Changing your fiscal year calendar

A fiscal year is generally a 12-month period used to calculate annual financial information. Your firm can decide to change your fiscal year, meaning you can change the fiscal year from January 1 to December 31 to July 1 to June 30.

Short fiscal years

Transitioning from one fiscal year period to another one may require closing a short fiscal year, which is any amount of time less than 12 months. For example, you are in February and you want to change from a January-to-December fiscal year to a July-to-June fiscal year. You would need to change the first month from January to June and then close the short fiscal year. Changing the first month automatically changes your fiscal calendar to your new 12-month fiscal year.

Before you begin

• Verify that the previous fiscal year is closed by ensuring that the date in the Fiscal Year Current Year field contains the current year (Company > Preferences > General tab) . If not, close the fiscal year for the previous year.  
• Multi-company only: Verify that company preferences are set up for multi-company.

Changing the fiscal year first month:

1. On the Company > Preferences > General tab, change the Fiscal Year First Month field so that it contains the first month of your new fiscal year. Verify that the Fiscal Year Current Year field contains the correct year for your old short fiscal year. Click Save.

Multi-company only. The Fiscal Year First Month field and the Fiscal Year Current Year field are on the Company > Companies > General tab.

2. When you close the fiscal year for the current year (which now ends on the last day before your new fiscal year begins), do the following:

• Click Save to close the fiscal year.
• When the Finalize Close Fiscal Year window appears, select the Set new fiscal year end to check box.
  Ajera automatically selects the Don't allow entries prior to check box for you. Ajera then reflects the new fiscal year, automatically adjusting the fiscal year setting on the Company > Preferences > General tab.