Odd Period Ends
Most companies use the traditional Julian calendar
for the end of their accounting periods. Accounting periods end on
January 31, February 28, March 31, etc. Even if they use a fiscal
year that ends on September 30, the accounting periods still end at
the same time the calendar month ends.
In some industries it has become customary to have
accounting periods end on the same day of the week - such as a
Saturday or Sunday. This could mean having the end of accounting
periods be January 30, February 27 and March 26. These were the
Sundays that would have been the period ends for some companies in
the year 2000.
If you are one of these companies you can still
use RecWizard. Enter dates as you
normally would in your accounting system. If your period ends on
March 28, 2011, simply enter that date as the date for your Period
End Balances and the date that you want to prepare reconciliations
for.
Make sure you consistently enter the period end
dates properly. If you have prepared a reconciliation for the period
ended March 28, 2010, then that is the date you must enter to see
the reconciliation. If you enter the date March 29, 2010, you will
probably not see a completed reconciliation. You might want to keep
a master list around of accounting period ends. You'll always know
the current year dates, but sometimes the memory gets a little hazy
- at least mine does.
All reconciliations will work properly - with one
exception. Amortizable Prepaids.
Amortizable Prepaids - How to Adjust Them
When an amortizable prepaid item is set up, the
assumption by RecWizard is that the periods end on a
typical calendar month end. If your accounting periods end on
different dates, you must manually adjust them for each of your
amortizable items.
This may sound like a lot of work, but it isn't.
First, here is the Amortizable Prepaid Item dialog window for a
school tax that is for the period 7/1/2010 to 6/30/2011
The amortization dates did not change because that
is actually the period covered by the tax. Now, we'll change the
period end dates of the actual amortization to coincide with your
company's accounting calendar.
Click on the Monthly Amounts... button to open the
Monthly Amounts dialog window. We'll call this the "before
adjustments" amounts.
The amortization is calculated automatically by
RecWizard based on the traditional month ends. Since you're not a
traditional month end, you must edit the table. You can change the
amounts if you like, and certainly you want to change the period end
dates. Remember - once you have made these changes for this item
they will always be in your database.
Click on the Edit Period End Dates checkbox at the
bottom right of the dialog window and you can edit the dates. Below
is a possible combination you might use. We'll call this the "after
adjustments" amounts...
Now all you have to do is click on the
Save & Exit button
and your reconciliations will work just fine - as long as you
remember your Period End dates properly.
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