How to set up fiscal years and GL periods | ParagonERP

How to set up fiscal years and GL periods

Introduction

GL periods are defined as periods for which books are balanced and financial statements are prepared. In accounting, financial results are measured by periods. Any period with a defined beginning and end can be used for an accounting period.

Upon installation, you will need to define your financial periods in Paragon. The following document explains how to set up your fiscal year dates and periods. 

Create a new fiscal year and GL periods

Go to GL period setup

From any screen in Paragon, hit the settings button.


Under the financials card, hit GL periods.


Create a new fiscal year

To create a new fiscal year (in this case the first fiscal year in Paragon) hit the create new fiscal year button at the top left-hand corner of the screen.


The following screen will appear, asking you to fill out your year-end and whether you use 12 or 13 GL periods.


Fill in company financial information

First, confirm your year-end using the calendar button.


Then, indicate if you use 12 or 13 periods by hitting the drop-down menu.


Accept and create periods

To accept your settings and create the GL periods, hit the accept button.


You can cancel at any time before hitting the accept button by hitting the cancel button. If you do this, you will not create new GL periods.


Once you hit the accept button, you'll be brought back to the main screen and you GL periods will automatically be set up based on your preferences.


If you need to set up more fiscal years, use the same steps indicated above.

Voiding financial transactions in a previous GL period

Voiding transactions can be necessary for a variety of reasons - not the least of which is to correct mistakes. If the transaction (like an invoice or a credit) is voided within the same GL period in which it was created, no problem. Paragon will void the related journal entry in the same period. If however, the transaction to be voided was created in a previous period, Paragon has some verification to do.  

If the GL period is open

In this example, an invoice was issued (and therefore posted a journal) in September.  



Voiding this invoice now when the GL period for September 2022 is still in open status will simply void the journal in the same period. 






If the GL period is closed

If that GL period was already closed and you try to void an invoice that was issued during that period, you will be stopped and given a notification explaining that the period is closed.  






What's next?

Why not take a look at our other articles about finances in Paragon?

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