Processing ConfigurationCalendars

Fiscal Calendars

A guide to Fiscal Calendars in Fynapse.

Overview

Organizations are required to prepare and publish detailed financial reports on an annual basis and often, slightly less detailed reports on a quarterly or half-yearly basis. Internally, organizations will wish to report on a more regular basis than that required by the regulators. The Fiscal Calendars functionality facilitates both the regulatory and custom requirements for financial reports. 

Types of Fiscal Calendars

There are two types of Fiscal Calendars:

  • Gregorian Calendar
  • Custom Calendar

Gregorian Calendar

This is the traditional 365 (or 366 in a leap year) day calendar, normally comprising 12 consecutive months. The first day of the calendar year and the last day of the calendar year are fixed. E.g., it begins on 1 January 20xx and ends on 31 December 20xx. Some countries require that all companies use the same set of dates, others allow any valid period of 12 months.

Functionally, each Gregorian Fiscal Calendar is divided into Years, Halves, Quarters & Periods, as follows:

  • Each fiscal year contains 2 distinct fiscal halves
  • Each fiscal half contains 2 distinct fiscal quarters
  • Each fiscal quarter contains a number of distinct fiscal periods
  • Each fiscal period has a defined number of days

Each Fiscal Period is distinct from the other, so they cannot overlap and there cannot be a gap between these periods.

Custom Calendar

The composition of a custom calendar is fully up to your requirements. A custom calendar is not constrained by the limitations of a Gregorian Calendar, such as a limit of 365 days or a duration of 12 months. Additionally, custom Fiscal Calendars don’t have halves or quarters.

A custom Fiscal Calendar is comprised exclusively of periods. Each Fiscal Period is distinct from the other, so they cannot overlap and there cannot be a gap between these periods.

Version History

Whenever you change something in an existing configuration, Fynapse creates a new version of the configuration to overwrite the previous one. Subsequent versions are given incremental numbers, which are assigned by default and non-editable. The initial version of a configuration is given the number: “V 1”, the second “V 2“, and so on.

You can view previous versions of Fiscal Calendar configurations by selecting a calendar and clicking the Show History button in the details section. A version history grid with the following information will appear:

  • Version - number of the version
  • Last modified - the date when the version was created
  • Modified by - who created the version
  • Comment - mandatory comment you are prompted to add when changing a configuration
  • Actions - the Export to XLSX button allows you to download the details of the configuration in an XLSX format

Fynapse uses your web browser configuration for saving downloaded files. This means that the exported file will be saved in the default download location configured in your web browser. If you configured your browser to always ask for a download location, you will be prompted to provide a location for the exported file.

When you left-click on a historical version of a configuration, the details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid. You can also download the details of the configuration in an XLSX format from this section by clicking the Download XLSX button.

You can switch between historical versions by clicking different items in the Version grid.

You can also collapse the tabs on the left to get a larger view of the historical version’s details section by clicking the collapse buttons at the top of each tab.

To exit the history details section of the given historical version of a Fiscal Calendar, click the X button. You will go back to the version history grid.

To close the version history grid, click the Hide History button.

Tutorials

  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Click the Add button. You will be redirected to the screen for creating Fiscal Calendars, with an editable section and a preview of the calendar on the right. Fill out the information for your Fiscal Calendar.
  3. Type a calendar name into the Name field.
  4. Select the Calendar type:
    1. Gregorian
    2. Custom
  5. For the Gregorian Calendar Type, the default settings are 31 December for the Last Day of the Fiscal Year and the current year for the Fiscal Year Ending on the specified Year End Date. The Periods, Quarters, and Halves for the Fiscal Year depend on the specified Year End Date. By default, each Period ends on the last day of a month in a Fiscal Year, and each quarter end on the final day of the last month in the given quarter. You can change the dates for year end, periods, and quarters by changing the Calendar Settings:
    1. Last day of the Fiscal Year - if you specify a Year End Date different than the default 31 December, all period-end and quarter-end dates will be automatically adjusted, e.g., if the Year End Date is set to 15 October, each period will end on the 15 of every month (instead of the last calendar day), and the quarters will also span different months, e.g., Q1 will end on 15 January, Q2 on 15 April, etc.
    2. Which Fiscal Year is ending on the selected date, e.g., 2020.
  6. For the Custom Calendar Type, you can configure as many Fiscal Years and Periods as you require.
    1. Start by defining the Year of the first period. By default, this value is set to the current year.

      After you add the first period, you can add another fiscal year. You can browse between fiscal years using the chevron on the top of the right-hand view section.

    2. Then, add the first period by clicking the Add period button in the Periods section. Define the start and end dates, and the number of the period.

      When you add another period, it will by default be as long as the previous period.

      You can only remove the last defined period.

  7. Click the Save button to save the new calendar, or the Cancel button to discard your changes.
  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to edit. A details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid.
  3. Click the Edit button.
  4. Change the calendar settings.
  5. Click the Save button, or the Cancel button to discard your changes.
  6. The Saving new version dialog will appear. Add a mandatory comment about your changes and click the Save new version button to save your changes, or the Cancel button to return to the editing mode.
  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to clone. A details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid.
  3. Click the Clone button.
  4. Change the calendar settings.

    Remember the name has to be unique. If you try to save a Fiscal Calendar with the same name as an existing Fiscal Calendar, an error will occur and your changes will not be saved.

  5. Click the Save button, or the Cancel button to discard your changes.
  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to delete. A details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid.
  3. Click the Delete button.

When you click the Delete button, the Fiscal Calendar is removed from the system completely, without any further confirmation required.

At any time you can refresh a Fiscal Calendar to check if another user made changes to an existing Calendar.

  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to refresh.
  3. Click the Refresh button.

At any time you can refresh the Fiscal Calendars grid to check if another user made changes to an existing Calendar.

  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Click the Refresh button.
  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to view the history for. A details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid.
  3. Click the Show History button. A new section with a version history for the selected Fiscal Calendar will open.
  4. To close the history section, click the Hide History button.
  1. Go to Configuration > Calendars > Fiscal Calendars.
  2. Left-click a Fiscal Calendar you want to view the history for. A details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid.
  3. Click the Show History button. A new grid with version history for the selected Fiscal Calendar will open.
  4. Left-click on the version you want to view. The history details section will open on the right-hand side of the grid. You can switch between historical versions by clicking different items in the Version grid.
  5. You can download the details of a historical configuration in XLSX format either directly from the version history grid by clicking the Export to XLSX button in the Actions column or by clicking the Export to XLSX button on the details screen of a given historical version.

    Fynapse uses your web browser configuration for saving downloaded files. This means that the exported file will be saved in the default download location configured in your web browser. If you configured your browser to always ask for a download location, you will be prompted to provide a location for the exported file.

  6. To exit the history details section of the given historical version of a Fiscal Calendar click the X button. You will go back to the version history grid.
  7. To close the version history grid, click the Hide History button.