Period Descriptions Maintenance

Use Period Descriptions Maintenance to maintain the descriptions of the accounting Periods.  You can also establish the closing dates and specify if a period is currently open or closed.  There are fourteen periods available for each year - one for each month, a 13th period for facilities that use thirteen four-week periods, and a 14th period for closing.

For additional information, click More.

Directions:

To see directions for...

• Opening Period Description Maintenance, click More.

   

  • Basic Method (from the G/L Module):

  1. Click File Maintenance from the Menu Bar.

  2. Click Period Descriptions Maintenance.
     
     Tip:  Or, use the keyboard shortcut:  [ALT] [m] [p].
      

  3. Advanced Method (from another NDS Module):

  1. Click General Ledger from the Menu Bar.

  2. Click File Maintenance.

  3. Click Period Descriptions Maintenance.
     
     Tip:  Or, use the keyboard shortcut:  [ALT] [g] [m] [p].
     
     Note:  To activate the General Ledger menu in another module, the G/L Application Control must be set up for the module during installation.

   

  Period Descriptions Maintenance Window Example for a Calendar Fiscal Year:

  

   

  Period Descriptions Maintenance Window Example for a Non-Calendar Fiscal Year:

  

   

• Creating a new Period Description, click More.

   

  Note:  Although you can not create a new Period, the New  icon appears next to any Period Number that still has the default description.

  Tip:  To see a list of fields for Period Description Maintenance, see the section for "Editing an existing Period".

   

• Editing an existing Period, click More.

   

  CAUTION:  To avoid losing data, you must save changed records.

  1. To display the record to be changed, click the Period Number in the drop-down list.
     Or, click to highlight the appropriate line in the Period List.

  2. To position the pointer to the information that you want to change, press [TAB] or click the field using the mouse.

  3. Enter the data changes and click Save , or press [ENTER].

  4. To complete the edit process and close the window, click Completed .

   

  Period Description Maintenance Window Prompts Tip:  To see more information about a field, click the hyperlink for the field name.
  Period Number	To select the period that you want to maintain:  (01 - 14, predefined) Click the Period Number in the drop-down list. Or, click to highlight the appropriate line in the Period List. Tip:  You can not add or delete a period.  You can only maintain the Description, Open Option, and Closing Date.
  Description	Enter the new Period Description.  Typically, the description contains the month name.  However, 13-period facilities may use another designation.  Period 14 is the "Closing" period.  (up to 25 characters). Tips: To reset the default description, follow the directions in the section for "Resetting an existing Period Description".  This deletes the changed description and resets the default description provided by the General Ledger. If your fiscal year does not coincide with the calendar year, then the Period Number and the Month Number do not match, therefore the Description should be different from the default.  For example, if your fiscal year runs from June 2006 to May 2007, then the Period 1 Description is June, not January.
  Open	Select one of the following Open Options in the drop-down list: Yes:  The period is open for transactions. No:  The period is closed to new transactions.  The General Ledger programs prohibit making journal entries to closed periods.  You must open a period to generate a journal entry.  Then you can close it again. Tip:  Periods are not closed automatically.  You must maintain this option to close a period.
  Closing Date	Enter the Period Closing Date.  (mmddccyy, slashes and century are optional) Tips: If the Check Closing Date Option is set to Y(es) during Application Option Parameters, then the General Ledger programs warn you if you try to generate journal entries with a Posting Date beyond the closing date.  The warning can be overridden. The year on each period is incremented by one when you run Update Master Accounts during the Year-End.
  Period List	The Period List displays the following fields in each row: Line Number:  Used to identify the row in the list. Period Number. Description:  Displays the current description. Open:  Displays the Open Option - Y(es) or N(o). Closing Date.
  	Note:  The program automatically clicks New for you when you click a Period Number in the drop-down list.
  	To reset the description of the loaded period to its default value, click Delete.
  	To save the changed values for the loaded Period Number, click Save or press [ENTER].
  	To close the Period Descriptions Maintenance window: Click Completed . Or, click Close .
  	To change the year in the Closing Date to the Current Year for all of the periods, hover over Update Closing Dates to Current Year and then click once. Tips: This icon is only active if at least one period's Closing Date year is not the current year. When you hover over the active icon, it changes color. If the icon is inactive, it appears dimmed.

   

• Resetting an existing Period Description to the default value, click More.

   

  1. To display the record to be changed, click the Period Number in the drop-down list.
     Or, click to highlight the appropriate line in the Period List.

  2. Click Delete .
     
     Notes:

  • After you click Delete, you will see the following message on the Status Bar.
    
    
     

  • New appears next to the Journal Code, indicating that the Description is now reset to the default value.