Close the year and get ready for the members’ meeting

Lock every month of the year

A closed year stands on locked months. Work the routine for any month still open — statement in, matched, proved, questions answered, locked — until all twelve stand locked. A month locked with exceptions named carries those exceptions on its record into the close, where they stay visible.

(Done on the Routine page.)

Make the pack for the accountant

The pack is the year’s books in one sealed bundle. It holds the statements, the entries behind them, and a fingerprint. The fingerprint proves the copy the accountant works on is the copy the society holds.

It carries the budget comparison and the cover note, where the month’s not-sure answers have been gathering all year. A law note rides in the detail. The society files a T2 return every year, exemption or not. The pack is what the accountant files it from.

(Done on the Packs page.)

Give the pack to the accountant

The pack leaves the app as a sealed file, handed over the society’s chosen way. The seal scrambles the file. It does not prove who sealed it. So with the sealed file, send the passphrase and the pack’s fingerprint by a different route.

The accountant checks the fingerprint inside the opened pack against the one sent separately. How it travels is the society’s setup choice. That it travelled, and when, is worth a line in the board’s minutes.

An accountant who needs to look at the books is invited as a person and given the Read only role, like anyone else.

(Done on the by hand page.)

Bring the accountant’s changes in when they come back

The accountant returns a file of proposed changes. Bring it in here. The app checks it against the pack it came from: the fingerprint, the balances, the accounts. A file that fails its checks imports nothing. A file can never be brought in twice.

Nothing in it lands in the books on arrival: each change becomes a proposal, waiting.

(Done on the Adjustments page.)

Decide each change, one by one

Each change is decided on its own: what it moves, from where, to where, and why. There is no approve-all for these — changes the accountant proposes touch the statements the members will read, and each one earns its own yes.

A change a director cannot decide waits for one who can. Approved changes for a locked year post through the year-end route when the year closes.

(Done on the Adjustments page.)

Close the year

The close asks its three questions: every month locked, a pack standing, no change undecided. When they stand, close the year. From here the year’s figures are the society’s published figures. A mistake found later is corrected the honest way: a dated entry in an open period that says what it fixes.

(Done on the Year end page.)

Make the pack for the members’ meeting

A second pack, made for members rather than accountants. It holds the statements in plain order, the pay note and the budget appendix, marked as not part of the statements. It earns its name only if the meeting falls within the law’s window after the year end. The app withholds the name, never the pack.

(Done on the Packs page.)

A director signs the statements’ approval

The statements stand as a draft until a director signs their approval, and the signing is recorded here with the signer’s name. A law note rides. The statements the members receive are the statements the board approved. Approval first, then the meeting, never the other way around.

(Done on the Year end page.)

Hold the members’ meeting

The members hear the year: the statements, the pay note, the elections, the next year’s business. If a mistake in the statements surfaces here, it is corrected in the open books afterwards, as the close step said.

(Done on the by hand page.)

File the year’s registry filing

After the meeting, the society files the year’s registry filing, within the window its province’s law sets. In BC, the annual report goes to BC Registries, inside 30 days after the meeting. In Ontario, the annual return with the Ontario Business Registry, inside six months after the year end.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the annual return goes to the Registry of Companies, in the corporation’s anniversary month. In Prince Edward Island, the annual return goes to the Corporate Registry, by the registration’s expiry date.

In Nova Scotia, the annual statements go to the Registry of Joint Stock Companies inside fourteen days after the meeting. In New Brunswick, the annual return goes to the Corporate Registry within the month after the anniversary month.

In Manitoba, the annual return goes to the Companies Office by the end of the month after the month of incorporation. In Saskatchewan, the annual return and the financial statements go to the Corporate Registry together, seven months after the fiscal year end.

In Alberta, the annual return goes to the Corporate Registry by the end of the month after the anniversary month. In Yukon, the annual report goes to the registrar inside thirty days after the annual general meeting.

In the Northwest Territories, the annual filing goes to the Registrar of Societies inside fourteen days after the annual general meeting. In Nunavut, the annual filing goes to the Registrar of Societies inside fourteen days after the annual general meeting.

In Quebec, the annual updating declaration goes to the Registraire des entreprises in the period its regulation sets, and the province’s own tax return, form CO-17.SP, goes to Revenu Québec within six months after the year end. The filing is the registry’s form, filed the registry’s way.

The app’s part was making sure the meeting happened with true statements in front of it. The filing’s own task walks it, province by province.

(Done on the by hand page.)