Accounting Periods

Finance departments usually require strict control over posting dates to prevent users from posting transactions into previous periods once those periods have been reported and closed.

Accounting periods can be configured in Schoolworks to control REF posting dates in manual invoices/credits or when posting receipts and payments in conjunction with user permissions.

Features include the manual open and close control of a period or the automatic opening and closing of a period considering today's date and the period dates.

Automatic period boundary (days) can also be configured to automatically allow users to post into a previous period for a short time after the period closes - this can be useful if there is a finance department policy of closing a month end period 'x' days after the end of the month to allow time for users to complete month end tasks such as receipting which will have retrospective posting dates to match bank statement dates.

Configuration

The periods can be configured in the Finance Period object.

Access to the Finance Period object can be granted using standard platform permissions by your Systems Administrator and is usually limited to Admin users or Finance department users.

Each Finance Period record has the following attributes:

• Period Name

  • E.g. October 2019

• Start Date / End Date

  • The period dates - typically a calendar month

• Period Boundary Posting

  • This is to automatically allow some users to post back into a prior period at period end whilst locking down most of the period

  • Examples:

    • Desirable to automatically allow up until (say) 5^th October to post receipts between 25^th September and 30^th September

    • Posting a receipt on 2^nd Oct posting date 29^th Sept would be allowed

    • Posting a receipt on 6^th October date 29^th Sept would not be allowed

    • Posting a receipt on 5^th October dated 24^th Sept would not be allowed

  • Threshold Posting Days Prior to End Date

    • The number of days prior to the period end a user can post a transaction into after that period has closed

  • Threshold Days Open After End Date

    • The number of days after the period has closed a user can still back post into the previous period

• Period Options

  • Open

    • Period is open for those that have permissions to post by period

    • A manual control to hold a period open

  • Closed

    • Period is closed – if set to this status, only users with override permissions can post

    • A manual control to close a period

  • Automatic

    • Period will automatically open and close based on today's date

    • Period Boundary Posting if configured will additionally allow users (with permissions) the ability to ‘back post’ at the end of a period

      • Typical example: allow a user 3 days at the beginning of the month to back post a receipt up to 7 days into the prior period

Finance Periods Tab View

Finance Period Record Example

Operation and user permissions

Once a finance period record is created, the period will be active according to the ‘period option’ selected, and the permissions applied to a user, user group or user profile.

These permissions are available as permission sets and can be applied to users by your Systems Administrator:

No permissions at all - TODAY only

• A user can only post a transaction as at today's date

  • The usual access permissions apply as to whether the user has access to manual invoice / credits or receipts and payments

  • This is the ‘default’

  • Note - if no Finance Period records are created, all users will be able to adjust the Ref Date to any date without any permissions. To restrict this to TODAY only, Finance Period records must be created.

Finance Period Enabled

• A user can post to any date within a live posting period according to the start / end dates and open, closed or automatic status assigned to that period

  • Typically general users posting receipts or creating manual invoices would have this permission

Finance Period Override

• With this permission, a user can post in any period

  • An alert is displayed to the user when posting outside of the current posting period

  • Suitable for a super-admin-user or Finance department users

Screen examples

When a user has no permissions and attempts to post outside TODAY they are prevented and presented with this message:

When a user with Finance Period Enabled permissions attempts to post a transaction outside of the current period they are prevented and presented with this message:

If a user with Finance Period Override permissions attempts to post outside of the current period they will be presented with this message and allowed to continue: