How to close the fiscal year (results clearing)

What is it for?

The year-end closing works out the year's result, moves it to retained earnings and closes the year to further changes. fiscaldoo brings it all together in one dashboard, the Year-end closing, with the steps in legal order and the checks the accounts must pass.

The closing is done once a year. The monthly closings prepare it: see How to close the month's accounts.

When to use it?

• At the start of the following year, when the year has ended and the adjustment journal entries have been made.
• During the year, only to simulate the result and find out the likely profit or loss.
• Do not use the closing to correct journal entries: once closed, the year refuses them. Correct before closing.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Close › Year-end closing › Year-end closing panel. The Accountant does not see this menu: the Year-end closing group appears to the Certified accountant, Auditor and Management profiles, and to the administrator.

Before you start

• Up to Prepare the company income tax return (Model 22), the profile is Certified accountant. Approve the accounts, Move the result to retained earnings and Submit the IES / SAF-T are for the administrator only (or for whoever has the extra Fiscal administration access, which no value of the Profile field gives): with the Certified accountant profile, the dashboard says “Only Fiscal Administration can do this step.” and there is no Do it now.
• The previous fiscal year is closed (the dashboard confirms: The previous year is already closed).
• The year has ended. Before 31/12, the accounts cannot be approved (see “Common problems”).
• The monthly closings are done and withholding tax paid (How to close the month's accounts). VAT still to settle and bank lines still to reconcile appear on the dashboard and are dealt with in the steps below.

How to use it

Prepare and work out the result

1. Open the dashboard and choose the Fiscal Year (in the example, 2026 · Open, from 01/01/2026 to 31/12/2026). The dashboard says “The closing has not started yet” and has the buttons Start the closing, Close the fiscal year (disabled), Simulate the result and Open the year record.
2. To anticipate the result without posting anything, click Simulate the result. The window shows the Provisional Income Statement: in the example, Sales and Services €38,393.00, Personnel Costs €56,076.97 and Result Before Tax -€59,331.84. The detail is in How to simulate the result. Click Cancel.
3. Click Start the closing. The dashboard changes to “6 thing(s) to do before the year can be closed.”, shows the Next step and splits the points: Fix first (the two red ones in What the accounts say) and Still to do (the four closing steps that count).
4. In What the accounts say, resolve the red points, using See the list next to each one. In the example: post the four 2026 drafts (the deferral of supplier invoice FTF/2026/00045 and its recognitions from October to December) and deal with the two bank lines, a €12.50 fee and a €380.00 transfer (How to reconcile bank transactions). The dashboard changes to “4 thing(s) to do”.
5. Click Confirm it is done on the Confirm that nothing is left to enter step. The dashboard changes to “3 thing(s) to do”.
6. Click Confirm it is done on Year-end adjustments. While the system sees work still to do, the dashboard shows the box “That step could not be done…” with the list of what is missing, and the step does not move on. Resolve what the list shows. In the example:
   • Missing depreciation (“Depreciation: Edifício da loja (Porto) - 1 depreciation period(s) of the year are planned but not processed…”). Click Go and do it, Simulate and, once you have seen the charges (in the example, 6 assets and €12,511.67 of accounting depreciation), Confirm. Journal entries for future months stay scheduled: in Open the year record, click Publish scheduled entries.
   • Inventory (“…the cost of goods sold proposal CMVMC from 01/01/2026 to 31/12/2026 is still a draft: post it or cancel it.”). In Supporting lists › Cost of goods sold, open the proposal, click Post and confirm. Go back to the dashboard and click Confirm it is done again. The dashboard changes to “2 thing(s) to do”.
7. In VAT fully settled, click Do it now. The Settle the VAT window shows the period (01/09/2026 – 31/12/2026), the Deductible VAT (2432) of €973.16, the Liquidated VAT (2433) of -€1,567.50 and, in plain words, “To pay to the State: €594.34”. Click Post the settlement. The settlement page opens, with the journal entry: go back to the dashboard.
8. The Next step becomes Estimate the company income tax (IRC), which is optional: it does not count among the points to resolve. If you want to do it, click Do it now. The window warns: “This is an ESTIMATE of the IRC, not the Model 22.” Enter the Tax Corrections and the Autonomous Taxation and click Confirm. In the example, with a loss and both amounts at €0.00, the estimate is €0.00 and creates no journal entry.
9. In Work out the result of the year, click Do it now and, in the Results clearing window, Confirm. If you did not estimate the IRC, the window warns: “The income tax (IRC) has not been estimated: if you work out the result now, the net result of the year will be the result before tax. Estimate the IRC first (it posts the entry in 812 / 241) or skip that step giving the reason.” The dashboard has no button to skip the step: either you estimate, or you confirm knowing this. The results clearing journal entry opens: go back to the dashboard. The state changes to Being closed and the dashboard says “Everything is ready: you can close the year.”

Close, approve and submit

1. Click Close the fiscal year. If the IRC step was left undone, the box “Some points are still open. They do not stop the closing, but you have to accept them:” appears first, with that step on the list. Not yet leaves it on the dashboard, where you can still estimate; Close the year anyway carries on. In the Close fiscal year window, read the warning: “Closing raises the company lock date to the end date of the fiscal year. Entries dated up to that day can no longer be posted or changed.” Write the Reason, if you want (without it, the closing goes ahead anyway), and click Close fiscal year. The dashboard changes to “This year is closed.”
2. Prepare the IRC return and click Confirm it is done on the Prepare the company income tax return (Model 22) step. The button does not check whether the return exists: in the example, it accepted with no 2026 Form 22 (Modelo 22).
3. As the administrator (or with the extra Fiscal administration access), in Approve the accounts, click Do it now. Fill in the Approval Date (today's comes by default) and the Minute / Number, for example Ata n.º 12, and click Confirm. With another profile, the dashboard says “Only Fiscal Administration can do this step.” The date in the example, 31/03/2027, is later than the demonstration's date: use the real date of the minutes.
4. In Move the result to retained earnings, click Do it now. If the following fiscal year does not exist yet, the window says “The fiscal year that follows does not exist yet. It will be created from 01/01/2027 to 31/12/2027.” Click Confirm. The journal entry gets the approval date and the following fiscal year becomes Open. The dashboard now opens on that fiscal year: to continue, choose 2026 · Closed again in Fiscal Year.
5. Submit the IES and the SAF-T on the Tax Portal (Portal das Finanças) (How to prepare and submit the IES). Then, in Submit the IES / SAF-T, click Do it now. fiscaldoo submits nothing in this step, it only records it: in the Record submission window, type the Submission Reference and check the Submission Date. The window warns: “A submitted fiscal year can never be reopened and no exception allows entries in it.” Click Confirm.

Expected result

• In the simulation: no journal entry.

• After Submit the IES / SAF-T: every step is done and the dashboard no longer shows the Next step.

• The fiscal year record keeps the approval (in the example, 31/03/2027 and Ata n.º 12). The Opening entry field stays empty: the software does not create an opening journal entry in the following fiscal year.

• The year's result is worked out and the fiscal year closed. Example, the demonstration's 2026 fiscal year, checked in the ledger (result before tax of -€70,098.48, that is, a loss):

  Journal entry	Date	Lines
  OD/2026/00114 to 00119, one per asset (the building example)	31/12/2026	Debit 6422 Buildings and other constructions 3,700.00; Credit 4382 Buildings and other constructions 3,700.00. The other assets use accounts 6424, 6425 and 6433 (the software licence, an intangible asset, is amortised)
  OD/2026/00120 2026 CMVMC	31/12/2026	Debit 321 Goods 480.00; Credit 611 Goods 480.00
  OD/2026/00121 VAT settlement	31/12/2026	Credit 2432 VAT - Deductible 973.16 and Debit 2435 VAT - Settlement 973.16; Debit 2433 VAT - Output 1,567.50 and Credit 2435 1,567.50; Debit 2435 594.34 and Credit 2436 VAT - Payable 594.34
  APR/2026/00001 “Apuramento de resultados 2026 (1/3)”	31/12/2026	Credit, per expense account: 611 10,620.00; 6221 10,932.87; 6224 3,150.00; 6226 302.47; 6228 12.50; 6241 1,890.00; 6261 8,100.00; 6262 855.00; 632 45,314.67; 635 10,762.30; 6422 3,700.00; 6424 6,125.00; 6425 3,140.00; 6433 1,466.67; 6871 2,500.00. Debit, per income account: 711 30,670.50; 721 7,722.50; 7888 380.00. Debit 811 Result before tax 70,098.48
  APR/2026/00002 “Apuramento de resultados 2026 (3/3)”	31/12/2026	Credit 811 Result before tax 70,098.48; Debit 818 Net result 70,098.48
  ENC/2027/00001 “Transferência do resultado 2026”	31/03/2027	Debit 561 Retained earnings 70,098.48; Credit 818 Net result 70,098.48

  There is no journal entry 2/3: it would be the one for the estimated income tax, here €0.00. With a profit, the sides are reversed: in the results clearing, Debit 811 and Credit 818 (in the demonstration, APR/2025/00002, €31,104.16); in the transfer, Debit 818 and Credit 561. Pending validation by a certified accountant: accounts and journal entries for the results clearing and the transfer (SNC), opening of the following fiscal year without its own journal entry, estimate and settlement of IRC before closing, date of approval of the accounts (within the legal deadline) and IES submission deadline.

Important notes

Closing and recording the submission lock the year

After Close fiscal year, the year refuses journal entries. After Record submission, the fiscal year can never be reopened and no exception allows journal entries in it. Confirm the accounts with the certified accountant before these two steps.

• The system does not see everything. The adjustments check depreciation, deferrals and inventory. Impairments and provisions are not seen by the system: the accountant confirms them. A green step does not prove they are done.
• The estimated IRC goes into the result. The return is prepared separately (How to prepare the IRC return).
• The year-end inventory has its own communication (How to communicate the annual inventory to the AT).

Common problems

The “Close the fiscal year” button is disabled

• Symptom: the button is grey even after Start the closing, and the dashboard says “6 thing(s) to do before the year can be closed.”
• Cause: there are red checks in What the accounts say or steps in Still to do.
• What to do: open each check with See the list and do the steps shown, from top to bottom.

I do not see “Year-end closing” in the Close menu

• Cause: your profile is Accountant, which only sees the Month accounting group.
• What to do: ask the Certified accountant to do the year-end closing.

“Confirm it is done” does not move on in the adjustments

• Symptom: the step stays undone and the dashboard shows the box “That step could not be done. Step 'Regularizações: depreciações, diferimentos, imparidades, provisões, inventário' cannot be confirmed yet: the system still sees work to do in the year…”, with a list.
• Cause: there is unprocessed depreciation, draft deferrals or a draft CMVMC proposal.
• What to do: resolve each point on the list (step 6 of “Prepare and work out the result”) and confirm again.

“The accounts of 2026 cannot be approved before the end of the fiscal year (31/12/2026).”

• Cause: the Approval Date is before the end of the fiscal year. The date shown in the window is today's, so this happens when you try it before the year ends.
• What to do: type the date of the minutes.

“Some required fields are empty.”

• Cause: the Minute / Number in Approve the accounts, or the Submission Reference in Record submission, is missing.
• What to do: fill in the field marked in red.

After closing, I cannot post anything in 2026

• Symptom: “The fiscal year 2026 (01/01/2026 to 31/12/2026) is closed: you cannot create the journal entry (new, unsaved) dated 01/11/2026. Why: a closed fiscal year is locked so that accounts already approved do not change. How to fix it: record it in an open fiscal year or, if it really is necessary, ask Fiscal administration for an exception with a reason (Accounting › Close › Year-end closing › Year-end closing panel › Lock dates and exceptions).”
• Cause: the closing raises the lock date to the end of the fiscal year.
• What to do: post in the following fiscal year, or ask the administrator for the exception (the message says “Fiscal administration”), if the submission has not been recorded yet.