You can set up a custom calendar within Aico for companies that do not follow the standard fiscal year. This article will explain how.

What is a custom calendar?

Setting up the custom calendar

Selecting the right period

Linking the calendar to a company

Using Smart Tags in a custom calendar

What is a custom calendar?

Custom calendars are used to manage companies whose fiscal periods do not follow the calendar year, for example where Period 1 - 12 is not January to December.

Custom calendars are also used to manage fiscal periods which do not follow the calendar days in each month. 

For example, where Period 3 starts on the 3rd of March and finishes on the 1st of April. One example of this would be a company that follows a 4,4,5 calendar which means each quarter is divided into periods of 4 weeks, 4 weeks and 5 weeks. The custom calendar is then linked to a company.

You can mix calendar types within the same single Aico system.  For example, if four companies follow a normal fiscal year, they are simply not connected to any custom calendar. If three companies have a March fiscal year end and two companies have a September fiscal year end, these would be connected to their respective custom calendars.

Setting up the custom calendar

In Automation Manager, click on the Admin tools drop-down menu (1) and select Custom Calendars (2).

3. Click on New to create a calendar. 

Selecting the right period

Now you have created a calendar, you need to select the period you want to set that calendar for.

Click on the Admin tools drop-down menu (1) and select Periods (2).

Select the period for which you want to set the customer calendar settings. Note that Aico will validate the start and end dates to prevent you from setting a start date that is earlier than the end date from the prior period.

1. This represents the "real" date (June 2022). The companies, however, are in different financial periods. 2. Here we can see a custom calendar for a company whose fiscal year ends in March. June is therefore the third fiscal period. 3. In this custom calendar, the start and end dates of the period do not follow the standard 1st-31st format. The dates of this period start on the 5th of May and finish on the 24th of June.

It is possible to set just start and end dates where periods match the real period, but the company just follows a 4, 4, 5 period.

Note:You should advise your customer to set up periods well in advance. Remember that workdays rely on these dates to set the correct schedule and Preparer/Approver dates which means that when generating tasks for Period 6 you MUST have already set the dates in Period 7 as these are used to determine workday 1 etc. for period 6 closing.

Linking the calendar to a company

To link a company to a calendar, click the Manage drop-down menu and choose Companies.

Select the correct company from the list that opens.

You will see a Custom Calendar option with a drop-down menu. Here you can select the relevant custom calendar and link it to the company. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Smart Tags work in conjunction with a Custom Calendar

Where you have used smart tags in your task parameters, these will follow the custom calendar linked to the company.

For example, in the image below, the Period Number has been set as a Smart Tag. If you are generating this task in the "real" Period 6 (i.e., June), this Smart Tag will first look for a custom calendar linked to the company and if, for example, you have a March year end, it would set 03 as the period number. For a company without a custom calendar, it would set 06 as the period number.

To find out more about setting up smart tags, click here.