CAMS to streamline financial year closing for cooperative societies

The financial year closing for cooperative societies is near. It is when their management committee prepares financial accounts to give a true and fair view of their financial position. They also need to keep proper transaction logs and reports to ensure compliance.  

However, closing accounts demands high manual efforts, from reviewing transactions to creating financial statements. This leads to operational inefficiencies and calculation errors.  

Our Credit Association Management System (CAMS) is designed to minimize manual calculations and streamline the process of financial year closing.  

Learn more about how CAMS helps cooperative societies like SACCOs and microfinance institutions by contacting us. Click on the button below and we will reach out.  

CAMS allows cooperatives to review and reconcile transactions and prepare financial statements for a more efficient year-end process. 

Review transactions 

Recording and reviewing transactions is crucial for cooperatives to create accurate financial reports. CAMS allows them to review transactions quickly and efficiently to avoid any discrepancies. By reviewing missing transactions, cooperatives can enhance the accuracy and reliability of your financial statement, paving the way for a seamless and error-free financial year closing. Here are the steps to record missing transactions.  

1. Login to CAMS and go to Ledgers > Transactions
2. Select the Account Type and Transaction Type.
3. Search the member’s name under Credit Account.
4. For Savings and Shares, fill in The Depositors Name and other necessary transaction details.
5. Select the Debit Account, fill in the amount and click Submit. 

Reconcile transactions 

Reconciliation is a key step in the financial year closing process. With proper reconciliation, cooperatives can ensure that transaction records in CAMS accurately reflect the transactions in their bank statement. 

CAMS offers a dedicated functionality to reconcile transactions. With it, cooperatives can ensure that transaction amounts, dates, and descriptions align accurately without any errors. 

1. Login to CAMS and go to Ledgers > General Ledgers.
2. From the top menu, go to reports > reconcile.
3. On the reconciliation screen, select the ledger from the drop-down menu. All the transactions will appear on the screen.
4. Click the checkbox of respective transactions to verify.
5. Once verified, click Reconcile to reconcile transactions. 

Reconciliation statement 

CAMS also offers a reconciliation statement that users can easily download or print. This statement ensures that transactions are correctly matched and there are no errors. Cooperatives can view and print the statement once the transactions are reconciled. 

Automate financial year closing 

CAMS automates the entire closing process by creating a new financial year. Cooperatives can use this feature to close all the current ledger accounts, generate the income statement, and create financial statements – all digitally, without much manual effort. Here are the steps to quickly create and apply the new financial year in CAMS. 

1. Login to CAMS and go to Ledgers > General Ledgers.
2. From the top menu, go to settings > financial year settings > add financial year.
3. Enter the year details and click submit.
4. Now, click on Change Financial Year and select the new year from the menu.
5. Click submit to confirm the changes. 

Owner’s equity distribution 

CAMS also helps cooperatives to distribute owner’s equity automatically based on the percentages defined in the settings. Users can set the percentages for respective funds and reserves for automatic distribution during the financial year closing process.  

Moving ahead to 2024 

As cooperatives move deeper into the era of digitization, CAMS appears as a pivotal solution for SACCOs and MFIs. CAMS automates various processes including financial year closing to enhance the accuracy and reliability of financial statements. 

This minimizes manual efforts, reduces the likelihood of errors, and ensures a more efficient closure of financial accounts. By choosing CAMS, these cooperatives can navigate the year-end processes with confidence. To experience the true potential of the CAMS System, click on the button below and book a free demo.