Creating an Accounting period

Use the Accounting Periods window to create a new Accounting period or delete an existing one.

You must create at least one Accounting period before you can enter any transaction details in a grid. The message 'No accounting periods have been set up. Press button to create periods' is displayed and the grid is not visible until an Accounting period has been created.

All of the accounting periods that you create are available for selection in the For drop-down list on the grid page of the data entry page. Details that you enter in the grid apply to the currently selected accounting period, not to the tax year.

Accounting period rules

An Accounting period can be up to 24 months in length. Accounting periods cannot overlap each other e.g. no more than one Accounting period can exist at a given date. Part of the period has to be within the range of tax years that the client is set up for e.g. if the tax year range is 1996-2000, the Accounting period would either have to end after 06/04/1996 or start before 05/04/2000. Also there can be no time gap between successive Accounting periods e.g. you could not create the period 01/01/1997 and the succeeding period 01/02/1998, as there is a one-month long interval between the two.

To create an accounting period

  1. If you open the page of a data entry page in which you can enter transaction details and no accounting period has yet been created, you are asked if you want to enter one.
  • If you select Yes the Accounting Periods window opens. Go to Step 4.
  • If you select No the grid in the page is not visible and you cannot enter any transaction details until you have created an accounting period. Go to Step 2.
  1. Click Period Setup on the Period Details page of the data entry page to create an accounting period. The Accounting Periods  window opens.
  • If no periods existed when you selected the Period Setup button, you must create the first period by selecting the Add button. Go to Step 3.
  • If at least one period existed when you selected the Period Setup button, you can choose to create a new period that succeeds or precedes the current range of periods.

You do this by selecting either the After existing periods or Before existing periods option. The default dates for this period will be displayed. You may edit the end date of a later period or the start date of a previous period.

  1. Click Add to create the new period. The Add Accounting Period window opens.
  2. If this is the first accounting period that is being created enter the Start and End dates. Make sure that you stay within the rules of creating an accounting period.

If accounting periods already exist then the dates default in the following ways:

  • if you are creating a period that is After existing periods the Start date is greyed out to indicate that it cannot be changed. The End date defaults to 364 days after the Start date
  • if you are creating a period that is Before existing periods the End date is greyed out to indicate that it cannot be changed. The Start date defaults to 364 days before the End date

You can select OK to confirm the default dates or you can change the ones that are not greyed out. Make sure that you stay within the rules of creating an accounting period. Select OK when you are satisfied with the dates.

  1. The new accounting period now appears in the list. You can add as many accounting periods as you want. Select the Close button when you have finished.

To delete an accounting period

  1. Click Period Setup on the grid page of the data entry page.
  2. The Accounting Periods window appears. Highlight the accounting period that you want to delete in the list and select to delete. You can only delete the first or last period in the list, because a gap cannot exist between accounting periods. The Delete button is greyed out if the highlighted accounting period cannot be deleted.
  3. You are asked to confirm that you want to delete the period, as all data that has been entered for it will be lost when it is deleted. Select Yes to continue or No to abandon the deletion. If you select Yes the period is removed from the list and all data is lost.