Using periods

Financial period types

Three financial periods exist:

Fiscal
The official accounting periods that comply with the fiscal requirements. You enter all financial transactions according to this fiscal period allocation. The Fiscal period type shows which transactions have been created during a particular period. To define Fiscal periods is mandatory.
Reporting
A division of the financial year, other than by fiscal periods. You can use the reporting periods for reporting from the ledger and for financial statements. Reporting periods can only be defined if the Reporting Periods check box in the Group Company Parameters (tfgld0101s000) session is selected. To define reporting periods is optional.
Tax
Financial periods that you can use to account the tax amounts of financial transactions. You must define the tax periods in which the tax amounts of the financial transactions must be accounted for in the tax analysis. To define Tax periods is optional.

Example

A company is included in a holding structure as of 1 January. This company has defined periods of four weeks as fiscal periods. The tax authorities require the tax amounts to be settled monthly. In contrast, the holding company uses periods of three weeks as reporting periods. This is defined as follows:

Fiscal Period	Start Date	Reporting Period	Start Date	Tax Period	Start Date
1	01-01	1	01-01	1	01-01
2	29-01	2	22-01	2	01-02
3	25-02	3	12-02	3	01-03
4	25-03	4	05-03	4	01-04
5	22-04	5	26-03	5	01-05
6	20-05	6	17-04	6	01-06
7	17-06	7	08-05	7	01-07
8	15-07	8	29-05	8	01-08
9	12-08	9	20-06	9	01-09
10	09-09	10	11-07	10	01-10
11	07-10	11	01-08	11	01-11
12	04-11	12	22-08	12	01-12
13	02-12	13	12-09
		14	03-10
		15	24-10
		16	14-11
		17	05-12
		18	26-12

If a transaction takes place on 26 June, it must be included in:

Financial period 7, for the company itself.
Reporting period 9, for the parent company.
Tax period 6, for the tax authorities.