FISCAL YEARS

First use this screen to set up your fiscal years. Once you have fully initialized the system, you can use this screen to enter new fiscal years and to open, close, or re-open previous fiscal years.

Set up a fiscal year here before entering any accounting periods, subperiods, or any transactions.

Table Window

Fiscal Year

Enter a code to indicate the fiscal year. Usually, this is the calendar year in which the last accounting period ends, but this need not always be the case. Other possible codes might be "1999A," "2000B," etc., which may be required when short years are used during a fiscal year transition. Enter the fiscal years in the table in their correct sequence order, from the earliest to the latest (see Note). You will receive an error message if you enter years out of alphanumeric sequence. If you find that you have omitted an earlier fiscal year, you can use the Insert option on the Line menu to insert a new line above whichever line is currently selected.

Note: It is very important to set up your fiscal year numbering structure so that it works properly with the table. In an alphanumeric field such as this one, numbers come first sequentially, followed by letters. Each position of the field is evaluated separately, left to right. If you were to use non-descriptive fiscal year codes, such as "1" through "20," the correct input sequence would be "1," "10," "11," "12"... "19," "2," "20," "3," etc., which would not match your intended numbering sequence.

Similarly, mixing alphabetic and numeric leading characters can lead to problems. A fiscal year of "A1999" would sequentially follow a fiscal year of "1999B," which again does not match the intended numbering scheme. Nor does using "A1999," "B1999," "A2000," and "B2000," because the table order for these would be "A1999," "A2000," "B1999," "B2000"; again, not in sync with the intended order. However, fiscal years of "1999A," "1999B," "2000A," and "2000B," would be fine.

Use care in setting up your numbering structure so that it will be both useful for you and functional within the sequencing requirements of the table.

Description

Enter a description for the fiscal year. Usually, this is the same as the fiscal year code. The description is useful, especially in situations where short or long years are required. You can even enter the starting and ending dates here for informational purposes.

Status

The Status is either "C" (Closed) or "O" (Open). The default status is "O" (Open). If you change a fiscal year to "C" (Closed) status, you cannot enter data for that year.

Closing Rate Type

This field must be left blank for years that are open. When you print project reports, the value of "Target" or "Actual" rates for the fiscal year is printed on the report for informational purposes.

In the fiscal year closing process, the rate type chosen for carry forward of project indirect burden is written to this field. Valid rate types are "T" (Target) and "A" (Actual). Indirect rates for target and actual are stored for each fiscal year in the Project History menu in Costpoint Project Setup. Indirect burden amounts are stored by project. Although you can change the value of "T" or "A," the amounts stored by project will not be automatically changed. Do not change the value of this field unless you have also changed the amounts.

If you entered project history data for closed fiscal years, enter "T" or "A" for the type of indirect burden that was loaded in the Projects folder for each closed fiscal year.