Fiscal periods must be set up for each year by creating a Fiscal Year for each Legal Entity. Different Legal Entities can run on different fiscal years. When Fiscal Years are created, they are validated to prevent gaps between years.
Within each Legal Entity, you can have a Financial Year different from an Operational Year if you want to run Operations Reports using a different setup than you might report to the bank or investors. This is common for companies that run financials on a Calendar Year but want to do operational analysis on weeks and across equal periods. To accomplish this, set up your fiscal year as Calendar and operational year as 13-4 week periods.
Set Up Years
There are three ways to set up years:
- Set Up Next Year
- Copy One Legal Entity Fiscal Year to Other Legal Entities
- No Fiscal Years Exist
Set Up Next Year (Assuming Prior Year Exists)
By default, the next year's Fiscal Year will be auto-generated 90 days before the end of the current Fiscal Year. However, there are circumstances where a new Fiscal Year is not automatically generated, such as:
- Current Fiscal Year was created less than 90 days before the end of the Fiscal Year
- Legal Entity has no Locations assigned
If a new Fiscal Year has not been auto-generated, follow these steps to manually generate the next year's Fiscal Year:
- Important Note: The Legal Entity must have a Location assigned to it before adding the Fiscal Year.
- Note: Fiscal Years can be created up to the year 2100
- To view existing Fiscal Years, click 'Fiscal Years' Under the 'Administration' tab in the Accounting module
- Open the most recent year for the desired Legal Entity by clicking the blue underlined name of the fiscal year or double clicking the row
- On the 'Fiscal Period Setup' window, hover over 'Action' in the top ribbon and click 'Create New Year'. This will create the next Fiscal Year using the same setup as the prior year for that Legal Entity
Copy One Legal Entity Fiscal Year to Other Legal Entities
If you have many Legal Entities and they share similar Fiscal Year setups, once you create one year, you can copy that to as many Legal Entities as you wish by following these steps:
- Open the fiscal year record you wish to copy by following steps 1-2 in the section above
- Hover over 'Action' in the top ribbon and click 'Duplicate for Other Legal Entity'
- In the window that opens, click the drop-down to select which Legal Entities share this same Fiscal Year setup
- After Legal Entities are selected, click outside of the drop-down list to close the list and then click 'OK' to create the Fiscal Years
No Fiscal Years Exist
If you have no Fiscal Years set up, then you’ll need to create the first one by following these steps:
- Hover over 'Administration' in the top ribbon and click 'New Fiscal Year'
- In the window that opens, populate the fields and then click 'Save'. Fiscal periods will then be created according to the setting you selected (fields described below)
Note: To verify that no Fiscal Years exist, view the list 'Fiscal Years' located under the 'Administration' tab in the Accounting module.
Description of Fields
1) Legal Entity - The legal entity this fiscal year pertains to. If some legal entities don't show in the dropdown list, it's likely due to security reasons, especially since security is location-based. Any Legal Entity that shows up in this screen must have a location assigned to it or the system won't be able to determine who should be able to access those Legal Entities' fiscal years.
2) Year - The year this record represents. This drop-down listing will only be available to use once a Legal Entity (#1) has been selected and will only include years that do not have a Fiscal Year created for the Legal Entity yet
3) Fiscal & Operational Combined Checkbox - If you want 2 separate fiscal year structures for a Legal Entity so reports can be run on a calendar year and other operational reports based on weeks and equal periods, then uncheck this box. By leaving it checked, you have 1 fiscal year structure.
- Note: When this is unchecked, fields show up for Operational Year settings that can be different than Fiscal Year
4) Fiscal Period Structure - The following period structures are possible:
- 13-4 - This will create 13 periods of 4 weeks each and will begin on the set Fiscal Start Date
- 4/4/5 - This will create periods of 4 weeks, 4 weeks, and 5 weeks in each quarter and will begin on the set Fiscal Start Date
- 4/5/4 - This will create periods of 4 weeks, 5 weeks, and 4 weeks in each quarter and will begin on the set Fiscal Start Date
- 5/4/4 - This will create periods of 5 weeks, 4 weeks, and 4 weeks in each quarter and will begin on the set Fiscal Start Date
- Calendar Months - Will setup periods according to calendar months. By selecting this option, the User will not need to set a Fiscal Start or End Date because those will follow the calendar year
- Custom Periods - Allows the User to specify the dates for each period as described further down in this training
5) Reporting Week - This will display the start and end days of an operational week, based on the date selected for the Fiscal Start Date, and will only appear when one of the following Fiscal Period Structures is chosen:
- 13-4
- 4/4/5
- 4/5/4
- 5/4/4
6) 52/53 Week Tax Year Checkbox - Based on the 13-4,4/4/5, 4/5/4, and 5/4/4 Fiscal Period Structures, checking this box will enable a 53rd week to be automatically included when an additional week it remains at the end of your Fiscal Year. This will only apply to a Fiscal Year. A drop-down selector will then appear for the User to select whether the last day of the Fiscal Year is one of the following:
- Whatever date this ending day of the week last occurs in a calendar month - This will set the end date as the last day of the last full week in a Calendar Month
- Whatever date this ending day of the week falls that is nearest to the last day of the calendar month- This will set the end date as the last day of the week ending nearest to month end
- Note: When the Fixed Asset Module is in use, depreciation should post as expected with no duplicate entries
7) Add an extra week - When checked, an additional 7 days will be added to the last period at the end of this year
8) Fiscal Start Date – If the Fiscal Period Structure is any option outside of the Calendar Months option, then the User must specify a Fiscal Start Date. The weekday of the Fiscal Start Date will determine the weekday that your fiscal weeks start on
9) Fiscal End Date – If the Fiscal Period Structure is Custom Periods, then the User must specify a Fiscal End Date. For other fiscal period structure types, this will be populated automatically after saving the record
10) Short Year – When checked, this marks the Fiscal Year as a Short Year, or less than 364 days. This should be used when a store was opened at some point during the year
- Note: This can only be checked when the Fiscal Period Structure is set to 'Custom Periods'. This checkbox does not apply to Operational Calendars unless 'Fiscal & Operational Combined' is checked and the Operational Year then matches the Fiscal Year
11) Advanced Close Status - If Advanced Close is enabled, this will indicate if there are open periods in the Legal Entity's Fiscal Year. 'Open' indicates that one or more periods are open. 'Closed' indicates that all periods are closed. Users with the following Permission will be able to click this button to open the 'Advanced Close Maintenance screen':
- Administration → Fiscal Years → View Fiscal Year Maintenance
12) Operational Year Fields – If 'Fiscal & Operational Combined' is not checked, then you will have identical fields in an Operational Year section that you have in the Fiscal Year section as described above. You can set the operational year differently than the fiscal year
13) Period Grid – Once the record has been saved, this grid shows the periods that have been created by the system. If 'Fiscal & Operational Combined' is not checked, then you will have 2 tabs (Financial and Operational) to view the periods according to each of those year types
When the Fiscal Year is saved, the system will first validate the setup to ensure that the Fiscal Year is between 364 and 371 days in length (52/53 weeks long). An error message will appear if the year is less than 364 days without the Short Year checkbox selected or more than 371 days, and the record will not be saved.
Custom Periods
If the Fiscal or Operational Period Structure is Custom Periods, then each period must be manually created in this section. To create Custom Periods, click the 'Edit' button just above the grid and enter information, including a period number (make sure this is a whole number), start date, end date, and period name. When finished, click 'Add'. Repeat this process until all periods have been entered and then click 'Edit Complete' just above the grid, and then 'Save'.
1) Financial - The entry grid for the Financial Calendar
2) Operational - The entry grid for the Operational Calendar
3) Period - The order of each period
4) Start - The beginning date of the period
5) End - The end date of the period
- Note: Ensure that there are no gaps in between the periods created either in a single year itself or in the reporting structure for a Legal Entity. Use the Fiscal Calendar report to assist in reviewing and confirming this for each year and each Legal Entity
6) Qtr - The quarter in which this period will take place
7) Period Name - The name of the period
8) Add Button - This button will add the line information into the grid. To edit a line in the grid, click the section (#3-7) that needs to be changed and its field will open for edits
9) Edit Complete - This button will initially say 'Edit'. Once clicked, it will become 'Edit Complete' and should only be clicked again once the grid is completed
10) + / - Size - This button will either increase or decrease the size of the grid
Editing Fiscal and Operational Reporting Periods
Navigate to the Administration menu under the 'Accounting' Module and click 'Fiscal Years'. A listing of all Calendars will appear in the grid. Double-click the Calendar that you want to view and edit.
Under the Fiscal Year heading, select the 'Custom Periods' option in the 'Fiscal Period Structure' drop-down menu and follow the steps noted in the Custom Periods section above to edit the selected Fiscal Year.