RE: Property & Liability Insurance New Year Procedures

The process to open a new year in PAL uses a set of procedures that are done only once each year.  These procedures are described below.

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• The new year procedures should NOT be started until you have entered all payments for 2008.  If you open 2009 and then have additional 2008 payments to enter, you will have to enter those 2008 payments as 2009 business using the payment adjustment procedures.
• The new procedures should NOT be started until all 2009 premiums have been imported/entered and verified.

If you have any questions on the procedures, receive any errors or see anomalies, then please contact Lori Smith (lori@greatspirit.com) or Bill Johnson (bull@greatspirit.com).

Here is the step-by-step process to follow:

1. Go to the PAL section on the left of the main screen in MissionBase.
2. Click the “Start New Year” eagle button.
3. A series of buttons will load in the area where the regular monthly billing process is done.  At the top of the buttons, you will see the words “Start New Year” and a box which says “For the Year”.  The box should show 2009.  If not, then change it to 2009.
4. Click the “Open A New PAL Year” button which will initialize the 2009 database tables.
5. The "Create Balance Forwards" button should now be enabled.  When you are ready, click it.  The balances from 2008 will be calculated and a balance forward batch will be created and posted.  See Note #1 below if you would like a list of balances before creating the balance forward batch.
6. When the balance forwards are done, click the "Create Annual Property Invoices" and the 2009 property insurance invoices will be created and posted.
7. SOUTHWEST TEXAS CONFERENCE ONLY:

• Click the "Create Annual WC Invoices" to create and post the 2009 workers compensation invoices.
• Click the “Create Annual Property Discounts” button to create and post the discounts for property insurance.
• Click the “Create Annual WC Discounts” button to create and post the discounts for workers compensation insurance.

8. When you are done, you will have two to five batches, all dated 1/1/2009.
9. The "Open A New PAL Year" will be enabled again.  Do NOT click it at this point.  Simply click one of the other eagle buttons to the left, or click the "Close" button at the upper left of the main MissionBase window.

Notes:

• To see a list of the current PAL balances that would be brought forward, run the “Current Entity Balances” report from the reports tree.  Be sure to use an as of date of 12/31/2008, which will pick up all transactions for the year in the calculating the balances.  This list can be used to enter adjustment transactions for any entity whose balance needs to be “written off.”
• You may leave the new year process before it is completed.  However, when returning to it, make sure the “For the Year” box has 2009 in it.  If there is some year other than 2009, simply enter 2009 in the box and process will return to where you previously were.
• For all batches created in steps 5, 6, and 7, you will be asked if you want to print the batch after it is done generating.  Answering “yes” will preview the report to the screen like any other report you do.  You then have the option to print a paper copy of the report.  If you decide not to print the report at this time, simply note the batch number and then you can use the batch report in the reports tree to print it at a later time.