General Settings - Accounting

The General Settings - Accounting page provides configuration options for managing fiscal years and additional settings.

1. Open the appropriate Billing Entity. For instructions on finding and opening a billing entity, see the section on Managing Billing Entities.
2. In the Billing Entity Menu, select Accounting. The General Settings - Accounting screen opens.

3. The panels and fields are described below. Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

   

   Fiscal Years define the Accounting Periods for your organization and the associated targets.

   Click Add to create a new fiscal year configuration, or click a link in the Fiscal Year column to view an existing configuration. See Managing Fiscal Years for more information.

   

   Last Modified By

   Identifies the last date and time the settings were changed and the user who made the changes.

4. Click Save to save the settings.

Managing Fiscal Years

Fiscal Years are created to define the Accounting Periods for your organization and some common target amounts for each period. Each period can be configured to automatically generate reports and post earnings.

1. Click Add to create a new fiscal year configuration, or click a link in the Fiscal Year column to view an existing configuration.

   To delete a fiscal year, check the appropriate box, click the Delete button, and confirm the deletion. Only the most recent fiscal year can be deleted, and only if there are no closed periods within that year.

2. Complete the necessary information. Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

   

   Fiscal Year	This field is not displayed until the configuration has been saved. This is set to the year of the selected End Date.
   Status	This field is not displayed until the configuration has been saved. A new configuration is set to Open status. Once the fiscal year is completed, the status changes to Closed.
   Start Date	For the first fiscal year in the system, the start date can be entered or selected from the calendar lookup . This date will be locked when the first fiscal year is saved. For all following years, the start date is set to one day after the End Date of the previous year.
   End Date	The end date defaults to one year after the Start Date, minus a day. If it is necessary to change the date, enter the new date or select it from the calendar lookup . The period can be shorter than a year, but not longer.
   Period Duration	Select how the fiscal year will be divided into periods.
   Calendar Month	The year will be divided into months, beginning from the Start Date.
   Four Weeks	The year will be divided into 28-day periods, with the last period containing 29 days (or 30 for a leap-year).
   Additional Period Assignment	This field is only visible when Four Weeks is selected for Period Duration. Since the Four Weeks option produces 13 periods in a standard year, select if the extra period should be included in the First Quarter or Last Quarter of the year.
   Profitability Target	Enter the profitability target for the year, in percentage.
   Client Retention Target	Enter the client retention target for the year, in percentage.
   Currency	Select the currency to be used.

   

   The Accounting Periods panel becomes available after the fiscal year configuration has been saved. This displays the calculated periods based on the Start Date, End Date, and the Period Duration.

   

   Last Modified By

   Identifies the last date and time the fiscal year configuration was changed and the user who made the changes.

3. To view the period details, click a link in the Period Name column. The Fiscal Period Detail window opens.

   

   Period Number	Displays the period number.
   Period Name	The name is defaulted based on the Period Duration selected for the fiscal year, but can be edited.
   Start Date	Displays the calculated start date for the period.
   End Date	Displays the calculated end date for the period.
   Gross Written Premium (GWP) Target	Enter the Gross Written Premium target for the period.
   Policy Count Target	Enter the policy count target for the period.

   

   Last Modified By

   Identifies the last date and time the period was changed and the user who made the changes.

4. To close accounting periods, check the boxes for the appropriate periods, then click Close Period. Note that a period cannot be closed if there are any earlier periods still open, and periods can no longer be edited once they have been closed. Once all periods are closed, the fiscal year is closed.
5. Click Save to save the period configuration, or click Close to close the window without saving the period.