Current Accounting Period
The Working Period is the date range in which entering and editing accounting is permitted.
You can move the Current accounting window Start Date within Business Finance Assistant to “lockdown” your company’s accounting before a specific date. This means if anyone tries to edit transactions outside the current accounting period, they will be prevented from making changes that will affect the accounting. Also, if anyone tries to create a new transaction within this period, they will be prevented. Users with admin privileges can override these limits.
When you create a Business Finance Assistant account, a default current accounting window is created for you from 1 year prior to your signup date to 1 year in the future.
VAT Period
A VAT Period is a period of time that groups certain transactions for filing a VAT return.
When connecting to HMRC to file a VAT return, HMRC will return an “obligation period” which is generally the next VAT Period for which a return is expected.
Each time a VAT Period is filed successfully with HMRC, it is Closed. Accounting transactions within closed VAT Periods cannot be edited or deleted. New transactions can be created within a closed period. The option Include Historic Transactions in the VAT Return tool is used for including back-dated tax declarations into the following VAT Period. Closing a VAT Period does not alter the Current Accounting Window.
Financial Year
A Financial Year is a 12-month reporting period typically used by a business when filing their business income tax.
When closing a financial year, with Close Financial Year, an automatic accounting transaction, called Opening Balance, is automatically written on the day after the closing: moving the accounts’ balances into the next financial year. Also, when a Financial Year is closed, the Start Date of the Current Accounting Window is advanced to the day after the closing, and the end is forwarded 1 year into the future.
Financial Year and Close Financial Year can be accessed by enabling 'Show Accountancy Information' from 'Your Profile' > 'Preferences'.