In Procountor, financial years can be divided into internal tracking periods. Using tracking periods is recommended, as it enables closing the accounts at the end of each month.
Tracking periods can be viewed and edited in Management > Accounting info > Financial years.
General information on tracking periods
- Internal tracking periods can be added, removed, closed and opened through Edit tracking periods button found on Financial years view.
- Using tracking periods is optional but recommended, as:
- Using tracking periods ensures that accounting will not change on periods that have already been reconciliated.
- Reconciliation is easier when only the open tracking period needs to be inspected instead of all transactions starting from the beginning of financial year.
- Using tracking periods enables viewing the monthly opening balances on General ledger and General journal reports.
Adding and removing tracking periods
Adding a tracking period
1. On Financial years view, choose the financial year to which you want to add a tracking period and click on Edit tracking periods button that will take you to Edit tracking periods view.
- Tracking periods can only be added to open financial years.
- Tracking periods belonging to a closed financial year can be viewed, but not edited. Only tracking periods of the oldest open financial year can be closed or opened.
2. Add a new tracking period by clicking on Add tracking period button.
- Start and end date of the tracking period can be edited by clicking on the date fields and choosing a date from the calendar that opens.
- By default, start and end dates of the first tracking period that’s added are the first and last day of the first month of the financial year.
- Length of the tracking period can be determined freely, but the recommended length for tracking periods is one month.
- Create tracking periods button enables adding tracking periods for each month of the financial year at once.
3. Once you’ve added the tracking periods, save them by clicking on Save.
Removing a tracking period
1. On Financial years view, choose the financial year from which you want to remove a tracking period and click on Edit tracking periods button that will take you to Edit tracking periods view.
2. On Edit tracking periods view, choose the tracking period you want to remove by clicking on it and then click on Remove tracking period.
- A closed tracking period can’t be removed.
3. Save changes by clicking on Save.
Opening and closing tracking periods
Opening tracking periods
1. On Financial years view, choose the financial year from which you want to open a tracking period and click on Edit tracking periods button that will take you to Edit tracking periods view.
2. On Edit tracking periods view, click on Change status to > Open and the the latest closed tracking period will be opened.
- Tracking periods belonging to a closed financial year can’t be opened.
3. Save changes by clicking on Save.
Closing tracking periods
1. On Financial years view, choose the financial year from which you want to open a tracking period and click on Edit tracking periods button that will take you to Edit tracking periods view.
2. On Edit tracking periods view, click on Change status to > Closed and the oldest open tracking period will be closed.
- If there are unfinished transactions (non-business transactions) on the period that’s being closed, Procountor notifies the user about this and lists the receipts that are unfinished.
3. Save changes by clicking on Save.
Things to note concerning closing tracking periods
- Once the accounting of the period is done and a VAT summary has been created, the tracking period can be closed.
- Closing the tracking period generates an opening receipt to the first day of the next tracking period, the same way as closing financial year generates an opening receipt to the next financial year. Tracking periods’ opening receipts can be viewed on General ledger and General journal by ticking option Show tracking period opening balances.
- Receipts that are not business transactions, need to be either handled so that they become business transactions (for example, approving an unfinished receipt) or transferred to the next, open period before closing the tracking period.
- Before closing the tracking period, check that balance sheet and income statement accounts match until the last day of the tracking period. If there’s a difference in balance and income accounts, check what’s causing the difference before closing the tracking period. This will decrease the amount of reconciliation work at the end of the financial year.
- Once the tracking period has been closed, new receipts can’t be saved to that period and existing receipts can’t be modified, unless the period is opened first.
- The view uses real time accounting data. The Update reporting database -button was removed from the view in version update V90 (July 20,2024).