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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived) / Should I set up a 13th...
Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived)

Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

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Posted on by Jeff Delmar 170

I have a client who is considering setting up a 13th period to enter audit adjustments and any adjustments needed when they make a change to their revenue recognition later in 2012. They originally planned to make this change in December 2011 but have postponed it until December 2012. A review of other peoples' experience with a 13th period in GP discourages me from doing this if there's an alternate solution to meet the clients intended goals of the 13th period setup.

The client needs to be able to enter adjustments for December but not have those adjustments affect a side-by-side financial comparison of December when looking at two different years. My understanding is that essentially they don't want the adjustments to affect the financials for the year they entered the adjustment. However, I'm not sure if they also require the ability to view or report exclusively the adjusting entries as well.

My question is regarding the "Maintain Account History" and "Maintain Transaction History" options for the GL when posting these adjustments.

KB article 851423 (How to post to a closed year) and KB article 864913 (How to correct accounts that were set up to use the wrong posting type after you close the year in GL) discuss this option.

It mentions clearing the Maintain History check box for Accounts and Transactions in the GL window prior to posting any transactions in the previous year, if: A.) You do not want the adjusting entries to affect the closed year. And B.) you want the adjusting entries to roll forward to adjust the beginning balances.

Inferring from the GP GL guide and the KB articles: If you maintain account history, you can print financial statements and calculate budgets from historical years. If you maintain transaction history, you can drill down to transaction detail and print historical detail trial balances. If you clear the Maintain Account History and Maintain Transaction History options prior to posting a transaction, the posted transaction will only affect the current year.

If they unchecked the maintain history option prior to posting their adjusting entries in December 2012, then wouldn’t they be able to do a comparison of December 2011 and 2012 without the adjustment affecting the analysis? The adjustment wouldn’t affect 2012 but would still roll forward and effect the new year.

Would this be a good alternative to setting up a 13th period in this case?

Would they still be able to to view or report exclusively the adjusting entries if they needed to refer to them, or would they not show up in any query for the year they were entered since the maintain history option was deselected?

Any other suggestions? Any words of wisdom for setting up a 13th period and using it successfully? 

*This post is locked for comments

  • Sharon Burley Profile Picture
    Sharon Burley 1,970 on at
    RE: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    i've found that it is best to create the 13th period and the 14th period using the same start and end dates as the 12th period. GP allows for three period to have the same START date, not the same end date. If you create the 13th period with start and end date of the same as the 12th period, you will not have the issue of everything dated 12/31 moving to the 13th period.

    best to try it in a test environment first obviously :-)

  • L Vail Profile Picture
    L Vail 65,271 on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    Sheila,

    Did period 12 also include the 12/31/2011 date? It's true that the entry will post to the most recent unclosed period that includes that date. Is that not the behavior you are seeing?

    Kind regards,

    Leslie

  • Sheila Dodd Profile Picture
    Sheila Dodd 20 on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    We found that using a date of 12/31/2011 for the 13th period resulted in all transactions on 12/31 falling into the 13th period.  I thought it would only use that period if the 12th period was closed but I guess not.  How do others record capital withdrawals at year end?  We were thinking about making it a posting type of "income statement" so that it would close out to retained earnings when the year is closed.  Does anyone do that?

  • Suggested answer
    Frank Hamelly | MVP, MCP, CSA Profile Picture
    Frank Hamelly | MVP... 4,029 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    Dale, as to the vendor invoices, as long as the Posting Date on the invoices (as opposed to the Document Date) is set to 12/30, that won't present a problem.  The transactions can post on the 30th with a Doc Date of the 31st so aging will be correct.

    As to the financials, are you saying you want a consolidated B/S with periods 1-12 for the subs and period 13 for the parent?  If so, I'm pretty sure you can specify the periods to include each column in the Column Layout.  It's been awhile since I created any FRx reports and I don't have a copy in front of me or I'd let you know for sure.

  • Suggested answer
    Dale Coulthard Profile Picture
    Dale Coulthard 3,055 on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    Question to all regarding this topic.  Our company was purchased Dec 30.  The intent behind the purchase was to be effective at the end of Dec 31, but since Dec 31 was a Saturday, all bank transactions had to be completed on Dec 30.  

    Now, everyone wants financials before the buyout so the audit can be completed based on those records, then have entries for the bank transactions and associated entries for the purchase of the company to be entered, but not impact the consolidated financials.  The parent company wants the buyout and associated entries to be a Dec 31 financial picture.

    I first thought about the 13th period (never done this before) and thought I would use Dec 31 for the date of the buyout.  But since we have vendor invoices coming in dated Dec 30 and Dec 31 as well as accruals hitting those dates, I was concerned about setting up a 13th period showing Dec 31 as the date because I assumed that we would have to perform an account maintenance after creating a period 13 for Dec 31 and the mainenance would most likely move all Dec 31 entries into period 13 (even those which are pre-buyout).  Is that true? We have 8 subsidiaries all of which is not impacted (ie, I would assume period 13 would not be needed) and only the parent company would need this period 13.

    Basically, I am wondering how to get just this specific entries (bank and buyout) into period 13 and nothing else.  Is that even possible?

    We use FRx, so I know I can referece period 13, but not sure how to run a balance sheet disregarding period 13 then pulling in 13 for the new parent company (the financials for the new parent company would have the B/S with period 13 while the income statement would just be period 13).  Is this even possible or do I just need to manually create financials for the buyout?

    I'm trying to keep this writeup/question simple (although I don't know if that is possible).

    Thanks for the advice.

    Best regards,

    Dale

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    Frank is 100%. Do not change the History settings - (unless you're correcting a problem such as running a year end and later discovering an account was the wrong posting type).

    Another approach if you want to keep things completely seperate is to set up an Audit Adjustments company - and then consolidate this with your Real company when you want the audit adjustments included in a set of accounts (This is what some clients do for consolidation journals).

    Ian.

  • Suggested answer
    Frank Hamelly | MVP, MCP, CSA Profile Picture
    Frank Hamelly | MVP... 4,029 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at
    Re: Should I set up a 13th period or use the "Maintain History" option for adjustments?

    I would never advise not maintaining account or transaction history.  There is just no reason not to keep it.  

    What financial reporting tool are they using?  FRx? Management Reporter?  Either way, there is no reason not to use a 13th period.  Many companies use that method for the express purpose you're dealing with.  It allows for the segregation of audit adjustments for reporting purposes.

    Hope this helps,

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