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How to Set Up Accounting Periods

xAssets Fixed Asset Management User Guide
How To

How to Set Up Accounting Periods

This page explains how to set up accounting periods in xAssets. Accounting periods define the time intervals used for depreciation calculations and journal production. Each depreciation run processes one period at a time.

Before You Begin

  • Ensure you are in the Fixed Asset Management profile.
  • Know your organisation's financial year-end date and period structure (monthly, 4-4-5, 13-period, quarterly, etc.).
  • If you operate multiple companies with different year-end dates, plan to create separate accounting period sets for each.

Step-by-Step Procedure

Step 1: Open Accounting Periods

Navigate to Financial > Depreciation Setup > Accounting Periods.

Step 2: Create an Accounting Period Set

If you do not already have a set, create one. The set is a named container that groups financial years together. Give it a descriptive name such as "Standard Calendar Year" or "UK Financial Year".

For multi-company environments:

Scenario Recommended Setup
All companies share the same year-end One shared accounting period set
Companies have different year-end dates Separate sets per year-end date

Step 3: Create a Financial Year

Within the set, create a financial year. Each year specifies its year-end date. Create at least one year ahead of your current processing period to avoid being unable to run depreciation when the new year begins.

Step 4: Create the Individual Periods

Within the financial year, create the individual periods. For a standard monthly setup with a March year-end:

Period Start Date End Date
Period 1 (April) 1 April 30 April
Period 2 (May) 1 May 31 May
Period 3 (June) 1 June 30 June
... ... ...
Period 12 (March) 1 March 31 March

For non-standard structures (e.g. 4-4-5 weekly periods or 13-period years), set the start and end dates to match your organisation's calendar.

Step 5: Verify the Setup

Check that:

  • Periods are contiguous with no gaps between the end of one period and the start of the next. Gaps cause depreciation to be missed for transactions dated within the gap.
  • The period count matches your requirements (12 for monthly, 13 for 13-period, 4 for quarterly).
  • Your depreciation type recovery periods use the same units as your period structure (e.g. 60 monthly periods = 5 years).

Key Concepts

Each period has a status:

Status Meaning
Open Transactions can be posted; depreciation can be calculated.
Closed No new transactions can be posted. The period has been finalised.
Future Not yet reached; depreciation has not been calculated.

After producing and posting journals for a period, close it to prevent accidental postings.