For Selling if the rate is intended for those transaction flows.
Save.

Currency Exchange form showing an opening USD to NZD rate

Create the rates your reporting and transaction processes need. For example, a New Zealand company reporting foreign sales may need rates from the foreign currency to NZD; an Australian company reporting BAS in AUD may need relevant AUD rates for the reporting period.

Step 5: Review budgets and recurring settings

After the Fiscal Year exists, review any records that are tied to a year:

Budgets: create the new year's budget records or copy the prior year's structure.
Monthly Distribution: confirm the allocation pattern still matches the new year.
Auto Email Report records: check report filters that refer to a specific Fiscal Year.
Recurring invoices, subscriptions, or scheduled reports: check date ranges if they were set for the prior year only.

This step prevents users from seeing blank reports or posting against old budget controls after the new year starts.

Step 6: Keep the prior year open until review is complete

Creating a new Fiscal Year does not close the previous year. That is intentional. You may still need to post supplier bills, customer credits, bank reconciliation adjustments, depreciation, payroll corrections, or tax adjustments for the prior year.

Use this practical sequence:

Create and confirm the new Fiscal Year before users need it.
Continue completing month-end and year-end checks for the prior year.
Run key reports for the prior year, such as Trial Balance Report, Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet Report, and tax reports.
Ask your accountant to confirm the closing entries and retained earnings treatment.
Only then decide whether to post a Period Closing Voucher or lock the year with Accounting Period.

Do not create a Period Closing Voucher just because the calendar changed. Use it when the accounts are ready to close.

Step 7: Close or lock the prior year when ready

There are two different controls, and they serve different purposes.

Control	Use it when	Key fields to review
Period Closing Voucher	You are ready to close profit and loss balances into the closing account for a completed period.	Fiscal Year, Company, Period Start Date, Period End Date, Closing Account Head, Remarks
Accounting Period	You want to block new or cancelled transactions in a date range after review.	Period Name, Start Date, End Date, Company, Closed Documents

For Period Closing Voucher, the Closing Account Head must be a liability or equity account in the company currency. NexWave also checks that the prior year is closed before later-year closing vouchers are created.

For Accounting Period, review Closed Documents carefully. It controls which document types are blocked for the selected dates.

Accounting Period form showing closed document controls

Step 8: Confirm reporting after setup

After the new year is created and any opening settings are updated:

Run Trial Balance Report for the first month of the new year.
Run Profit and Loss Statement with Filter Based On set to Fiscal Year.
Run Balance Sheet Report at the new year start date.
If you file GST or BAS, open the relevant tax report and confirm the date range and currency rates.
Check that no report is unexpectedly filtering to the old financial year.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely cause	What to do
A transaction says the date is not in any active Fiscal Year	The year does not exist, is disabled, or does not include the company	Create or edit the Fiscal Year, check Year Start Date, Year End Date, Companies, and Disabled
The Fiscal Year overlaps another year	Two active years cover the same date range for the same company	Adjust the dates or restrict Companies so the overlap is removed
Reports still show the old year	The report filter is still set to the prior Fiscal Year	Change the Fiscal Year, From Date, or To Date filters before running the report
Foreign-currency reports use an unexpected rate	The required Currency Exchange record is missing or dated incorrectly	Add or update the Currency Exchange record for the reporting date
Users can still post to the prior year after review	The year exists, but no lock has been added	Create an Accounting Period for the prior year after accountant approval
A Period Closing Voucher cannot be created	The Period Start Date or Period End Date is wrong, the closing account is not valid, or a previous year still needs closing	Check the period dates, Closing Account Head, and prior-year close status