Accounting Periods in BigTime

As you start to use the system, you will accumulate hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of invoices, time entry records, expense reports, etc. In order to keep that information from cluttering up your on-screen lists, BigTime lumps this data into a set of accounting periods.

Periods are typically calendar months in BigTime (January, 2005; February, 2005; etc.). They're just an arbitrary way to lump the various transactions in the system into logical groups. So, when you open up a list of "invoices" in the system, we pull only invoices that were created for your current invoice period to show you. It's easy to jump from period to period, but we typically show information from one period at a time in order to conserve screen real estate and time.

Periods can be setup to run based on your firm's specialized accounting calendar as well. They don't have to be tied to a calendar month. Talk to your support rep to request this type of customization.

BigTime makes frequent use of the "current period" in the system. That is, the period which your managers and staff are currently reviewing. That will almost always correspond to the current month, but many companies delay the move from one month to the next for a couple of days (so managers can review or report on the month that has just closed).

You can update the current period manually from the Tools...System Settings...General Settings page. Just select a new period from the list and then save the update. You can also update the Invoice Period (the default period into which any new draft invoices are created) on the same page.

Automatically Updating the Current Period

If you'd like BigTime to update your current/invoice period automatically for you on the first of every month, you can create a scheduled transaction to do that right from the BigTime Monitor.

1. Open the BigTime Monitor, and choose the Scheduled Transactions branch of the Transactions list.
2. On the right-hand pane, right click and choose "Add New..." from the popup menu.
3. The system will present you with a list of scheduled transactions you can create. You'll want to select the "Automatically Update Current Periods" transaction.
4. Finally, click the SCHEDULE button to schedule this transaction. You'll probably want to run it MONTHLY (on the first of the month) at an early morning time. Once you're done, you can save the transaction and go back to the BigTime Monitor.